Skipping Prime Day? Here's how to price-match Apple deals at Best Buy, Target, and more

Apple logo with US dollar bills
(Image credit: Future)

So last week, I bought myself a brand new camping chair so that me and my derriere could be comfortable while lounging around a (rainy) field while at a festival. For my new camping kit, I paid fifty-five of my finest British pounds, which I dutifully paid to the real-world lady at a real-world cash register and left for the drive home and subsequent music in a field experience. Except, alas, not all was as I could have hoped.

The chair was, in fact, £45 in a different camping store — and had I spoken to the lady at the register about the price discrepancy, I would have gotten the chair for the same price in my transaction. Gosh, I thought. If only I had:

1. Checked around for a better price

2. Thought about price checking

I would have gotten myself a camping chair for a much better price. 

Amazon Prime Day 2024

(Image credit: Amazon)

This, if you're anything like me, is often your experience over Prime Day. Maybe you don't have a Prime account, and want to make sure you still get those ridiculously low prices somewhere else. Maybe there's another store you'd like to shop at instead, but you want a pair of AirPods and at their Prime Day price. Either way, price matching is your best bet.

But where can you price match, and how does it work? Which retailers will match the prices of Apple devices, so that you can save money without heading to Amazon? It's worth noting that some retailers will already have made their prices similar to Amazon's so that people head over to shop there — but to make life easier for you, we've gathered all the places you can buy Apple stuff and laid out their price matching policy for you.

Best Buy

Best Buy has a comprehensive price matching system, although there are a couple of different things to bear in mind when you go to grab a better price from the retailer. First of all, it needs to be on the list of Best Buy's "Price Match Guarantee Qualified Competitors" list, which contains a wide range of different retailers. Then, you'll need to make sure that the product is new and not renewed or secondhand, and then you'll need to speak to Best Buy's customer care team either over the phone at 1-888-237-8289, or with the chat you'll find on the Best Buy website.

Sad news for Prime Day, however — Best Buy won't match prices that come during sales events like Black Friday, Memorial Day, or, alas Prime Day. Boooo.

Walmart

There is no price matching at Walmart for against other online retailers, although you can match in-store prices online if you find a better price in a brick and mortar store. Not great news if you're shopping around Prime Day, unfortunately, as those deals are exclusively online.

Target

Target offers price matching, whether online or in-store! You just need to contact customer support within fourteen days of purchase for a refund. That's against a range of other retailers as well, which is always a bonus.

However, bad news once again— no price matching against sales events like Prime Day or Black Friday.

iPad Air with M2 chipset

(Image credit: Gerald Lynch / Future)

Apple

Price matching does, in rare instances, happen at Apple. It's down to the discretion of Apple's customer service team whether the price match happens though, and, bad news, it generally doesn't.

It is worth noting that Apple does sometimes offer complimentary gift cards over some holiday sales events, such as Black Friday or Back to school, where you get some credit to spend at the Apple Store when you make a purchase. No luck here today however — Prime Day, as much as Bezos might hope, is not a nationally recognised holiday.

Apple deals at third-party retailers can be found below, if you want to try your hand at price-matching with Apple against them:

B&H Photo

B&H Photo doesn't seem to have an exact price match promise, although the retailer does seem to match prices on a case-by-case basis. Contact B&H Photo directly, and then the retailer will decide whether you get your price match or not. You can use the chat on the site, or email.

Amazon

It's unlikely you'll find any kind of prices that are better than Amazon at the moment during Prime Day, but in the unlikely event that you do, you might think that heading over to its customer care team might net you some results — not so. Amazon does not match prices at all, no exceptions.

More from iMore

Sticking to Amazon deals today? Be sure to check our round-ups of the best Apple deals across categories:

Tammy Rogers
Senior Staff Writer

As iMore's Senior Staff writer, Tammy uses her background in audio and Masters in screenwriting to pen engaging product reviews and informative buying guides. The resident audiophile (or audio weirdo), she's got an eye for detail and a love of top-quality sound. Apple is her bread and butter, with attention on HomeKit and Apple iPhone and Mac hardware. You won't find her far away from a keyboard even outside of working at iMore – in her spare time, she spends her free time writing feature-length and TV screenplays. Also known to enjoy driving digital cars around virtual circuits, to varying degrees of success. Just don't ask her about AirPods Max - you probably won't like her answer.