Store Price-Match Policies Compared: Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Kohl's

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Price matching used to be simple: show a competitor's lower price, pay that price. That era is mostly over. In the last few years the biggest stores quietly rewrote their policies — two of the four stores below no longer match competitors at all. Asking for a match that no longer exists wastes your time at the register, so here is what each policy actually does now. Policies change without fanfare, so confirm on the store's own policy page before a big purchase.

Walmart: matches only itself

Walmart ended competitor price matching in stores years ago. What remains is narrower: if an identical item on Walmart.com is priced lower than in your store, you can generally get the online price — Walmart matching Walmart. A lower price at Target, Amazon, or any other competitor is not matched.

Still worth doing: Check the Walmart.com price on your phone before checkout on anything expensive. The self-match is real money when the two prices differ.

Target: matches only itself — the big change

Target's famous Price Match Guarantee, which used to cover a long list of competitors including Amazon and Walmart, was rolled back in July 2025. Target now focuses on its own pricing: it will match Target's own prices — in-store versus Target.com — and adjust if a Target price drops within the window in its current policy (14 days at the time of writing). Lower prices at competing stores are no longer matched.

Still worth doing: Keep receipts. A Target price drop shortly after you buy is exactly what the remaining policy is for. And during the holidays Target has in recent years run a separate seasonal price-match guarantee with its own dates — check whether one is running before assuming the standard rules apply.

Best Buy: the last full competitor match

Best Buy's Price Match Guarantee is now the strongest of the four. At the time of sale it matches identical, in-stock items from a published list of qualified competitors — major online and local retailers, including Abt, which is one of the stores featured on our home page — and it also matches its own prices if they drop during your return-and-exchange window.

The limits that trip people up: the item must be identical (model, color, variant), new, and sold by the competitor itself — not a third-party marketplace seller. Clearance, open-box, refurbished, and special-event doorbuster prices are excluded.

Still worth doing: For electronics and appliances, this is the policy to actually use. Find the lower qualified price before you buy, and ask at the point of sale or by chat/phone for online orders.

Kohl's: narrow, in-store, read the fine print

Kohl's has offered a limited in-store competitor price match on identical items, with exclusions that matter: the competitor price generally cannot itself be a clearance or rollback price, and the request typically has to happen the same day as purchase. Kohl's own coupons and Kohl's Cash rules can interact with a matched price in ways that reduce the stack you were hoping for. Of the four policies here, this is the one whose current terms vary most in practice — check Kohl's published policy and ask before you buy, not after.

The comparison in one table

Walmart — Matches competitors? No. Matches its own lower price? Yes — Walmart.com vs. in-store. Best move: Check the app before checkout.

Target — Matches competitors? No (ended July 2025). Matches its own lower price? Yes, within its adjustment window. Best move: Keep receipts, watch for price drops.

Best Buy — Matches competitors? Yes — qualified list, at time of sale. Matches its own lower price? Yes, during return window. Best move: Use it on electronics and appliances.

Kohl's — Matches competitors? Limited, in-store, exclusions apply. Matches its own lower price? Ask — terms vary. Best move: Confirm the policy before buying.

The one-sentence rule

Do not walk in expecting a competitor match anywhere except Best Buy — at Walmart and Target, "price match" now means the store matching its own price, so the winning habit is checking the store's own app and keeping your receipt.

Policies verified against retailer coverage in October 2026 and change without notice. The store's own policy page is always the final word.