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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

theguardian.com

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Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#121

Post by mindslight »

dmurray wrote: post #92
burnt-resistor wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know NC law. Does it have an "invitation to treat" practice there where prices marked are a customer relations issue rather than a legally-binding offer? To attain change, enough people have to: 1. Correctly identify the source of their misery, because it ain't [insert scapegoats]. 2. Find others who agree with them. 3. Make a plan for effective countering of 1. 4. Use intestinal fortitude and endure temporar…

I don't think the laws of the specific jurisdiction matter. In every US jurisdiction, the prices aren't completely legally binding (what if the previous customer changed the price tag?). In ~every US jurisdiction, if you systematically show one price but charge customers another, that's an offence. So intent matters. What would decide an individual case is not the exact characterisation of the laws on the books, but…

If another customer changed the price tag, that would be in the same category as if a person unaffiliated with the store said "I'll give you a deal on this item for $10", then pocketed the money while you walked out with the (still not yours) item. This doesn't really have any bearing on whether the owner of a store putting up a sign with a specific price for a specific item that a customer can directly take possession of constitutes a binding offer.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#122

Post by sema4hacker »

regera wrote: post #116

Dollar stores are private equity with a checkout lane. In 2025, Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to a group of private-equity firms: Brigade Capital Management, Macellum Capital Management and Arkhouse Management Co. https://corporate.dollartree.com/news-media/press-releases/d... It’s a business model cosplaying as poverty relief while quietly siphoning money from the people least able to lose it. They already run on a…

Has private equity ever done anything good for anyone outside of the investors?

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#123

Post by amarant »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #2

23% of items are rung up at a higher amount at the register than what it says on the shelf, yet North Carolina law caps penalties at $5,000 per inspection, offering retailers little incentive to fix the problem. In other words, regulatory capture at its finest, over the backs of the poorest in the country.

Say what you will about the EU, but they figured out how to scale corporate fines correctly: max 10% of owning entities annual income.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#124

Post by mschuster91 »

hippo22 wrote: post #112
securingsincity wrote: post #98

Massachusetts has a quite prominent law against this. "When buying groceries—food and non-alcoholic beverages, pet food or supplies, disposable paper or plastic products, soap, household cleaners, laundry products, or light bulbs—you must be charged the lowest displayed price, whether on the sticker, scanner, website, or app. If the lowest price you saw for an item is $10 or less, and that lowest price is not what yo…

Unfortunately, this type of conflict can only be adjudicated by courts, which low-income people don't have the time and money for. You couldn't just walk out of the store with the items. You'd need to either: 1. Buy the items and sue. 2. Take the items without paying, likely get the police called on you, and defend yourself in criminal and civil court.

> Unfortunately, this type of conflict can only be adjudicated by courts, which low-income people don't have the time and money for.

Here in Europe, we have consumer protection agencies. Get wronged? Shoot them off an email and they'll take care of it. And overcharging at the cash register? That gets handled by the responsible authorities. Again, call them, tell them what happened and it can get real messy real fast.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#125

Post by joshuaissac »

burnt-resistor wrote: post #65
JSR_FDED wrote: post #2

23% of items are rung up at a higher amount at the register than what it says on the shelf, yet North Carolina law caps penalties at $5,000 per inspection, offering retailers little incentive to fix the problem. In other words, regulatory capture at its finest, over the backs of the poorest in the country.

I don't know NC law. Does it have an "invitation to treat" practice there where prices marked are a customer relations issue rather than a legally-binding offer? To attain change, enough people have to: 1. Correctly identify the source of their misery, because it ain't [insert scapegoats]. 2. Find others who agree with them. 3. Make a plan for effective countering of 1. 4. Use intestinal fortitude and endure temporar…

> NC law. Does it have an "invitation to treat" practice [...] rather than a legally-binding offer?

Are there any common-law jurisdictions in the world where having products on sale in a supermarket is not generally considered invitation to treat but as an offer to sell?

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#126

Post by lowbloodsugar »

itsdrewmiller wrote: post #39
JSR_FDED wrote: post #2

23% of items are rung up at a higher amount at the register than what it says on the shelf, yet North Carolina law caps penalties at $5,000 per inspection, offering retailers little incentive to fix the problem. In other words, regulatory capture at its finest, over the backs of the poorest in the country.

It’s not regulatory capture unless the regulatory body itself is controlled by shady grocers. This is just garden variety insufficient regulation. Although if they inspected every day it would probably still be profitable for the state.

The rich own congress. At this point, it's all regulatory capture.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#127

Post by mschuster91 »

hamdingers wrote: post #12

Even if they accurately charged shelf prices, these places are still a ripoff targeting the vulnerable. The list price is low but the per-unit price is astronomical compared to grocery store prices.

> The list price is low but the per-unit price is astronomical compared to grocery store prices.

The problem is, so is material cost and handling effort. Say, a 2 liter bottle of soda compared to 10x 200 mL. Same amount of soda, but more handling required for stocking, inventory management (aka, make sure there is no soda expiring on the shelf) and finally scanning it over the cash register, and more packaging material.

Larger units of anything will always be cheaper than small units.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#128

Post by lotsofpulp »

regera wrote: post #116

Dollar stores are private equity with a checkout lane. In 2025, Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to a group of private-equity firms: Brigade Capital Management, Macellum Capital Management and Arkhouse Management Co. https://corporate.dollartree.com/news-media/press-releases/d... It’s a business model cosplaying as poverty relief while quietly siphoning money from the people least able to lose it. They already run on a…

> They already run on a thin-staff, high-volume model.

Like every other retail business not targeting the top 5%.

And Dollar Tree and Dollar General are both publicly listed companies, not private equity.

Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar for $1B 10 years after buying it for $8.5B, a pretty big loss. Dollar Tree’s market cap is $25B, so a pretty negligible part of the national dollar store business is “private equity”.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#129

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #126
itsdrewmiller wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not regulatory capture unless the regulatory body itself is controlled by shady grocers. This is just garden variety insufficient regulation. Although if they inspected every day it would probably still be profitable for the state.

The rich own congress. At this point, it's all regulatory capture.

While I agree, for the most part this comes under state regulations. Especially red states are always trying to cut taxes and the government at the cost of not having enough inspectors.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#130

Post by mschuster91 »

potato3732842 wrote: post #106
morkalork wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am convinced the wallmarts in Canada are doing dynamic with the eink price tags. I was in the same location twice in a week to pick up snacks for a gathering and the price of chips were 50% more on the Friday vs earlier in the week.

Seems shortsighted for a retail business since people will only need to get burned once or twice to stop showing up.

For people to vote with their wallet, there has to be an alternative. In "dead" markets where there is only one realistic alternative, whoever holds the monopoly can do whatever the fuck he wants, captive audience.

And no, it's not possible to compete as a startup against Walmart or any other of the corporate giants (and not just in retail, it's valid across industries) - alone because the sheer scale of Walmart allows them to extort insanely cheap pricing out of vendors. Walmart can sell for far cheaper than any mom and pop store can acquire.

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