Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

bnnbloomberg.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 341 posts

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#41

Post by pengaru »

Loosely related anecdote:

For the past ~two months the IKEA nearest to me (Covina, CA) has been constantly out of stock for a table [0] I'd wanted, priced at $199.

Earlier this month I received a notification of it being in stock. That afternoon I made the trip to go pick one up, out of stock, shelves largely barren. Asked staff WTF? They'd received _one_ and it was immediately sold.

Still out of stock at that location today, but now when I check the site it's $229 (+15%), yay.

[0] https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/norden-gateleg-table-birch-9042...

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#42

Post by jliptzin »

vgeek wrote: post #36

Dollar Tree can't be beat for things like cleaning supplies, commodity-type CPG items like soap and seasonal decorations-- but those items likely aren't where they make their money (they average a 30% GM, imported trinkets will have higher margin but lower volume than consumer staples). I've spoken to managers at multiple locations and the consensus top category by volume is candy, followed by paper goods. After that…

Sure, if you have time to wait on a huge line. Every time I find myself in a dollar store there’s one cashier serving dozens of angry people lined up to checkout. Whatever deal I might be getting isn’t worth my time to actually wait to pay.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#43

Post by dopp0 »

koolba wrote: post #27
kumarsw wrote: post #13

They have been selling for a dollar for 35 years. I'm really curious how their inventory has changed over this period. One 2020 dollar is 40 cents in 1985 dollars, but the cost of consumer goods has decreased significantly since 1985. So I wouldn't be surprised that their package sizes have not changed much. Related trivia: Between 1886-1959, the price of a bottle of Coke was a nickel [1]. [1] https://www.npr.org/sec…

Likely through shrinkflation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation Next time you’re at the supermarket check if the bacon brands you remember are still a pound. I bet many of them are now 12 ounces.

it hurts to read this d**ss conversion #makeAmericaSIAgain

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#44

Post by 14 »

paulpauper wrote: post #37
koolba wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely through shrinkflation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation Next time you’re at the supermarket check if the bacon brands you remember are still a pound. I bet many of them are now 12 ounces.

by charging huge markup on per unit cost by reducing quantity. 3 pills of Tylenol for example for $1 instead of a bottle which may have dozens for $6 . The brands create special mini-sized packages specifically for dollar stores. Big business.

With often same great sized packaging only with smaller amounts inside. Very wasteful. Deodorant, chips, pills, etc all look like a normal sized bottle but in reality is a smaller size for dollar stores. I have also heard things like canned goods of say a brand of soup they have special made for places like Costco that demand higher quality ingredients where the dollar store would get lower quality versions. Perhaps cheaper meat or less of it. Still tastes like the original just that it’s not actually nutritionally the same.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#47

Post by nostrademons »

waynecochran wrote: post #25

Pregnancy tests still a dollar? I went to dollar tree a lot when I was first married...

Pregnancy tests are like $0.25/each if you buy the cheap strips in bulk:

https://www.amazon.com/AccuMed-Pregnancy-25-Count-Individual...

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#48

Post by lotsofpulp »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #30
waynecochran wrote: post #22

Along these line why is the US still minting pennies? At some point we could just start rounding to the nearest nickel (or dime). Also, why is gas always ab extra 9/10 of a penny? Reminds me of paying 3123 RON for a Big Mac in Romania -- that last digit is just noise at the consumer level.

> why is gas always ab extra 9/10 of a penny Same reason things are $.99, $19.95, $299.99 instead of $1.00, $20.00, $300.00. In the US, there's many places that have 2 or 3 gas stations in near vicinity and price competition is fierce. So the $0.01 matters, people will drive to the gas station down the block to save that penny per gallon.

If it is 9/10 of a penny, then it is $0.001 per gallon. Fueling a 20 gallon tank is $0.02.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#49

Post by tshaddox »

paulpauper wrote: post #37
koolba wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely through shrinkflation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation Next time you’re at the supermarket check if the bacon brands you remember are still a pound. I bet many of them are now 12 ounces.

by charging huge markup on per unit cost by reducing quantity. 3 pills of Tylenol for example for $1 instead of a bottle which may have dozens for $6 . The brands create special mini-sized packages specifically for dollar stores. Big business.

Also great for someone with an occasional sweet tooth and insufficient willpower to have junk food at the house. Sometimes I just want 4 Oreos and I’ll happily pay a huge per-unit markup to avoid eating the whole box.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#50

Post by mongol »

pengaru wrote: post #41

Loosely related anecdote: For the past ~two months the IKEA nearest to me (Covina, CA) has been constantly out of stock for a table [0] I'd wanted, priced at $199. Earlier this month I received a notification of it being in stock. That afternoon I made the trip to go pick one up, out of stock, shelves largely barren. Asked staff WTF? They'd received _one_ and it was immediately sold. Still out of stock at that locati…

I read elsewhere that IKEA have huge supply chain problems. Perhaps related to the container shortage that was recently discussed here. Googling found me this:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/14/ikea-warns-supply-chain-disr...

Post reply on HN