In theory, if Walmart doesn’t have a sale item in stock when you’re at the store, they offer rain checks. Here in the real world, no one at David’s local store seems to know what a rain check is, let alone how to issue one. A rain check is a document that allows you to get the sale price on an out-of-stock item, even if the sale is over when the item comes back in stock. Apparently, it’s a relic of the era when customers couldn’t just whip out a smartphone and order the same item elsewhere at a cheaper price. That’s precisely what David did, anyway.

Here in [redacted], SC, my wife and I decided to brave the crowds Thursday night to score the latest Assassin’s Creed game for $38 instead of the $59.99 list price, among other things. When we got to the store, they had already sold out of the game. It pays to read the fine print, sometimes, though: the Walmart ad said they would give rain checks for the sale price on the item if they ran out. But finding someone at Walmart who knew how to fulfill their promise was a totally different thing. The guy at the video game cabinet (who was super-nice) took us to his manager, who also said she had no way to do a rain check, nor did she have anyone to refer us to.

A quick check of Amazon.com on my phone found that the same game was available for $34, and since we have Amazon Prime, it truly was a net $4 savings over the Walmart sale price!

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