Target price-matching policy (or lack of, in most stores).

[Kyle]

WA

Bullcreek - Depends on the item. You must bring in the competitor's catalogue and they will only match sale prices. And if it is BigW, they will ring to see if it is instock, and will only match if it is.

I brought a Big W catalog with me to Bullcreek this morning. The check-out girl had no clue about price-matching and called her superior. We waited about 5 minutes. When the superior came she didn't even look at the catalog. She told me "we don't price-match" then quickly turned around and walked away.

[Sleeve]

This is a coincidence as I was only at Morayfield Target a few hours ago and asked if they price-match, as there was a large stock of Leader Jetfire. Their policy was no price-matching at all on toys because their sale starts in a couple of weeks, and even if the sale wasn't on they don't generally do it.

[nettie!]

again, you would probably get a better result by calling head office

[STL]

I have had success before. I guess it's the way you ask and who you get and what mood they're in. All I did was not even have a catalogue, I just brought in a recept from K-Mart for the same item.

The other way I've managed to get stuff cheap from Target is damaged packaging. I just go and ask the manager if there's a discount. It's worked about 5 times for me.

[JuzMel]

Target really sucks then in this sense.

When I had a lay-by at Kmart some time back, the figures were lay-by with their original prices. Then when the sale came and I went to make a payment, I asked the lady if she can adjust the prices to match the sale price. She kindly said yes and this is what they do for all their items on layby anyway.

Now Target on the other hand, I lay-by the Animated Voyagers for $40 each and when the sale came and they were $30 each, I went to cancel the layby- hoping the lady would tell me they can just adjust the prices on the layby. But NOPE, had to cancel the old layby and do a new one again.

[nettie!]

Kmarts layby system ALLOWS prices to be overridden whereas targets does not.
I know that with my store, if someone wants sale price on their layby then they have to cancel it, find the stock on the floor and re-layby - we aren't allowed to just redo the exact same layby - this may just be my store or stores with similar loss prevention issues but the systems for kmart are different to targets.

[griffin]

As recommended by nettie!, I rang up the head office and asked them if they have a price-matching policy. (this was a bit funny) She answered a definite NO, but, then started rattling off the conditions of price-matching (huh???)

So getting past the contradiction within the one sentance, this is what I was told:

It has to be currently advertised in both their (Target) catalogue and the competitor's catalogue, and has to be instock at both stores, BUT, price-matching is only honoured at the Store Manager's discretion.

Sooo, they have an unwritten* price-matching policy, but there's no guarantee that they will honour it at any store, at any time.

(* she told me that it was not something officially written anywhere.)

--------
While I had her attention, I also asked something that had been bugging me for quite a while now - why does Target only restock after lengthy periods of time instead of when the actual stock runs out?
She asked me if I was a customer, because 'customers don't ask that sort of question'. True, to an extent, so I told her that I run a site that monitors and tracks toy stock levels across the country, and Target had been known to not restock for ages after their items sell out.
She then told me that they wait until all their stores require stock before ordering in new stock from the supplier and ship it to stores. So if your Target store sells out faster than most, you'll have a longer wait for new TFs stock.
That is just a brilliant strategy to keep longterm customer loyalty...

I also gave her some feedback on stores not fully capitalising on the TFs movie while it is at its peak demand for toys. I said that I thought it was strange to not try to sell as many toys as possible now at full price, but instead was hearing that stores were holding them back until after the movie dies down and try to sell them at about 30% off during the toy sale.
She told me (rather rudely) it was just my opinion, and the toys will still sell. And with that unfriendly response, that was the end of the conversation.
It's not like I was a competitor, so I don't see why she needed to be so hostile. If anything, this site would be helping promote them, if they tried to live up to their claim of aiming for '100% happy'.

(no offense to the front line employees at Target. I only have a problem with the corporate decisions you guys have to deal with, and the cranky customers that results from it)

[nettie!]

Good work!!!

And they are total tools when it comes to their "100% happy" claim

in all my years at target I've never once thought to ask about the time between restocking... Very lame excuse! - I'll talk to the toy bm at my store over the weekend and see what he says lol

[sanbot]

Good to know Griffin.

I guess it kinda confirmed what many of us already felt about Target.

[Dkaris]

lol our head office staff, corporate staff and district managers are hated with a very strong passion, by both normal staff, night fillers and lower management, because at the end of the day their decisions make our job harder, and we have to deal with the public because of these decisions =[