Scoring big ticket items at lower cost: Price matching gives shoppers a chance to save money without waiting for sales

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There’s no doubt Amazon, an online stores that sells everything from A-Z, have some of the best prices for consumers, especially students.

In an effort to stay competitive, brick-and-mortar stores now have price matching policies with Amazon. A few of the stores in town that do so are Target, Babies ‘R’ Us and Best Buy. The only rule is that Amazon sells it.

This price matching policy helps students save money and get more value from purchases.

“I feel like I get my money’s worth when I go to Best Buy and ask them to price match something I found cheaper off Amazon,” said Shawn Remy. “I don’t qualify for financial aid or waivers so this helps me afford things I don’t necessarily need.”

Remy uses the price matching to his advantage. “I haven’t bought any big purchases from them but I have bought iPhone cases and saved $10-$30 per case at times. Instead of waiting for it in the mail, I can get it right here in town,” said Remy.

Shopping locally helps businesses stay in town and the policies can be seen as a win-win. Big box stores get the sale and the consumer still gets the best price available.

“I Google searched an iPad case for my daughter and saw that both Target and Amazon sold it. I went to the Target website and saw that they only carried the orange color. They had it in stock at my local Target so I headed down there and picked one up. I took it to the customer service section and showed them that Amazon had it for $17 cheaper,” said Sheena Green.

For the person that needs it now, price matching is the perfect fit.

“I try to shop locally whenever I can and price match often. I don’t like to wait for shipping,” said Green.

Many students don’t like paying ten cents to print in the library.

Replacing or buying a new printer gets costly for students and luckily Best Buy, Office Depot and Staples can price match Amazon.

“I needed a new printer that had Wi-Fi printing and found one on Amazon that was within my price range,” said Melissa Yap. “It was last year’s model and only the Staples in Manteca had it in stock, but I ended saving $100 dollars,” said Yap.

It may be a bit of a hassle to request a price match but the reward is worth it.

“I think I will always have a store price match for me because the product has more value to me that way,” said Yap.