The Walmart near me conveniently has the "scan here for price" thingy right in the Lego section.  When I'm over buying groceries, I'll hit the Lego aisle and scan a bunch of items looking for a mismarked item.  The annoying part is the super loud beep each time you scan something.  Anyway.....

I've noticed a few big sets that are gradually decreasing in price in the scanner system - but the price marked on the shelf stays exactly the same.  There's a particular $119.99 set that was at about $105 for a week, then $100 even, now today it was at (if I remember right) $84.95.  I've watched it go down in price over the course of a month.  Same for another large set.  And I see several others where the shelf price is $99.99, but the scanner will say something like $99.36.  Off less than a dollar, but maybe that's a sign that it'll soon be less than $99.36, and maybe a bunch lower.

Anyone have any experience following trends like this, and then scoring?

To avoid the loud beep you can use the Walmart app and scan the set.  If you are talking Chima FPFT for $119 yes I picked some up for $43.96, but there are a few other sets doing the same drop usually posted in the DD thread.  You can use the walmart mobile site to check the price from home.

 You can use the walmart mobile site to check the price from home.

​I've found this to be increasingly unreliable.

Yes, the items I am seeing and talking about at the store are different prices than online. 

Shelf tags, and general organization, vary at lot by store.  It is directly influence by how much the employees at that particular store actually care.  I visit a few walmarts on occasion and one in particular is always well organized and tagged well, another one about 10 minutes away looks like black friday was yesturday, almost every day.  Typically there is a system that automatically prints all tags that have changed.  However this system can miss some, and some one actually has to care enough to print them and see that they end up on the shelf.

Now as a consumer its nice to have a well organized and properly tagged store.  However as a reseller its nice to have chaos since that is typically where you find the best deals. 

​I've found this to be increasingly unreliable.

​On price, inventory or both?

Inventory has always been off but price has been accurate for me.

I find that usually the best way to get the best deal on walmart clearance is by doing instore pickup, but the problem is everytime i've done this (and i've only done it 4 times), the boxes are usually creased and beat up when you go to pick them up and they always have rips and tears in the packaging.  I"ve pretty much given up on buying through walmart online, and prefer target or buying off amazon when they have deals.  If you are looking to open the boxes, then it's worth probably doing the instore pickup at walmart because most of the times they have some deals that are too hard to pass up.  But, if you are looking to resell these items... then you are more than likely going to get damaged boxes with stickers placed all over them when you pick them up that end up tearing the boxes further when you attempt to take them off.  So buy at your own risk when using instore pickup at walmart, but for some reason, the prices tend to be cheaper this way..  It would be nice if they price matched thier online prices, but they don't seem to do this.

Edited May 24, 201510 yr by fossilrock

​On price, inventory or both?

Inventory has always been off but price has been accurate for me.

​Same experience here