Buying Something in a Store? ALWAYS Check the Website!
Now of course if you’re buying something and it’s $3 and you want to use it NOW and don’t have 5 minutes to waste, then ignore what I’m about to say.
But if you’re buying something that’s more expensive than that (how much is up to you…to me, I’d rather have that extra $1 in my pocket than “theirs”) and you have a few extra minutes, if you’re standing in a store about to buy something, always go on their website to see what the price is there.
Why? Because you won’t believe how often the price is different on the website than in the store itself.
Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes the price for an item is higher on the website. But often, it’s lower.
Take for example this past weekend. I went to Lord & Taylor to buy a dress for an event I am going to in about a month.
I found a really cute Tommy Hilfiger dress in the sale rack for $74.50, and there was 30% off of everything in the store for a friends and family sale, bringing the dress down to $52.15. I was happy with that price. The original price of the dress was $149.00, so to get it for $52.15 was a great deal.
But there was a problem. They had a size 6, which fit…but it was a little bit big. I really wanted to try the size 4, but as you know with sale racks, sometimes it can be VERY difficult to find what you want in the size you want. So my friend went back out to the sale rack to take a second look to see if she could find a 4, and I figured I’d go on the Lord & Taylor website to see if they had a 4 that I could order online so that I could see if it fit.
Not only did they have a size 4…but online the price was reduced to $52.15 already, and when you used the coupon code to get 30% off, it went down to $36.50! Now I was happy with $52.15…but to get the dress for just $36.50? I was REALLY excited by that!
Now, If I had wanted, I could have just ordered it online, and then waited a few days to get it at the price I wanted.
But I was going to get the 6 too, since I wasn’t sure which would fit better.
And I wanted to get it now, since the dress was already in my hands and then I didn’t need to worry if the size 6 went out of stock before I got to order it later in the day.
So I went to the cashier, and when it rang up as $52.15, I showed her my phone with the lower price in my cart, and she happily “price matched” to the lower price. I put price match in quotes because it’s the same store!!!
Now some stores are willing to price match to another store, but almost all stores are willing to price match to their own website.
So if you’re willing to spend the 2 minutes looking for the item you’re about to buy on the website, you could end up saving a good amount of money!
Oh, and another tip while I’m here. If you notice, the price in the picture above is even lower… $31.29 now. Now that the 30% off friends and family sale is over, they lowered the price and put it in clearance. You can’t use a coupon on it anymore, but it’s still less than I paid. So you’d better believe that I’m going to go back to the store and get them to refund the difference since I bought it just a few days ago. So if you ever see a lower price on an item you just purchased, take a look at the price match policy. Most stores will give you the difference back if you bought the item within the past week or two. So my dress got even cheaper than when I purchased it and I saved even more money!
Enjoy,
