The Nintendo tariff refund sale is in full swing in the US, but some gamers have found a more unusual way to save cash on Switch games. People have apparently been adding a banana to their basket at Walmartto unlock discounts of up to $20. And there are suggests that some locations now have banana shortages as a result.
The Walmart Switch game hack appears to be an unintended workaround that allows the discount codes FAST30 or SAVE3X to be applied to game orders. While a Switch game meets the monetary threshold for the discount, it seems the codes may only be valid only for groceries. Some report that adding a single banana to a purchase appears to get around that restriction.
Thanks bro pic.twitter.com/7vngyKjplCSeptember 17, 2026
The loophole seems to have been first spotted by people shopping for Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, which was released last week. The physical edition launched at a standard price of $79.99, but Walmart has been selling it for less. Applying promo codes can slash the price further to around $60, according to some of the people posting on social media.
Bananas seem to be overwhelmingly the favourite choice for this checkout trickery – perhaps due to people's love of Donkey Kong, or perhaps because they only cost around 20 cents. If you're not a fan of bananas, any small grocery item should do, but it appears that you might not actually have to buy the fruit anyway: some report that the hack still works if you remove the banana after adding a Switch game or other non-qualifying product to your cart.
The SAVE3X code is intended for a customer's first three pickup or delivery orders from a local store, so you'll need to make sure that both the game and fruit you want are in stock. There does seem to be some inconsistency in how the codes work, though. Some people report being able to skip the banana workaround completely simply by switching from delivery to store pickup.
“If code doesn’t work, try switching to pickup. If that doesn’t work, add a banana,” one person writes on X.
Walmart has yet to issue any public alert about banana shortages, but some people claimed their local store now shows the fruit as "out of stock." If that's your case, you can always make do with the Nintendo sale deals below.
If you don't have a console yet and you're not sure which is right for you, read why the Switch 2 has become our digital art/3D editor's console of choice.
