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Oct 12, 2022

Are Walmart's Rollbacks Really Good Deals That Will Stay?

If you go to Walmart regularly, you may see red "rollback" signs on a good bunch of products. Will Walmart Canada continue giving good rollback deals to its customers? We did some research and can definitely say that Walmart will still have such savings. See why.


What are rollbacks?

In the Walmart world, rollbacks are temporary price reductions on an item. Rollbacks occur for a variety of reasons. The store may need to make room for new inventory and they need to sell off the old stuff. Sometimes, the store may need to clear out slow-selling items or markdowns. 

Your local Walmart has more rollbacks on seasonal products like back-to-school or winter holiday items. If the store has too much back-to-school stuff and there is not enough space to store them, the store may discount these products by as much as 50% or even more.

Another tactic that Walmart uses is to sell more quantities of the stale products. This is why Walmart may have deals of the type "Buy 2, Get 1 Free".

Rollbacks are typically only temporary price reductions that last anywhere from a few hours to several weeks depending on how long it takes the store to sell through their excess inventory or until they can make room for their new products. 

Some of these rollbacks can be extreme deals. For example, if an item was priced at $40 and marked down 50% off its original price during a sale, Walmart may reduce the price even further during a rollback so that the item is only $15 or even $10. 

For savvy shoppers who wait for rollbacks, shopping at Walmart can be very profitable.

There are a couple of caveats that a smart shopper knows. 

  • Rollback items are usually on sale until the inventory is sold out.
  • Rollback items are usually limited to one per customer. 
  • Rollback prices are valid only in-store and only at the Walmart where the item was purchased. 
  • Rollback prices can not be used in conjunction with any other discount, coupon or instant savings offer. 
  • Rollback prices can not be used with online orders or on purchases made with in-store coupons. 

Despite the restrictions, rollbacks are great deals! They are one of the main reasons you may want to go to Walmart.

Will rollback prices continue at Walmart?

According to some news sites, the current inflation will not have any major impact on Walmart's practice to roll back prices. 

Walmart, for example, added more products on rollback last year than they did the previous year. The company plans to continue this practice even more next year. 

Walmart's CEO said the following in one of the recent conference calls in 2022: “We use rollbacks to communicate not only the reality of prices coming down at some places, but the emotion or perception we want customers to have about us".

So this means that Walmart uses rollbacks strategically to help their business grow by sharpening their price positioning strategy - their famous Everyday Low Prices.

Walmart will definitely maintain its prices at a constantly low level without delving into too many other offers like the other supermarkets engage in.

Everyday Low Prices at Walmart

If Walmart promises to continue its pricing strategy, it's great news for shoppers. While the other grocery stores scaled down on offers and promotions, Walmart may be able to track more people into its stores by promoting its rollback prices.

How to Benefit from Rollback Prices

Here are 3 ways to get access to Walmart's rollback offers.

  1. Look for the specific red tags when you shop at your Walmart. .
  2. The best way to find all the rollback offers is to check the current Walmart Canada flyer
  3. You can also check out the rollback prices at Walmart.ca

It's a huge relief that the leaders at Walmart want to stick to the strategy of everyday low prices in the near future. In times of high inflation and rising prices, Walmart may actually win more customers with this strategy.