Target drops popular perk for shoppers

Target is dropping its price-matching policy with rivals Walmart and Amazon after more than a decade as the company aims to reposition itself amid slowing sales and competitive pressure.

Under its new Price Match Guarantee policy, taking effect July 28, customers of the Minneapolis-based retail giant will be able to price match other Target products in the store or online within 14-days of a purchase, but the policy will no longer apply to its rivals. 

The company said the decision was driven by the fact that its “guests overwhelmingly price match Target and not other retailers.” 

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“Target’s Price Match Guarantee, paired with our commitment to being priced right daily, ensures guests get great prices when shopping Target,” the company said. 

Target rolled out its very first price match policy, called the Low Price Promise, in 2009. If a customer found a lower price at another brick-and-mortar store, the company matched it. Eventually, the company expanded this policy, matching prices from certain online retailers including Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and ToysRUs.com during the holiday season. 

In 2013, the company began price matching top online retailers year-round, which then-CEO Gregg Steinhafel said that the move effectively made the company an “unbeatable value” compared to its competitors in the highly competitive sector. 

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The recent change, however, comes as CEO Brian Cornell works to turn around the company, which has been trying to drum up traffic and return to growth in back-to-back quarters. However, Cornell characterized the environment over the past few months in particular as “highly challenging.” 

Target missed Wall Street expectations and cut its guidance for the year during its latest earnings call in May as it contends with tariff uncertainty, declining consumer confidence and backlash over its rollback of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. 

To try and get back to long-term profitable growth, the company developed a new multi-year growth initiative, called Enterprise Acceleration Office, and made changes to its executive suite. 

The Enterprise Acceleration Office initiative, led by Target Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke, will specifically help the company operate more nimbly, “creating conditions for speed, adaptability, innovation and resilience,” Cornell said.   

Target said in its latest earnings that it expects a low-single digit decline in sales for fiscal 2025, down from its previous forecast of net sales growth of about 1%.