Well, observant Walmart fans may have seen it coming but now it’s official. This past week, the retailer sent out an email to users informing them that their Savings Catcher feature would meet its demise as on May 14th, 2019. After that fateful day, the feature will be disabled and no subsequent receipt submissions will be accepted (although any gift card funds you have from past Savings Catcher submissions will still be valid and available for use).
If you were never aware of Walmart’s Savings Catcher, let me catch you up. This handy feature of the retailer’s app allowed shoppers to submit their Walmart receipts and see if any of the products they purchased were available for cheaper elsewhere. Then, in the event the app did find a lower advertised price in your area, it would refund you the difference on a Walmart gift card. Pretty cool, huh?
Sadly, in hindsight, the writing was on the wall when Walmart made changes last September that required users to submit receipts via Walmart Pay. Prior to that, shoppers also had the option to scan paper copies of their receipts to the app instead. At the time, I figured the move was more about boosting Walmart’s proprietary mobile payments service and utilizing the Savings Catcher’s popularity to do so, but I suppose that wasn’t exactly the case.
In their email to users, Walmart wrote, “What we’ve learned through Savings Catcher is that our efforts to lower prices upfront on thousands of items across our stores is working. Walmart’s prices win most often when you submit your receipts, which tells us that the program’s intent has been met.” To be fair, that has mostly been my experience too. While I have picked up a few dollars back over the years, the majority of my purchases at the store aren’t name brand and, thus, weren’t eligible for price comparison anyway. Nevertheless, I did like knowing that I could purchase without fear and looked forward to those times when I got even a few cents returned to me thanks to the Savings Catcher.
Luckily, if you’re as bummed as I am about the Savings Catcher’s untimely death, there are still a few other ways you can save on groceries. For one, as low as Walmart’s grocery prices are, you can sometimes find even better deals at Aldi or other discount markets. In the event there’s not an Aldi in your area or just prefer Walmart overall, then shopping the retailer’s private label brands can also help you save. Finally, you can also try apps like Ibotta that can offer rebates at several retail locations, including Walmart.
With all of that said, I for one will definitely miss the Walmart Savings Catcher. Perhaps the concept can be resurrected in some form by a third party app developer. In any case, you’ll still be able to take the feature for one last ride or two before May 14th.