Target vows to match Amazon’s prices

[onehandle]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Target has Amazon in its crosshairs. Fed up that customers scan the store’s aisles with one eye on their smartphones, and often end up making purchases online for less — a practice known as showrooming — the big-box retailer Tuesday promised to match Amazon’s prices year round.

“We know that our guests often compare prices online,” Gregg Steinhafel, Target’s chairman, president and CEO said in a statement. If a customer buys a qualifying item at Target TGT -1.09% and then finds an identical item for less in the following week’s Target circular or within seven days on either Amazon.com AMZN -0.77% , Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com, Target will match the price. “Price-match guarantees are the only way for big-box retailers to survive the Amazon onslaught,” says Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of financial website WalletHub.com.

Other retailers may follow Target’s lead. “This might ultimately spur WalMart to match its own online prices,” says Edgar Dworksy, founder of ConsumerWorld.org. Best Buy has price-matching with Amazon.com and other websites until the end of January, but a spokeswoman declined to say if it will continue. Toys ‘R’ Us only matches online prices on baby gear sold by rival online stores, including Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Kmart and Amazon. Wal-Mart matches prices in printed ads by local retailers, but this does not extend to online prices; a spokeswoman for the company declined to comment on future plans. (Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.)

Shoppers may be relieved to no longer have to browse the web while they browse the aisles. Price-matching is often regarded as an “assurance policy” by consumers, says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group. “Many people are not going to take the time to comparison price products to that degree,” he says. “They feel comfortable that someone is watching out for them.” For instance, Target’s price-match guarantee states that the price-matched item must be the identical item, brand name, size, weight, color, quantity — and even model number.

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/target-vows-to-match-amazons-prices-2013-01-08

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This is great news. Amazon has become the Walmart of online.

[napi21]

1. In some cases that will work, but certainly not all!

I have an Amazon Prime membership because I but a lot of things frrom them. Especially if your talking about something that's pretty expensive, it will still be cheaper to buy from Amaszon becausse there's not state tax and the shipping is free.

[forthemiddle]

2. If your not paying the sales tax, your breaking the law

You are supposed to be declaring all purchases so you can be taxed for them. This is one of the reasons the brick and mortar stores are closing down.

[onehandle]

3. Amazon charges taxes in eight states and more and more will start down the road.

We have Amazon Prime as well, but we have buying less and less from them recently.

No more checking my iPhone for a cheaper price on something when we are at Target.

[dbackjon]

4. And you are part of the problem

You are no better than the tax-evading millionaires.


You ARE DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY to save a few bucks with your greedy, self-centered behavior



Shame on you

[SoapBox]

6. Gosh...you are so correct to give

napi21 the dickens! How dare they try to keep a couple of dimes by purchasing online and then not filing the LONG tax forms, to
declare that they owe said dimes, to their state in sales tax! Of all the nerve!!!

BUT, the states now are pressuring online sites to do the dirty work of collecting sales taxes for them! Yippee, put a stop to those deatbeats!

Thank goodness all of our 1%er's, who are hiding their BILLIONS of income off shore and out of America, to evade thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands (millions?) in Federal Taxes. Phewww...great to know that it's all legal for them to do that!

Come on napi21, pay up, you deadbeat 99%er!!!!

And if ya'll don't get the post....

[dbackjon]

13. So you are happy to shift the tax burden of maintaining your local infrastructure to law-abiding

Citizens?


Gotcha.


Two wrongs do not make it right - just that you are BOTH wrong.

[napi21]

8. YEP that me! Me and my SS check are destroying the country

single handidly! II've been retired for several years, and can't drive anymore. Not only does Amazon save me money with lower prices, but I don't have to get anyone to waste their time and gasoline taking me shopping. Say shame on me as much as you wish. I love my Amazon!

[dbackjon]

12. So you are a tax deadbeat as well?

Or do you follow the law?

[Tempest]

14. And I bet you'll be the first to complain when potholes aren't fixed on your street. n/t

[avebury]

5. I really prefer to shop online whenever possible, particularly if I can

get free shipping. I shop from the convenience of my home with no wear and tear on my car and I keep my gas usage down.

[silverweb]

9. Ditto that!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I live in the city and choose not to even own a car. (Since I work at home, I don't need one for commuting.)

A major grocery chain in town delivers and my Target Red Card carries the benefit of a 5% discount on everything plus free delivery. Most of what I buy, I get on line. Even when paying full delivery charges, it's cheaper and more eco-friendly than owning a car.

[eggplant]

10. Same here.

Why should I drive the half hour (!) to *see* if there is something I need at the local big box store? Weren't they the bad guys a few years ago? Now we are worried about the future of these assholes?

I can have UPS deliver me all my standard non-perishable goods for less than it costs me to drive to the store and get it. The box has to travel exactly the same number of miles, UPS is already coming to my house anyway, and I don't have to waste my time. What was the problem again?

[JI7]

11. target has free shipping if you spend 50 dollars or more

[truthisfreedom]

7. You will find that many retailers have unique versions of products in their stores

just to make sure that there can be no comparison shopping. Case in point... I went to Best Buy to purchase a gopro camera, and found that the ones they stocked were simply different model numbers than the ones available online, so they would not budge on their inflated price. The difference between theirs and the ones online? Theirs included less accessories, making them even a worse deal.

[crim son]

15. I recall reading that Target is a big donor to repug and anti-gay causes.

I haven't shopped there in a few years and probably won't start now.

[lexw]

16. Pretty much the only time I DON'T buy online

is for groceries/etc and when I need/want something that very day.