Stretch your grocery budget with price matching

Nick Reyno Culture May 25, 2015

CREDIT: NICK REYNO
Flyers are delivered Thursdays and Fridays, and be sure to save your receipts to optimize price matching.

DISCLAIMER: Some store policies may vary from the information that follows. Please check with your local store about its specific policies before shopping.

Price matching is a relatively new craze hitting London that owes its success to apps such as Flipp and websites such as Red Flag Deals. It’s a practice whereby companies discount items at the point of sale when shown a cheaper price in a competitor’s flyer.

This hasn’t been a common occurrence in the past though, due to difficulties in obtaining and navigating dozens of flyers found throughout London. The transition to digital flyers has quickly made price matching an every day routine.

Flipp has been a real juggernaut in the price matching initiative because of the streamlined services it offers. The smartphone app compiles all of the flyers from grocery and big box stores into one easy location, and offers a search feature that allows you to search by brand or product. In addition to this, the app allows you to pin your price matches and make grocery lists, which makes extensive matching on shopping trips quick and painless.

Although this may seem like the golden age for price matching, shoppers need to be wary of varying policies between franchises. The best grocery store to bring your price matching to is Walmart, while the worst is Sobeys, which does no matching at all.

If you can’t find all of your groceries at Walmart, its closest competitor is No Frills. The only difference between these stores is that No Frills will not price match with Shoppers Drug Mart.

After your purchase, make sure you hold on to the receipt for further savings. Stores like Walmart will refund the price difference for products that go on sale within 90 days of the transaction.

This is a great policy for seasonal and festive items, which see progressive price slashing as they go out of season. Buy early to take advantage of the selection, then go back and get that valuable refund when the price drops later.

Now that you’re armed with an arsenal of money saving tips, the following guide will guarantee your price-matching trip goes off without a hitch.

1. Always make sure to match the brands in your ad

If Neilson is having a sale on milk, you can’t bring a carton of Beatrice to the counter and hope for the best.

2. Make sure you find the same size of item

Drink, cereal and chip ads usually come with a restricted size range that the ad will honour.

3. Be careful when using halfoff ads

Most stores will not match these unless the original price is listed as well.

4. Some stores use pounds, some stores use kilograms

Ask your cashier which system the store weighs by, otherwise you could end up paying more than you bargained for.

5. Be organized

Having the cashier scan all pricematched items at once saves both time, and prevents items from being missed.

Perfect for matching