I have to side with Target on this one... Shipping costs money, and it only makes sense that the in-store product (which has already been shipped to you) should cost more than the online purchase, which will add in chipping costs at the checkout.

I did the same thing in a store called Ulta. When they didn't match their online price, I walked out and I never shopped there again. What is the point of getting it online if I have to pay for shipping, then wait for it?

@potzertommy:

I was thinking the same shipping and handling.

i just checked online. for 3-5 day shipping, my order of that same DVD would be $17.97. 2 day shipping would be $20.97 (which is almost exactly what many of us would pay after tax for a $19.99 DVD)

Yeah, $14.99 online...plus $5 shipping fees...$19.99! I guess maybe stores could price match items when shipping is included. But otherwise, I understand why they price items accordingly.

It's also worth noting that a lot of the media at least was if not still is actually Amazon.com wrapped in Target.com templating.

@GothamGal:

The added convenience of not having to go to Target. By and large, I agree with you though, and thats why I do most of my shopping in-person.

I worked part time at Fry's Electronics a few years ago and we always had to tell customers that the store didn't price match any website even their own. Fry's website is run as a separate business. It actually was a separate business until Fry's bought them and it just continues to be run that way. I get sale alerts from several places that have both web and brick & mortar (Costco for example) and offer web only sales.

Nothing wrong with it in my book.

@potzertommy: But for a lot of people, wouldn't the point of going to a store be to avoid shipping costs? When you add it up, the cost to send a particular item through the distribution system of a company like Target is most likely very small considering that millions of other items that it has to ship to stores...especially for a tiny DVD! It is probably much cheaper to ship from a warehouse to a Target store in one of Target's trucks than to ship an individual item from a warehouse to your home via UPS.

Step 1: Shop online.
Step 2: Choose "Free Store Shipping."
Step 3:
Step 4: Profit.

If Step 2 is not available, find a site that has it.

@gggtur: $5 is silly for standard shipping for a DVD. It should easily be less than $2 using USPS Media Mail, or maybe Fedex Smartpost/UPS Mail Innovations (he latter which a lot of the bigger online stores use.)

One of the home improvement stores has find a store. Than it shows you what the price will be at the store. I think places that have online and stores need to add this do it your customers will thank you.

No, they don't have to match their online prices. Should they? Yes.

@potzertommy: Also with things like buy it online and it will be ready in the store that doesn't make sense. If I am at Best Buy and something is $5 more in the store I can buy it online and go pick it up in the store and not pay shipping and its the same item that was on the shelf.

@scootinger:

but in order to sell you the DVD instore, they have to pay for real estate and pay employees who stock the shelves and employees who check you out.

Okay, I'm still steaming from just trying to get Walmart to match prices from store to store:

We went to buy a 42" Vizio HDTV from our neighborhood WalMart last night. They were sold out, but offered to call around town to other Walmarts. They sent us across town. When we arrived at the other WalMart, the price was $50 more. We inquired about this, and after the sales associate contacted the first WalMart and confirmed the price there, she went looking for a manager to override the price. The manager told the sales associate (not so discreetly, but never talking to me directly, and attempting to hide her face from me with a file folder) that WalMart would never, ever match prices from Walmart.com or any other WalMart store! Needless to say, we threw up our hands and walked out.

I work at a Borders Books & Music. A lot of our dvds/cds are cheaper online than in store. Although I don't agree with it, our online store gets their products from other warehouses than the stores do. I'm assuming they believe it can be sold cheaper online because they have to factor in shipping costs etc at the end of the sale.
I had a customer once come up to me in line and complain about the damage to his car it required to drive 5 miles down the road to Borders to pick up a dvd only to find out it was cheaper online. Our manager didn't give him a discount on it either. I can see why the customer would be upset though, but that's retail for you.

@midwestkel:
agreed. you get a bargain if you do it this way. Congrats on being thrifty.

@unobservant: I apologize for the epic South Park reference fail. I can haz coffee?

the last time I was reminded of why I don't shop at best buy, it was because they wanted to charge me $10 more in-store than the online price listed listed for the item I was seeking to purchase. (about a year ago, Guitar hero III, MSRP and in-store $80, online $70)

The ONLY reason I ever buy anything there anymore is if I've received one of those tacky gift cards people seem to want to give out (my advice: cash is always better than a stupid certificate)

A lot of companies use real-time demand-based pricing for their webstores. That is, they constantly change their prices to keep sales up... When an item is selling fast, they raise the price, and when it is not selling well, they lower the price.

I tried to buy a blu-ray at Walmart earlier this week. It had an online price of $24.86, and it rang up in-store as $29.99. I tried to get them to match, but the cashier couldn't. Not wouldn't, but couldn't. I called up Walmart corporate to ask why, and they said that, legally, walmart.com and Walmart are 2 different business entities with 2 different inventories, and one cannot be substituted any more than you could go to Circuit City and ask them to match a bestbuy.com price. Many companies do it anyways as per their price match policy, but they don't have to.

@scootinger: It's not just shipping cost. You're also forgetting labor- the shipment team, the floor team, the cashiers, the managers, etc. Then there's the cost of rent for the store, the cost of utilities, the cost of theft, etc.

I think the reason for the difference in prices is the same as the differences in prices at Targets or stores in general that are in different districts or regions. I'm guessing that Target.com is considered a different "region" than physical stores. A store in Washington will have different prices on things than a store in Ohio.

Target.com may also be conisdered a separate "business" and may be run completely differently, since essentially they are running out of a warehouse like Amazon. Lower overhead=lower prices. But to a consumer standpoint, it should just all match. Or you should at least have the website adjust to your local store prices by entering a zip code or something.

@midwestkel: They're hoping you'd come in and the person who hands you the product can upsell an accessory or a warranty plan. Plus, they're also hoping that once you're in the store, you'll want to browse around a bit and pick up something else while you're at it.

Looks like pretty much everyone hit all the right points already. Online prices are lower because there's no overhead for real estate and in-store staff. But once you factor in drop-shipping to your doorstep, you're about even anyway.

For some people the appeal of online shopping is being able to avoid lines, people, and traffic that accompany b&m shopping. For others, those factors are what make b&m shopping enjoyable. Regardless, the prices usually wash at the end of the day.

@ChChChacos: Driving five miles damaged his car? Maybe he needs to spend a little less on media and a little more on car maintenance.

@acknight: YOU CAN HAZ PUNKCHOOAYSHUNZ!!

@CountryJustice: Winner!

@unobservant:
I enjoyed it... I couldn't recall where i remembered it from, but i smiled with familiarity nonetheless.

@EyeHeartPie: They must have changed their policy. The last time I tried to get them to price match something from their site, they told me they could match the cost + shipping only.

I experienced this with Target the other day. They had the Wall-E 3-disk blu-ray set online for $24.99. I printed it out and went into the store where it was $29.99. I spoke to a manager and they wouldn't match the price. They stated they won't even match prices for a Target store on the other side of town.

So what did I do? I went down the street to Best Buy, showed them the print out and they matched it. Target just lost a sale.

You would think in these tough times that every sale counts. I would imagine they aren't paying any more for the movie than Target.com is. Oh well, they just lost a customer.

In a free market a store can charge whatever they wish. just as a consumer can shop wherever they wish. So No a store does not have to price match.

@SadSam: The only example I've found where the in-store price matched the online price plus shipping was Wal-Mart.

Why would anyone in their right mind expect prices to be the same for product in-store as opposed to product online?

Product in-store has to be ordered, shipped, sit on a shelf and take up real estate, get farmed / maintained by employees, and have a profit that helps pay for the building's costs (lease, utilities, taxes, etc).

Product online has to be ordered and shipped, but customers typically pay for all of the shipping. There are far less employees at a warehouse, and the inventories are much more fluid if the company designs their systems correcty. Building costs are substantially less, since these warehouses are usually in the middle of nowhere, and not prime retail locations.

People are really silly in their expectations in this scenario. If anything, more stores should implement a secondary "see the price in your store" feature that has both the discounted online price and your local store's price side-by-side.

You want it NOW? you'll probably pay.. if you can wait.. you'll pay less.

@EyeHeartPie: I've gotten the same excuse from Wal-mart on online price matching, but got them to do it with a little finess. I've also gotten Circuit City to price-match BestBuy.com, simply by pulling up BBYs price on my phone and showing it to the CC employee (I even got the extra 10%). YMMV, however, but it can be done. FWIW, Circuit City always matched their online prices in store.

With large companies like target and best buy the website is a different company (kinda like verizon and verizon wireless), and has it's own standards even though the branding is the same. In the same line, sometimes the brick and mortar stores are franchises and have a certain degree of control over the prices and inventory.

It's not good customer relations but they shouldn't be obliged to price match.

Grocery stores within the same chain can have different prices at different locations within the same city.

@scootinger: Store costs vs. warehouse costs:

The store has
- many locations - rent ain't cheap
- many employees for customer service and checkout
- additional security costs, and additional shrink
- merchandising costs--making the place look appealing
- large parking areas which have to be rented (or purchased) and maintained
- local advertising (the website rides on coattails here)
- and other additional costs I'm too tired to think of.

A few warehouses are cheaper to own and maintain. They require less security because less people pass through. They only need enough parking for the employees. And they don't have to look appealing or constantly change the way the merchandise is displayed.

Those added costs of running a store will be tacked on to the price of the goods you buy. Shipping is the biggest additional cost for shopping online, and it's enough to bring the prices up to store pricing, especially when you're only buying one item.

@Counterpoint: I agree. I don't understand why Consumerist would think this article is worth the electrons.

@potzertommy:
Yes, but if you order it online, they still have to pay real estate for the warehouse and employees to pick your orders and ship them. So it mostly equals out.

I had the reverse happen recently.

I was looking for a Harmony 550 remote, and my local futureshop was selling them for $132 online, but the store stock when I checked was zero. I found the same one on sale at bestbuy, (and in stock) for $99.

On a whim, I stopped by FS just to make sure, and not only was the Harmony 550 selling for $79.95 in the store, they also had about 20 in stock. When it was rung up, it rang as $69.95.

Just goes to show you that sometimes the convenience of online shopping doesn't always mean you get a deal. That was 4 days ago, and FS is still showing the wrong price and out of stock for that store.

@potzertommy: Prices differ regionally ALL the time. It costs more to ship inventory to Target stores in remote locations. Plus stores in AK and HI are always paying big bucks to get the same item available in the 48 states.

Something very similar to this is actually why I have refused to shop at Sears for most of my life. When I was young, before there was such a thing as the Internet, Sears used to send out catalogs. But even though they would ship the items to their stores and you had to drive to the store to pick them up, they'd still charge you for shipping. This left such a bad taste in my mouth that I simply refused to do business with Sears on principle, even after they opened up a full retail store that didn't charge for shipping on items in the store.

Of course, it didn't help that just about the time I might have been ready to forgive them, their auto service department tried to screw me royally on car repairs (basically tried to sell me service I didn't need, as later confirmed by a different mechanic. When I balked at spending $1K to repair an old car that probably wasn't worth half that amount, the Sears mechanic said "I wouldn't drive this car out of the parking lot if I were you!" in very grave tones, apparently implying that certain death would follow if I did not heed his warning. Since I didn't fall off the turnip truck the day before, I took it to another mechanic who confirmed that there was nothing seriously wrong with the car (at least nothing safety-related) and who performed the minor maintenance it needed at the time for about $150. That was back in the early 1980's, and it cemented the negative opinions I'd previously had about Sears.

Point is, not price-matching the store's web site is very likely the sort of thing that could give today's younger folks a very negative impression about a company that will last a lifetime, particularly if they have one or two other bad experiences with that same company. Companies take heed, consumers have long memories, especially the younger demographic that many companies consider desirable.

@GothamGal: Good point. Because of the added inconvenience, you should, like, pay less if you're shopping online. Or something.

@ckaught78: Target stopped price-matching at all a few years ago.

Let me ask this...what if you received a printed ad flyer for Target for said item, and you go into the store to purchase to find that the printed ad is only honored at the online store? Would you claim that as false advertising?

I believe that this story is false advertising too. Target intends to mislead people to come into the store using false online advertising. If they want to separate the pricing between Target stores and Target.com, they should rename their online store. The Target.com site represents many aspects of their retail stores, such as hours and print ads, and by doing so Target intentially creates the assumption with consumers that the prices displayed are also a representation of the retail stores.

@nsv: I definitely know that B&M locations have higher overhead, which means that things usually cost more at such stores. However, I was simply addressing potzertommy saying that "shipping" the item to the store means that they increase the cost.

I do think that if Target (as well as any other company that does business online and with B&M stores...ie Home Depot) advertises one price in one location, be it retail or online, it should be honored in all locations that are called "Target" (if you get what I'm saying.) If Target does not wish to offer online prices at their stores, then they need to make a very clear distinction between their online and retail division. They have to go both ways...they can't just use the Target brand name to get traffic on their website, then claim that they are separate entities. Finally, offering the DVD at a low price at a B&M store would not hurt them that much...in fact it could be very beneficial even if it is a "loss leader" that Target makes no profit on or even loses a slight amount of money; people could easily buy groceries or other high-margin items while at the store.