I just discovered this the other day when I returned a cooking thermometer at one Wal-Mart that I had bought at another Wal-Mart store.

When the greeter scan the item to give me a return ticket I noticed the amount was $4.97, but I had a receipt that showed I had paid $5.50 just days before.  The girl at the returns counter was quick to point out that the item retails for more at the other store.

While I got my full refund it made me think.  I had heard catalogue marketers got caught doing this a fews years ago, but I never thought Wal-Mart would pull it at stores about 15 miles apart.  The store I purchased the item at is near the more affluent suburbs of the big city, and the return was at the farther country area at the edge of the suburbs (exurbia).  You would think standardized pricing would be easier for Wal-Mart to manage its thousands of SKUs, but apparently the profit outweighs the increased costs of a tiered pricing model.

Lesson learned: Buy at the "country" Wal-Mart for real savings.