A woman found $3 sneakers at Walmart, but by the time she got to the register, the price on the app had changed

A North Carolina content creator says the price of a pair of kids’ sneakers changed between the shelf and the register during a recent Walmart trip. The creator, who posts as lifeaccordingtokp, detailed the experience in a multi-part Instagram series and broke down the pricing issue in her second video.

In the video, she says she found a price tag showing kids’ sneakers marked down from $18.98 to $3. The tag sat below a pair of purple shoes, but scanning its QR code pointed her to a different pair of black sneakers. After finding the black sneakers elsewhere on a shelf, she scanned them to check the price.

She claims the tag on the shoe confirmed the $3 price, so she headed to checkout. At the register, however, the shoes scanned at $18.98, and scanning the code now showed the item as only available online. Pointing out that the same shoe had ridden in her cart from the back of the store to the front, she said, “I scan it. Only sold online $18.98. That’s a lie.”

She says it took two trips and a manager to get the $3 price

In the rest of the series, the creator claimed that Walmart employees were initially dismissive. She said it took two trips back to the shoe department, once to take photos and a second time with a manager, to get a resolution. According to the creator, the manager initially suggested she didn’t know how to use the Walmart app, to which she replied, “I’m embarrassed at how fluent I am with your app.”

She said that only after the manager saw the tags did they acknowledge the pricing discrepancy, and Walmart eventually honored the $3 price. The creator also argued that prices that change depending on where a shopper stands in the store would be especially difficult for customers with mobility issues, language barriers, or learning disabilities.

Many of her viewers saw the price change as a bigger problem, with one calling it illegal “switching bait.” Others urged her to report the store to the Attorney General, while one claimed Walmart has stopped putting price tags on products in hopes that overwhelmed customers will simply “pay the price.”

Not everyone shared her frustration, with one viewer writing, “It’s not that serious.” Another addressed Walmart directly, writing, “This is how your pricing is making YOUR customers feel every day.”

Attack of the Fanboy was unable to independently verify Walmart’s side of the story, as this account originates solely from lifeaccordingtokp’s Instagram posts.