Every pharmacy has a different policy on price-matching for medications (i.e. meeting a competitor’s lower price). What follows is what I was told by a pharmacist at one of each of the major retail pharmacy outlets today (2/25/09):
Osco- They will match a competitor’s price, as long as the other pharmacy is “in the vicinity”. The pharmacist I spoke to wasn’t sure what the mile radius cut-off is to qualify as “in the vicinity”. She also stated that the customer would have to provide the phone number of the store that he/she wanted to price-match. The pharmacist also stated that they WOULD match the specially-discounted prices (e.g. Target and Walmart’s $4 prices), something all the other stores wouldn’t do.
Walgreens- Will not price-match.
Costco- Will not price-match.
CVS- Per the pharmacist, “We will only price-match Osco and Walgreens, but not Target or Costco or Walmart.”
Walmart- They will price-match any store within a 5-mile radius, but will not match the price at a warehouse store (e.g. Coscto or even their own Sam’s Club). They will also not match the price of any specially-discounted program, such as the Walgreens Savings Card or CVS Savings Pass.
Target- They, too, said they will match a price from another store “in the vicinity” but couldn’t specify the mile-radius requirement. They will not match Costco or any other warehouse price, nor any specially-discounted program price.
So there you have it. Clear as mud, no? If your experience with price-matching is different than what you see described here, please chime in so that we can update this info.