Everything You Need To Know About Walmart's Price Tags To Shop Smarter

Having a favorite grocery store nowadays means a lot more than just loyally going there for the weekly restock shop. It means familiarizing yourself with the floor plan, learning about the restocking times, figuring out when the store is the least likely to be busy, and perhaps most of all, decoding the price tags. Walmart, one of the most affordable grocery stores, certainly has its fair share of mysterious price tags — but with a little bit of inside knowledge, they can become your compass for shopping smarter.

The first thing you need to know is that regular prices at Walmart usually end in .97. There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, if a price tag ends in that number and doesn't have any other special deal attached to it, it's safe to assume it's the store's regular price for the product. Walmart is big on its "every day low prices" slogan, which can be slightly misleading — for most of us, seeing a "low prices" sign indicates some type of discount. Be aware that at Walmart, this wording just means regular prices.

Next, pay attention to a bright red tag that says "rollback." Sometimes those tags are large and visible; other times they are a small, thin strip printed on the price tag. Rollbacks are temporary discounts that aren't expected to last more than a couple of weeks, so if you see something you like with a rollback price, snag it while it's cheap; the price will eventually go up again.

There can be some confusion among Walmart customers as to what's the difference between rollbacks and clearances. Clearances are marked with a yellow color, and unlike temporary rollback prices, they are permanent discounts — the price won't go back up. In fact, the price will continue to drop each month until the items are sold, and once they're gone, they won't be restocked again. Another difference is that independent discounts can't be applied to clearance items, but they can to rollbacks.

Occasionally, you might also encounter a price tag that displays three different prices, causing some uncertainty about which one is the right one. In that case, reading the fine print on the tag is crucial. The lowest number represents the price per unit. The highest number represents the price that the item used to sell for, before it was marked down. The third price, often written in the largest font, represents the current retail price. Additionally, there's a date written right under the barcode on the tag, which indicates when the price change was made — a useful piece of information for both rollbacks and clearances. Now that you understand Walmart's prices, learn how to decipher Costco price tags for the best possible deal.