I just want to give a heads up about what I believe to be an interesting cycle in the price matching algorithms between Amazon and Walmart.
After seeing many items I’ve been watching steadily creep down in price by a few bucks a day on Amazon, I think I figured out what’s going on.
Walmart is price matching to Amazon, but for some items they have an additional discount if you pick up in store. It looks like Amazon is then price matching the Walmart discounted price. Then Walmart lowers their (pre-discount) price to the new price, and the cycle continues until a product sells out or some other reason.
I’ve mostly been noticing it on many Wen power tools I’ve had watches on (several have subsequently made front page this week), but also noticed some Black and Decker tools creeping down the same way and for the same reason. Most of these have made all-time historical lows.
I have no reason to think this is limited to these tools, theoretically anything that is being auto price matched by both sites and that Walmart is offering pick up discounts for should be showing this price war feedback behavior.
I’m not really sure if there’s much to take advantage of, but it at least explains some of the weird price behavior I’ve been seeing this week. Mostly, I just found this interesting and wanted to share.
For what it’s worth, I did have luck getting Amazon to credit the difference in dropping prices a few days after I purchased, but YMMV on that.
Some examples?:
WEN 3410 3-Speed Remote-Controlled Air Filtration System
Currently, Walmart has it priced at $98.27 with a $2.26 pick up discount, and Amazon just now dropped their price to $96.11.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wen-3-…m/41041161
https://www.amazon.com/WEN-3410-3…B00LPD9BDI
Black and Decker 20V pole saw (LPP120B) was $72.50 at Amazon and is currently showing $72.50 at Walmart with a $2.83 pick up discount. Amazon’s price just dropped to $69.67, and I expect Walmarts (pre-discount) price to drop to that within the next day as well.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-…w/23569287
https://www.amazon.com/BLACK-DECK…B00AZW9Y
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