It may be a lot easier than you think to get the best price at any retail store you care to visit. We have all seen ads on TV for stores who promise to

Get The Best Price!

meet or beat any competitor’s deal. However, you may not realize that many stores, even large retail chains, have this policy even if they do not broadcast it that much.

How do I know? Well, I drove 30 minutes to my local Best Buy to take advantage of an in-store deal on their website. By the time I got to the store, the particular laptop I saw on sale had been sold out for the day. The salesman there assured me he would have more stock by next week, so I decided to wait.

On my way home, I passed an Office Max. On impulse, I decided to stop in to see how much they charged for the same laptop. They did have the laptop in stock, but it was not on sale, and so they charged almost $100 more for it. However, when I told the sales person that I had stopped at Best Buy first because of the sale, and that Best Buy was out of stock, he asked me if we could find the deal on the website.

We did find the sale page, and he printed it out. Then he smiled and said he had the authority to meet this price if I’d like to take my computer home today. We had a deal.

The moral of this story is you can probably negotiate if you enter a competitor’s store armed with proof of the sales price. In my case, I did not have proof with me, but was lucky enough to have a very helpful and eager sales person.

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