Funny that you worded it that way. My son is a big fan of the cable show Burn Notice and wanted season 4 on dvd for Christmas. I shopped on-line and Walmart.com had the series for $29.96, with free shipping to their nearest store for pickup. When I priced it while shopping IN the store they wanted $42 for it on the shelf.
So I could just pick it up and pay full price, or shop ahead and pick it up in the back of the store for a lot less cash and have them route a copy to the store on their truck.
Go figure...
Wow, that was a good deal! I’ve wondered if some major retailers had price differences between online and brick/mortar outlets. I guess they are trying to compete for the folks who shop primarily online in addition to the in-store visitors. I guess I am now one of those “primarily online” people for non-grocery shopping, so a low price like that might bring me to Walmart.com whereas I don’t often visit their stores.
Go figure...
It's the best of both worlds for them. They can charge higher in store prices for an item and charge a lower price for the same item online to customers whose demand is more elastic. Since they have so many trucks carrying goods to all their stores scattered across the US, they don't have to pay UPS or Fedex to ship the merchandise to customers' homes or business, they just put the items bought online onto their own trucks and not have to add on a freight charge. The in store prices are still competitive against local retailers while not giving up online sales.