Over the last few weeks, reports have been flooding in from you loyal readers telling me that Walmart is ending Ad Matching by the end of October.  There were enough of you that I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence so I called up my old friend’s at the Walmart Media Relations team and got a hold of Charles Crowson for the scoop on what is going on.  Here’s what he said.

First of all, Walmart is NOT ending ad matching at all stores, just like when Walmart ended ad matching at first 500, then 800 total stores as reported here, this will be another limited block of stores.  There was no confirmation on the number of stores affected but they did promise to get back to me with that number next week so I’ll let you know that as soon as I do.

While Mr Crowson couldn’t tell me exactly what stores are affected, judging from the reports that are coming in it appears to be a large chunk of the Eastern US.  It appears also that the associates also know what is going on so you can probably ask a CSM at your store to find out if your store is affected.

What does this mean for the future of Ad Matching at Walmart?  Well if I was a betting man, I would put my money on it disappearing sometime in the next 6 months or so.  Of course Walmart won’t confirm this but it sure seems like they are putting a ton of money and energy into these price dropping programs and I can’t see that just going away.  If there is anything Walmart does well, it’s logistics so I can’t see them setting up all these new logistics for price slashing and then only implementing it in half their stores across the nation.  No, this is just my opinion but I think we are standing at the end of an era so I guess we will just have to wait and see what the new era brings us.

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8/2 UPDATE:  As of this morning, Walmart is ending Ad Matching in another 300 stores nationwide for a total of 800.  It would appear that the line of stores affected moved a few hundred miles west with most of the stores affected being East of the Mississippi but not all stores East of the Mississippi.  More as this story develops.

UPDATE:  I just got off the phone with the Walmart PR team and they gave me more information and put my mind a little more at ease about what’s happening.  First of all, all the information in the article is correct but there are a few things that need to be added.  One thing I don’t think I made clear is that the 500 stores without ad matching will be getting special Rollbacks that will drop the prices on thousands of items in those stores to even lower levels than what other stores will have so I think this will be a net positive for the stores losing ad matching but we will have to see how that shakes out.  Also, these 500 stores will no longer price match online retailers like Amazon.com at the register but they will still match Walmart.com.  You will still be able to price match an online retailer at Walmart.com so I guess some of us will have to figure out how to do that.  And I wasn’t able to get a list of stores that were closing yet but I did confirm that no store in Texas will be affected.  If I get that list, you will be able to check back in here to read it.

If your store is affected, you will start seeing the blue signs pictured below at the register.  This is a terrible photo and as soon as I find a better one, I’ll replace it.  This was taken by someone in our Facebook Walmart group.

2ND UPDATE:  So far we have heard that either a large percentage or every store in Florida is losing the ad matching.  If you live in Florida and your store is NOT losing ad matching, please let me know because as of right now, it seems like all 191 FL stores are losing it.  We have also had a report that western New York state is losing ad matching as well.  Another report has come in for Columbia SC so perhaps it’s the Eastern Seaboard?

3RD UPDATE: We are continuing to reports up and down the Eastern Seaboard (Like VA) that it is ending but I got my first non-Eastern Seaboard confirmation that it is ending in Casper, Wyoming.  In fact when I talked to the management team at both stores there they were both under the impression that it was ending Nationwide.  There are still no signs at my store in Texas so maybe that’s not true but I still want to hear if it is happening in your area.  MINI UPDATE:  Just got confirmation from the Walmart PR team that it is still only limited to 500 stores and no store in Texas is affected. 2ND MINI UPDATE:  The Walmart PR Team just reached out to say that Wyoming is NOT on the list of affected stores.  Sounds like someone got their wires crossed.  3RD MINI UPDATE:  The Walmart PR Team reached out again.  There was an internal email that was forwarded to all stores instead of just the 500 affected stores that said they were ending Ad Matching on the 9th.  That miscommunication has been corrected.  If your store does not have the blue signs pictured above, your store is not affected.

ORIGINAL POST

It looks like the day we have always feared is finally here.  When Walmart launched Savings Catcher, the rumor was that this was the beginning of the end for ad matching but those rumors were consistently denied.  Now it looks like it is becoming a reality.

2 days ago, Walmart had an earnings call where they announced they were going to start making huge investments in lowering prices.  Then yesterday they dropped the bomb that if their prices were going to be so low then we probably didn’t need ad matching anymore so they were phasing it out in 500 stores nationwide.  It’s worth noting that Walmart has about 5100 stores nationwide so this only affects about 10%.

Some shoppers are already reporting seeing signs go up in their stores that say that their Walmart will no longer be Ad Matching as of June 9th, 2016.  On a side note, I have not seen this sign so if you have it in your store, please send me a pic.  TIA.

So far, no list has been released of the affected stores but I’ve got a few emails out and as soon as I know anything on that front, I will let you know.

The good news is that you will still be able to use Savings Catcher so if there is a lower price somewhere, you will still be able to get that money back.  Of course Savings Catcher doesn’t catch drug store prices, produce or bakery items and is pretty hit or miss when it comes to meat but at least it’s something.  It also begs the question that if the Walmart price will always be lower, why do we need Savings Catcher?  But I’m rocking that boat.

So for now, nothing is changing for 90% of you but for those unlucky 10%, I’m sorry this is happening to you.  If you see the signs saying that ad matching is ending in your store, please let me know where that is so maybe we can begin to see some sort of pattern.  Also send me pics of the signs through email at [email protected] or just tag @GSFFatTheMart on instagram and I’ll see it.

Special thanks to Coupons in the News for bringing this to my attention.