Walmart vs. Target

It is an age old question. Which would you rather go to (in America, because Australian Target is a whole ‘nother ball game)? Well, if you are buying distilled water for any reason, you might have an opinion on which is the better value?

At Walmart you can buy a bottle of distilled water for $0.80. That is pretty cheap to use for whatever medical need you might need that depends on you having distilled water. If you need it, hopefully you can buy it cheap. Why not choose Walmart’s distilled water?

Target also has distilled water. Now it is $0.85. A full $0.05 more expensive per gallon.Over Target’s distilled water

Granted, Walmart’s distilled water is bigger than Target’s, even thought they are both gallons.

Seriously, if you are actually using distilled water, chances are that it is in small portions. The handle on the target bottle is a very handy $0.05 upgrade. I think in that $0.05 difference is shown in the debate between the two companies. I will shop at Walmart if I have to, but I would rather pay the extra $0.05 difference to go to a better product in quality than skimp on something cheap.

But, even though I think Target wins the distilled water award for best bottle for the end user (even though there is probably more plastic involved, ☹️), if you just got a PS5 (or are about to), Walmart is a great place to get cheap video games.

Let me tell you a little trick to score a great price at Walmart for video games. View the games on the webiste or in the app and you can see two prices, one for in-store and one for online purchases. If you are frugal, you will have to spend $35 at Walmart to get free shipping, otherwise it is $5.99. Now, I know what you are saying, “I am not paying $5.99 for shipping when I can get it on Amazon with free shipping!”

Checks Amazon and realizes it is probably actually cheaper on Walmart, and you could do it if you would add enough to buy $35 worth of games. But you want to get the game for cheap, and spending $35 is more than you need to buy something like [Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order]. Well, you could go to the store and buy it in person, but you are taking the chances that it is still in stock when you get there, and then you would have to get it price matched when you check out just to get the price you need.

So, you would rather not have that much public interaction during a Pandemic. And you don’t have to. Check a local Walmart if it is in stock. If they do, you can do the pickup option. You get the online price without having to ask permission because the online price is cheaper than the store price (not always the case but the prices are rarely the same), and they will bring it to a special parking place in the parking lot when you get there if you order through the app.

I ordered 3 bottles of distilled water, tartar sauce, and a video game today in the Walmart app. The price was fantastic. I didn’t have to roam the store to locate these things which would probably not be terrible easy to find in each of the parts of the store. I am sure it woul have taken me at least 15 minutes to locate them, get it to the front of the store to quickly go through a self-checkout.

Instead, I checked the button in the app to say I was leaving for the store, and when I got there it asked which parking place number I was in. 15 minutes later, after many different Walmart employees did other things than come out to these 4 spaces (I was in a hurry to get to daycare before it closed and was cutting it close anyway), my stuff was delivered to my car. The guy next to me was getting this, so my stuff was on top of the box along with another car’s stuff on the other side of me.

After skimping on the water because I needed it, the bottle sucks compared to the Target bottle, but I saved money on a video game compared to everywhere else I could find it. It basically matched the digital price through the Playstation store, but I have a physical copy that I could take to someone else’s house to play or sell in the future for any number of reasons. If I buy the digital, it is more convenient to use on my system, but I can’t resell it. It is gone if I don’t want it anymore. That is why I still prefer buying physical vs. digital. If one is too amazing of a deal to pass up, you have the option to do that if you do a mix of physical media and digital, but if you go all digital, you don’t have anything in the end other than the digital game and a receipt.

In the end, get great deals on video games from Walmart, but buy the distilled water from Target. Distilled water bottles can vary widely, but a copy of a video game, barring special editions, will be the same no matter where you buy them.