How To Find Walmart's Best Hidden Clearance Deals On Home Goods

Since its beginnings as a small discount store in Arkansas, Walmart has seen massive success and cemented itself as one of the world's largest retail brands, boasting over 10,000 stores and operating in 24 countries globally (via Walmart). This store has grown from a regular, low-priced grocery into the retail giant we know today, carrying just about everything, from seasonal produce to wood furniture both in-store and through its extensive online catalog.

Walmart is already popular because of its frequent sales and widespread accessibility, but, if you're looking for even more deals, there's a secret way to reveal in-store rollbacks before you even put items in your cart. With such a large number of products on shelves, associates often don't have time to mark down items as soon as sales hit. With this clever trick, you'll be able to learn the true ticket price of items, allowing you to make more cost-effective choices and avoid any shocks at the register.

In the past few years, Walmart has made some major changes to its website and mobile app that allow you to streamline your shopping experience. According to Walmart, along with the typical tools to order online and check your store's inventory, the app now features voice shopping, virtual try-ons for clothing, augmented reality to help you decorate your home, real-time order tracking, and helpful store maps. During the pandemic, the brand also pushed its convenient contactless pickup service, a free feature that allows you to drive up and grab your groceries without ever stepping foot in the store.

The brand also rolled out Walmart+, a monthly subscription service that promises free grocery delivery, reduced prices on gas, exclusive deals and sales, and mobile scanning for contactless checkout. If you don't want to buy a subscription, you'll miss out on a couple of these features, but there are still ways to use the Walmart app to find low prices without paying upward of $12 a month.

In the past, many retail locations like Walmart and Target had price-check stations throughout the store, but now, these stations are few and far between. Instead of blindly buying items that may have outdated price tags, however, you can use your phone for the same purpose. The Walmart app has a Scan and Go feature that allows you to scan items' barcodes and check the price that will appear at the register (via The Krazy Coupon Lady). 

At first glance, it looks like this feature is only accessible through a Walmart+ subscription, but it's actually completely free if you're just checking an item's price. To do so, pull up your Walmart app, then click the scanner icon in the search bar. Make sure the location services setting on your phone is turned on and connect to Walmart's free Wi-Fi. After scanning an item's barcode with the app, it'll show you the exact price an item will ring up for at the register — and sometimes, it'll be different than what's on the tag.

With this simple, insider trick, you'll be able to find the clearance deals hiding behind a Walmart tag that hasn't yet been updated. Plus, since it's through your phone, you can scan barcodes all over the store and won't have to bring individual items to a price-check station (if you can even find where one's located).