For every instance of price matching I've done at BB, the attendants basically did a spot check of the title of the listing and never checked the model numbers.
Of course, sample size of 1 and it's quite possible that the employees at my local BB are just lazy to my advantage
A lot of times it pays to double check that the model numbers match and go in and forcefully demand the price match. Employees have zero incentive to match a price and it forces them to input more data just to complete the sale.
That's severely flawed logic to insinuate that hourly wage equates to work output. You must be on salary. Us little guys don't think like that, I promise. Underpaid workers don't want "more work" paid the same amount as if they do "less work," unless they're paid proper living wages in which case they wouldn't feel cutting corners necessary imo.
It's more work for them to lookup the amazon price and fill out whatever price change forms they're required to submit in order to get you the lower price. The alternative is just telling you it's not a match, swiping the barcode over the scanner and handing you a receipt.
Employees have zero incentive to fight extra hard to save the company an extra $20. They're getting paid minimum wage regardless. Same way the cashiers at the grocery store will scan their bonus club card to get you a discount -- they don't get paid more or less if you get charged differently.
Having worked at Best Buy in the last few years, this is the exception, not the rule. Employees were required to match the model number, and all price matches require manager overrides. Often times a manager would double-check to make sure the items were identical down to the letter.
A common example of this scam was phone cases. Each retailer is provided the same item with a model number differing by a single letter (A for Amazon, T for Target, B for Best Buy). Because of this deviation I was not allowed to offer price matches on any of these items.
Of course, sample size of 1 and it's quite possible that the employees at my local BB are just lazy to my advantage