Shopping during the holiday season can be a frustrating prospect, with long lines and stock issues. I got the inside scoop on some of these new policies and features Walmart is rolling out during a trip back in October, and I’m thrilled to finally be able to share them all with you!
From the Walmart Checkout Promise to their 1-Hour Guarantee, Walmart is making a larger commitment to customer service this year, to bring you a fast, easy, convenient shopping experience.
Checkout Promise
Starting November 20th, Walmart is introducing their Checkout Promise for the holiday season! What does that mean? For fast and easy checkout, Walmart will be opening 100% of their registers (barring bad weather) between the peak shopping hours of 12-6pm on weekends through Christmas. Additional lanes will be open starting the day before Thanksgiving through that Sunday, and the week of December 20th-24th, all checkout lanes will be open all day.
New Savings Catcher Features
Have you downloaded Savings Catcher, yet? These new features are sure to save you more cash while infinitely simplifying your shopping trip.
- Turkey and Ham Deals — Walmart is price matching all of your local turkey and ham deals via Savings Catcher this year! Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to competitors’ offers for turkey or ham that require a minimum dollar purchase to receive the featured price or that limit the number available per customer, but all other offers are fair game.
- Search My Store — With the new Search My Store addition to the Walmart app, customers can search for nearly any item carried in a Walmart store and see the item’s availability at that store, its aisle location, ratings and reviews. How convenient is that? It’s available right now for Android devices, and it will expand to iPhones by mid-November.
- Store Maps — This will make for a smoother Black Friday shopping experience! Check the store maps for the location of the 1-Hour Guarantee items, wristband items, and other hot products like sheets, DVDs and kid’s clothing. View them in the app starting November 18th.
New Features on Walmart.com
A new addition to Walmart.com this year is a wishlist feature! Not only can you build custom wishlists for each family member, but children and parents can build a Toy Wish List for Santa by adding their favorite toys directly from Walmart’s digital Toy Book. Wish lists can be shared on Facebook and via email to make gift giving a cinch.
Need help deciding what to add to your wishlist? Check out these lists for ideas:
- Top 100 Gifts — Walmart has compiled a list of the Top 100 Gifts on Walmart.com, all at unbeatable prices, to help you find the perfect gift for everyone on your list!
- Chosen By Kids — The popular Chosen By Kids list is back this year! For the second year, Walmart turned to the real toy experts by gathering hundreds of kids, ages 18 months to 12 years, to play with the hottest new toys from a variety of manufacturers. Based on their feedback, Walmart generated a Top 20 Toys list, filled with toys that are sure to be met with smiles on Christmas morning.
Plus, Walmart will be offering FREE shipping on these items through December 17th!
1-Hour Guarantee
As I mentioned in the Black Friday update, the 1-Hour Guarantee will be in effect again this year for 9 hot items on Thanksgiving Day. Customers who are inside the store and in the queue line between 6pm and 7pm local time on Thursday, November 27th are guaranteed to be able to purchase any of the following gifts they want and either take it home that night or pick it up at a store before Christmas:
- 50″ Class LED HDTV for $218 ($180 savings)
- Vizio 65″ Class Smart LED HDTV for $648 ($350 savings)
- Apple iPad Mini 16GB with Wi-Fi for $199 with a $30 Walmart Gift Card ($70 value)
- Xbox One Halo “The Master Chief Collection” Bundle for $329 with a $30 Walmart Gift Card
- RCA 7″ Google Play Wi-Fi Tablet for $29 (special buy)
- Samsung Galaxy Ace Style on Straight Talk Wireless for $29 ($100 savings)
- LG Blu-ray Disc Player for $35 (special buy)
- Beats by Dr. Dre Wireless Headphones for $149 ($130 savings)
- HP Intel Celeron Touch Laptop for $249 (special buy)
Check out the rest of the Walmart Black Friday deals here.
Are you getting more excited about the prospect of doing your holiday shopping now? I know I am! One last resource I want to mention is the Walmart Holiday Hub. Check it out all season long for easy access to the holiday information you need when shopping at Walmart.