When I started telling people that I was going to write a story about prices at Walmart and Target, almost everyone had a strong opinion about the comparison. From previous experience, I know stories like that can be a goldmine or a quagmire, and that in cases where opinions battle opinions, it is comfortable and exciting to be able to provide more factual information to the debate. This story is about comparing prices at Walmart and Target in Sacramento, California in March of 2005. I didn't want to skew the results, so it was important to take a few steps to set up a fair comparison. With Stacy's help, and before visiting either store, I prepared a shopping list of 20 items. Some items were specific brands and packages, such as the 32oz. bottle of Windex glass cleaner with pump. Other items were more broadly described, such as "basketball", where I would track down the price of the cheapest basketball that the store offered. For anyone that has ever tried exploiting a price-match guarantee, you know how difficult it can be to find the exact same item in two different stores, so I hoped this "cheapest version" allowance would work out.