I don't normally cook a whole turkey for Thanksgiving. With all the other food we have, a 6-8 lb boneless turkey breast has been plenty. Plus, it takes much less time and oven space.
This year my daughter will get a free turkey from her employer. So, I decided to try frying this year. After deciding on an indoor electric versus outdoor propane version, it was off to research the prices.
Amazon had a few versions of the Butterball model, and the lowest price I found for the 20lb capacity fryer was $109 with Prime --
no shipping to Hawaii, though.
So, I checked around at Lowe's, Home Depot, Sears, etc. All are sold out on Oahu according to their websites and a couple of phone calls, but they can be shipped for about $150-200 plus shipping cost.
Then I found one at Walmart...
Walmart has the fryer I wanted for $147.74 before tax. Their new policy is to give you a discount if you pick up the in-stock item at the store instead of requesting shipping to your home.
So, I added the item to my shopping basket online, started to check out, and the discount was listed. They knocked off $77.74! That put my fryer at $70 plus tax and a small merchandising fee. Total out the door the next day was $73.30.
I checked today, and they have 1 left. They had 3 before I ordered. And, they now jacked up the price to $162.13. I guess my order clued them in they were losing money on the deal!
I assume this new in-store pick up discount is their way of competing with Amazon? Regardless, from now on, if I'm looking for something that might cost more than $30 to ship, I'm definitely checking Walmart before I buy anywhere else!
BTW, the discount more than covered the $35 I spent for a 5-gallon jug of peanut oil at Costco!
