I’ve blogged about the truth behind the Walmart Challenge commercials before (see Where Walmart gets it wrong: The comparison-shopping challenge and Walmart’s “Receipt Comparison” tool: Inaccurate and misleading.)
Today, Coupons In The News spoke with several of the “Walmart Moms” featured in these ads and learned that their appearances may have been incentivized and encouraged to tilt the challenge in favor of Walmart over the competing store:
Gretchen, who lives in Pennsylvania, was chosen for a Walmart ad in March of this year. Teandra, from New Mexico, shot her ad in April. Each had audition experiences similar to Laura and Joyce. But each ultimately found herself participating in a “savings contest” of sorts. When Gretchen went shopping at her local Weis grocery store, and Teandra went to Albertsons, each found herself shopping alongside another “real Mom”. Everyone was given an envelope of $250 in cash, and told to choose a few dozen items that they would typically purchase.
When they were done, and the prices of their items were compared with Walmart’s, the shopper who ended up saving the most at Walmart was selected to appear in a commercial, while the other Mom was sent home. Everyone got a $250 gift card for their trouble – so the total compensation package still equals $500 – but only the Mom who saved the most got to be on TV. In other words, only the Mom who bought things with the biggest price differential from one store to the next got her moment in the spotlight. So any Mom who might have purposely bought big-ticket items at the grocery store that weren’t on sale, that she knew would be cheaper at Walmart, had the best chance of getting on TV. Just as Schnucks had feared.
… the new “whoever saves more gets to be on TV” method of choosing participants does raise some questions. It lends legitimacy to Schnucks’ suspicion that Walmart “cherry-picked (participants’) receipts from among others in an effort to manufacture the largest price differential”.
Interesting – and as many of us on the blog have said, it would be extremely easy to tilt these ads in favor of either store, depending on what was purchased on which day.
cg1 says
Has the feel of the Extreme Couponing shows to push results, the more outrageous you are, the more likely to get on TV.
I’m kind of curious if the receipt detail is available to compare Walmart’s price history of the item vs. Schnucks. Wouldn’t Walmart win there? I mean if the Walmart item is actually higher priced than Schnuck’s price, the consumer wins due to price match if they point it out to WM staff. If Walmart is already lower, same result for customer.
When would a price match store lose as far as the customer is concerned? Maybe if it’s a Catalina deal? I’m not sure.
P.S. I noticed Walmart’s competitors ad policy states: “We do not require customers to have the ad with them to honor a competitor’s ad.”
Wonder how well that works in practice, like does Walmart usually have the competitors ads to reference if the customer remembers a deal?
dolrskolr says
… the shopper always looks so frozen in her surprise that she SAVED 12% AT WALMART!!! 12-frickin’-percent!!!! And the guy who does the reveal looks like he can barely choke out the stupendous savings figure. I’m embarrassed watching the stupid commercial.
I still don’t shop there and this effort to try and get me in there actually confirms my continued efforts to stay away.
picrob2000 says
I live in Colorado and have seen Walmart’s “see for yourself” commercials comparing themselves to King Soopers – one of the two Kroger company affiliates in Colorado. Walmart may have their low price guarantee backed by their ad-match policy, plus their coupon policy, but there are times I’ve comparison shopped between the two and spent much less at King Soopers due to the following: many BOGO offers (which Walmart’s ad-match policy states they cannot match), Mega event savings promos (ie. buy 5 participating items, save $5 instantly), digital coupons/personal prices loaded on to my customer loyalty card, and DOUBLE manufacturer’s coupons (up to $0.50 in value). Tonight, I experienced yet another perfect example of what I just mentioned. On this trip, I purchased various cereals, vitamin supplements, cheese, lunch meat, milk, and candy bars. Regular retail with taxes would be approximately $70 at King Soopers and $50 at Walmart. After ALL applicable discounts and coupons (including BOGO, Mega event promo, and coupons), I calculated my total cost at Walmart to be approximately $42 (assuming they price-match King Soopers on applicable items). The real kicker, however, is that my total cost came to … are you ready for this?… exactly $29.95 after tax.
Case in point – Walmart really should consider stepping up their game when it comes to real competition, which should explain how I calculated the approximate $12 difference between their prices and King Soopers (assuming purchase of same exact products and use of same exact manufacturer’s coupons).