Best Buy keeps a published list of 19 retailers whose prices it will match, and Amazon, Walmart and Target are all on it. Target, for its part, matched Amazon and Walmart for about 12 years and then quit in July 2025. Those two facts tell you most of what you need to know about price matching this fall: fewer stores still do it, and the ones that do have longer fine print.
The more useful protection for the next six weeks is a different one. Most big chains will still refund the difference when their own price drops shortly after you buy. With Black Friday on November 27 this year and early sales already rolling, the store you bought from is the one most likely to undercut you. Know each store’s window and you can buy in October without worrying that you jumped too soon.
Here’s where the five stores most of us use stand in mid-October, what each one will and won’t match, and how to ask so the request goes through on the first try.
The five policies side by side
| Store | Matches other stores | Matches its own lower price later | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Buy | Yes, 19 named retailers | Yes | Your return period: 15 days for most items, 60 for My Best Buy Plus and Total members |
| Target | No, ended July 2025 | Yes | 14 days |
| Walmart | No | Not promised | Stores match Walmart.com at the register |
| Amazon | No | No, except eligible pre-orders | Use the return window instead |
| Costco | No | Yes | 30 days |
Best Buy: still matching Amazon, with a holiday blackout
Best Buy’s qualified competitor list includes Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Apple, B&H, Crutchfield and Micro Center, among others. The item has to be new, the same brand, model number and color, and in stock at the competitor when you ask. It also has to be sold by that retailer. A price from a third-party seller on Amazon or Walmart.com doesn’t count, which is the single most common reason a request gets turned down.
Best Buy also matches its own lower price, in store, online or in the app, for as long as your return period lasts. For most products that’s 15 days. If you’re a paying My Best Buy Plus or Total member it’s 60 days, and phones and other activatable devices get 14 days no matter who you are.
Now the catch. The policy excludes competitor sales that run from the Thursday before Thanksgiving through the Monday after, which this year means November 19 through November 30. It also excludes competitors’ Black Friday pricing and daily or hourly deals, plus clearance, open-box, refurbished, bundle, mail-in rebate and limited-quantity offers. Prices that only paid loyalty program members can get are out too, so an Amazon deal that requires Prime won’t fly.
Last holiday season Best Buy stretched its return period so that most purchases made from the end of October through December 31 could come back until January 15, and it matched its own lower prices across that stretch. That guarantee covered Best Buy’s prices only, not competitors’. If the store repeats it this year, a purchase made in early November would stay protected well past Cyber Monday. Check the Price Match Guarantee page for this year’s dates before you count on it.
How to ask at Best Buy
In a store, pull up the competitor’s live product page on your phone and show it to an employee before you pay. For an online order, use Best Buy’s chat or call 1-888-237-8289 with the competitor’s link ready. If the order has already arrived, the Order Details page has a “See details” link where you can start the request. One match per item per customer, at the pre-tax price.
Target: 14 days, and only Target’s prices
Since July 28, 2025, Target only matches Target. If you bought an eligible item at Target today or in the past 14 days and it’s now cheaper on Target.com or at your local store, you can get the difference back. The item has to be identical down to brand, size, weight, color, quantity and model number. Clearance, closeout and refurbished items don’t qualify.
Coupons trip people up here. Target coupons and Target Circle Bonus offers can’t be combined with a price match, while manufacturer coupons are applied after the match. Target’s terms also say a screenshot won’t do: an employee has to see the current price on Target’s own site, app or digital ad.
Last year Target ran a separate Holiday Price Match Guarantee from November 1 through December 24, 2025. Anything bought in that window could be matched if Target’s price dropped any time before Christmas Eve, which made the 14-day limit irrelevant for holiday shopping. If it comes back this year, the smart move is to hold Target purchases until November 1 unless the price in front of you is already one you’d be happy with.
Walmart: match the website at the register
Walmart’s rule is short. For items bought in a Walmart U.S. store, the store will match the price of the identical item advertised on Walmart.com, and the manager on duty has the final say. That’s it for matching.
Walmart.com itself doesn’t price match anything. Its policy rules out competitor prices, Marketplace and third-party seller prices, store prices, and price drops on things you already bought on Walmart.com. So the useful habit is checking the Walmart app while you’re standing in the aisle. If the website shows a lower price for the same item sold by Walmart, ask at the register before you pay, not after.
Amazon: no matching, so the return window does the work
Amazon doesn’t match other stores and doesn’t refund you when its own price falls after you order. The one formal exception is the Pre-order Price Guarantee on eligible items: you pay the lowest price Amazon offered between the day you ordered and the release date. That’s handy for video games and new gadgets ordered ahead of launch.
For everything else, the return policy is your price protection. Most items sold by Amazon can be returned within 30 days, so if something you bought drops a meaningful amount, you can send it back and reorder at the lower price. Last year Amazon also extended returns for the season: purchases made from November 1 through December 31, 2025 could be returned until January 31, 2026, with Apple products due back by January 15. October orders fell under the regular 30 days, so anything you buy now should be judged on that clock.
Return-and-rebuy only makes sense when the return is free and the item is sold by Amazon. Third-party sellers set their own return terms, and a $15 drop isn’t worth it if you’re paying return shipping.
Costco: 30 days on its own prices
Costco doesn’t match other retailers. It will adjust the price if Costco itself drops the price within 30 days of your purchase. Warehouse and Costco.com purchases are handled separately: for something bought in the warehouse, go to the returns or membership counter, and for an online order, use the price adjustment form on Costco.com. A lower price online won’t get you money back on a warehouse purchase, or the other way around.
This is the policy that pays off most around the holidays, because Costco’s member savings come and go on set dates. If you bought a vacuum or a set of cookware in late October and it shows up discounted a few weeks later, it’s worth a trip to the counter.
Before you ask: a five-point check
- Match the model number exactly. Holiday TVs and laptops often come in store-specific versions with slightly different model numbers, and a one-letter difference is enough to get a “no.”
- Look at who’s selling it. The “sold by” line on Amazon and Walmart.com decides whether Best Buy will match it.
- Confirm it’s in stock. An out-of-stock price is a price nobody can match.
- Show the live page. Bring up the listing on your phone in the store. Target doesn’t accept screenshots, and Best Buy needs the lower price to still be in effect when you ask.
- Ask before paying when you can. Best Buy’s competitor match and Walmart’s website match both happen at the time of purchase. Getting money back afterward is harder.
If an employee says no and you’re sure you qualify, ask politely for a manager and point to the specific line in the policy. Before you escalate, though, check the two usual suspects again: the seller and the model number.
A simple plan for buying early
The policies above turn into a short routine. When you buy something now, write down the price and set a phone reminder for one or two days before the window closes: day 13 for Target, day 14 for Best Buy (or day 59 if you’re a member), day 28 for Costco and Amazon. On that day, check the price once. If it dropped, ask for the difference or return and rebuy. If it didn’t, you’re done and you can stop watching.
For bigger purchases, pair that with a price alert from the store’s app or a price tracker so you don’t have to remember. And for anything you planned to buy in the first week of November anyway, it makes sense to see whether Best Buy and Target bring back their holiday guarantees before you check out. A few days of patience can turn a 14-day window into one that runs to Christmas.
