Dos and Don’ts of Shopping at Walmart: 14 Money-Saving Tips
Thousands of Americans shop at Walmarts across the country. Besides often being the closest store available, Walmart offers good prices on groceries and other items. But you can take the savings even further. Within this article, we will look at 11 ways to save even more money on your next Walmart shopping trip.
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Do: Buy Walmart Brand Items
Walmart’s store brand is called “Great Value,” and they’re often cheaper than their name-brand equivalents. Sometimes these products are even the same as the name-brand equivalents. Other times, the product may be close enough that it doesn’t make a difference but can save you money.
Do: Use the Walmart App
There are a few ways that you can save money with the Walmart app. The app lets you easily search for Rollback items, which are items that have temporarily dropped in price. You can also view other sale items (in addition to Rollback items) in the Savings Spotlight section of the Walmart app.
Do: Use Reward or Cash-Back Apps
Many apps offer rewards and cash back for buying groceries or other items from places like Walmart. Some popular apps include Shopkick, Ibotta and Rakuten. Most of these apps are free and offer cash back when you scan your shopping receipt.
“Utilizing shopping rewards apps like Shopkick gives you ‘kicks’ or rewards, just by walking into stores, scanning products on the shelf and making purchases,” said Brad Godwin, senior vice president and head of partnership at Shopkick. “Once enough kicks are accumulated, users can receive a free gift card to Walmart delivered digitally to their phones.”
Do: Use Cash-Back Browser Extensions or Shopping Portals
If you purchase items from Walmart.com, you can install a browser extension that could save you money. Some popular browser extensions are Rakuten, Honey and Capital One Shopping. These can be downloaded and installed for free on your desktop or laptop computer. After you’ve installed them, you simply click a button to activate them before making a purchase at Walmart.com. The rest of your shopping experience is the same as it would be without the extension.
With a browser extension, you’ll receive cash back on your online purchase. The amount you’ll earn will depend on the app and how much it pays for Walmart.com purchases. Some browser extensions may even run coupon codes for you at checkout.
Some of these browser extensions, like Rakuten, also function as a cash-back shopping portal. To use them, you have to first go to the shopping portal’s (Rakuten) website. From there, you will search for Walmart. You’ll then head to Walmart.com by clicking through the shopping portal website. When you complete your purchase at Walmart.com, you’ll receive cash back on your purchase.
Some credit cards also offer shopping portals that can be used with Walmart.com. You can often earn extra credit card points by shopping at Walmart.com through the credit card portal — in addition to the points you would normally get from making purchases with your credit card.
Do: Pay Attention to the Price Tag
Did you know the price tag can actually tell you a lot about the deal you’re receiving on a product from Walmart?
“The Walmart price tag gives away whether the item you choose can go cheaper,” said Jimmie Hamilton, founder and CEO of Hi Home Picks. “If the price ends with 7, you are paying the total price for the item. It represents the original price of the product. However, if the price ends with 5 or 0, it is the first markdown. So, it indicates that the item can go cheaper. Finally, the price ending with 1 is the final markdown price. The item will not be available at a lower price.”
The next time you’re shopping at Walmart or on Walmart.com, pay attention to the price because it will give you an indication of whether an item is going to be marked down even further.
Do: Use Walmart’s $4 Prescription Program
Walmart has a $4 prescription program for many generic prescriptions. The program provides many generic drugs at $4 for up to a 30-day supply and $10 or more for 90-day supplies. Higher dosages cost more. Prices will vary by state.
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Do: Take Advantage of the Price-Match Policy
Walmart will price-match items purchased in a U.S. Walmart store to the price of the identical item advertised on Walmart.com. To take advantage of the price-match policy, you have to let the Walmart associate know of the price at the time of checkout. The identical item must be currently in stock and available to purchase on Walmart.com at the time the price match is requested. Price match is not available in Alaska, Puerto Rico or Hawaii.
Walmart will not match competitors’ prices, items purchased from Walmart.com that later decrease in price, prices available through Marketplace or offered by third-party sellers, Walmart.com prices that are on special events or bundle offers, instant rebates, mail-in offers, offers that include financing, advertisements that require a purchase to receive a gift card, percentage off or buy-one-get-one free advertisement without a specified price.
Do: Buy Refurbished Electronics
Walmart sells refurbished electronics, like TVs or laptops, which can be significantly cheaper than buying new electronics. Refurbished electronics are sold in the Walmart Restored program. The refurbished electronics are all certified to work and operate like new ones, so you shouldn’t have any issues. However, if you do, the refurbished electronics have a 90-day minimum warranty, so you don’t have to worry about wasting money if the refurbished electronic item you purchased was faulty.
Do: Check the Clearance Section
It might already be common knowledge that you can save money by buying items from the clearance section, but the clearance sections at Walmart can sometimes be entire aisles.
Not every Walmart store offers such a large clearance section, but it is still worthwhile to check out. Clearance items are marked with bright yellow tags. They also can be found through Walmart.com’s clearance category.
Do: Get Free Shipping
Walmart offers free two-day shipping on orders of $35 or more. Some products may even qualify for free same-day shipping.
To save money, avoid placing online orders for less than $35. If your order is less than $35, you can often ship it to a Walmart store for pickup for free (but only on eligible online-only merchandise).
Do: Get Walmart+
Walmart+ may not always save you money, but it could be worth it in certain situations. The Walmart+ program gives you free same-day grocery delivery on orders of $35 and more. Same-day grocery deliveries usually cost you $7.95 per delivery; so, if you order weekly, Walmart+ will save you over $400 per year in fees alone.
Rivaling Amazon Prime, Walmart+ offers free next-day and two-day shipping from Walmart.com without a minimum order amount. Walmart+ also gives you access to Walmart Rewards, Walmart’s cash-back rewards program. With Walmart+, you’ll save 5 cents per gallon on gas at Walmart gas stations, Murphy gas stations and Sam’s Club fuel centers.
Don’t: Ignore Pickup Discounts
Walmart offers a pickup discount that encourages shoppers to pick up their online orders in store rather than having them shipped. The discount can range anywhere from 5% to 15%.
Taking advantage of the pickup discount makes sense when you’re purchasing something rather large and the discount is significant, or when your order doesn’t qualify for free shipping and you’re going to be near the store anyways.
Don’t: Buy More Just To Get Free Shipping
Orders of $35 or more qualify for free shipping on Walmart.com. If your purchase doesn’t qualify, you need to consider all of your options before adding something else to your shopping cart.
Start by seeing whether the item is available for pickup at a nearby Walmart store. If it’s not, check other retailers and see whether they carry the item at a similar price. If you find the item and the cost is less than what it would be to purchase from Walmart and pay for shipping, then it would make sense to purchase it from the other retailer.
Don’t: Ignore the Holiday Aisles After the Holiday Has Passed
Walmart can be a great place to purchase decorations for most holidays. However, you shouldn’t pass by these aisles once the holiday ends. This is when Walmart typically marks items way down, and it can be a great time to pick up things for next year at discounted prices. Discounts are typically 50% off the day after and then up to 90% if the items remain after a few days.
A Walmart+ subscription costs $12.95 per month or $98 per year. Be sure to run the numbers to make sure Walmart+ will save you enough money to cover the cost of the membership.
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