Sometimes as a parent it is feast or famine with diapers, wipes, and other stuff we need to take care of our babies day-to-day. Those that have been stockpiling diapers or received a bunch as a gift from Walmart may suddenly realize that they have too many of a certain size or they don’t like a particular brand. In that case, you’re probably wondering about returning diapers to Walmart for a refund or exchange.
Walmart will allow you to return or exchange unopened diapers within 90 days even without a receipt. Diapers that pass Walmart’s verification scan can also be returned after 90 days, but you likely won’t be allowed to return open packages of diapers.
Before you make the trip up to Walmart to return your diapers, be sure to check out your particular case below to ensure that you aren’t wasting your time. While it will be pretty painless to make a return or exchange at Walmart in most cases, there are always exceptions and sometimes it comes down to the discretion of the store manager as well. Let’s check out the details!
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Can diapers be returned or exchanged to a different store?
If you received a bunch of diapers as a gift from friends and family then you might not know exactly where they came from without a gift receipt. Unfortunately, most of the major retailers like Walmart are going to give you problems if you try to return something purchased at another store back to theirs. In fact, you probably won’t be able to get a return or exchange at all.
While some parents have claimed success in this area, it is by no means a guarantee!
The thing is that different stores usually carry slightly different packages that have varying numbers of diapers in them and the item simply won’t show up in their system as a product they sell. In other cases, the bar codes won’t scan at all because they are incompatible with their system. In both situations, Walmart would be unable to offer you a return.
For whatever reason, many people ask about returning items to a different store because they’ve purchased something on Amazon and don’t want to have to deal with the return shipping. I happen to personally think that it’s super easy to return items through Amazon’s UPS drop-off, but others apparently disagree!
In any event, you almost certainly won’t be able to return an Amazon item to Walmart because it won’t pass their verification process. Some people have reported success, but your mileage may vary!
By the way, diapers don’t have an expiration date so if you think you might use the diapers down the road then it might just be easier to keep them for the future!
Walmart diaper exchange and return policy for 2023
Walmart has the same policy for returns and exchanges and, in general, it is quite an easy process.
Any item that you’ve purchased from Walmart within the last 90 days that you have a receipt for can be returned or exchanged for a refund or store credit, including diapers. This goes for in-store purchases and online orders and online orders can even be returned inside a physical store if you’d like.
When returning diapers at Walmart, just head over to the customer service area near the front of the store. Be careful what time you go, the lines can be quite long! Be sure to have your ID on you as well as the form of payment used to purchase the diapers to avoid any unnecessary delays in line.
Any items purchased through the online marketplace will have to be handled through that particular seller though!
Walmart’s return policy with no receipt
If you don’t have a receipt, Walmart might still accept your return depending on the circumstances.
To process the return you will need to show a valid photo ID so that they can confirm that you aren’t a repeat returner (usually this means three non-receipted returns in one year). They will also need to scan your item to ensure that it is, in fact, an item sold by Walmart and passes their ‘verification process.’
This verification process ensures that the item is actually sold by Walmart and can be entered back into the system as a return.
With no receipt at Walmart, you can:
- Exchange the item for something else
- Return for a cash refund if the value of the item is less than $25
- Return for store credit if the value of the item is more than $25
Don’t forget that if you placed your order through Walmart.com you can log in to reprint any receipts that you’ve lost!
Unfortunately, a Walmart employee will NOT be able to look up your purchase on their computer.
Returning diapers to Walmart after 90 days
Any returns or exchanges after the 90-day window will be completely up to the local store manager. This means that your experience here will be different from location to location. Your best bet is to call your local store and see what they say. Be extremely nice on the phone, but don’t be afraid to ask to speak to the customer service lead to plead your case!
It might help your case if you have a receipt in-hand and you are close to the deadline, but it might not. You could try to make the claim that you purchased the items less than 90 days ago, but that you don’t have your receipt.
If it passes the verification process (basically if it scans into their system) then you might be in luck with getting store credit or cash, at least!
Exchanging diapers at Walmart
In my personal experience, Walmart doesn’t really like to do ‘exchanges’ on items, per se. Anytime that I’ve tried this in the past, they just end up returning the item in the system and giving me store credit on a gift card to go purchase whatever it is I’m trying to exchange it for. In the end, it’s the same result.
Since exchange policies can sometimes be more lenient than return policies, however, this might hurt you in your particular situation!
What about returning diapers to Walmart from a baby registry?
There is no special policy around baby registry returns at Walmart. You will still have to have a receipt or the diapers will have to pass their scan and verification system to ensure that they are eligible for a return.
Similar to a regular return, you’ll either get cash for items less than $25 or store credit for items more than $25 in total.
Can you return open diapers to Walmart?
If you have already opened the diapers and taken one out then you are probably out of luck. Even though the official policy only requires the items to be returned in their original packaging, open diapers generally can’t be resold because of federal and state safety and health regulations.
With this in mind, the store manager is probably not going to be willing to eat that cost.
Instead of throwing the diapers away, consider hanging on to them in case you have another baby down the road or even donating them to a diaper bank to help other parents in need!
Overall return experience at Walmart
Overall, Walmart’s return policy for diapers is pretty lenient. To ensure that you don’t run into trouble, always try to hold on to your receipt and don’t be afraid to ask friends and family for receipts (or gift receipts) for items they gave to you as a present.
If your baby goes through a sudden growth spurt, you’ll be happy that you did!
You might also be interested in the diaper return policies at Target. If so, I’ve covered all of that information right here!
