Just to update you folk on the price-match situation - I spoke to everybody possible, the CSR at the shoe desk, customer service and finally tried the live help online a second time. What I gathered from the conversation is that the website price-matches stores and other websites. But each store has their own policy and they may not always price-match.
The Live Help operator was very helpful. She got on the phone with the store customer service and verified this.
Unfortunately, the shoe was not available online anymore so they refused to price-match it. I offered to send them a screen-capture of the webpage with the lower price which I had saved when I initially made this post but no dice. They eventually ended up matching the price on Zappos which was also lower.
Needless to say, I am quite disappointed by this state of affairs and will definitely think twice before buying shoes in the store.