Growing in popularity, price matching has become the norm however I see it truly mutating and it's only going to get worse [for margins] if you ask me.
Times were when clipping coupons in the Sunday paper saved you a buck or two with some retailers offering double coupon days and Senior discount days [generally the day before the new ad was to be released] in order to clear old merchandise off the shelf. For those of us struggling to budget with small children, double coupon days at Venture and Zayres was a boon and if there was a Blue Light Special on ham at Kmart, we were there. That was the 70's and inflation was taking a bite out of our pocket.
Evolution slowly lead to price matching between retailers *if* you had a valid ad in hand and your checker called over the Manager for approval who would scrutinize every detail, glasses pulled down to the tip of his nose. This alone guaranteed you a good 5-10 minute wait [mininum], usually with a runny-nosed whining child, impatient a
