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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

#231

Post by antonvs »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #197
antonvs wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cosplaying as poverty relief Does it really? Who says this, and who believes it?

>> cosplaying as poverty relief > Does it really? Who says this (search engine: 22 relevant results in 0.85s.) we’re here to provide affordable and convenient access to name brands, DG’s private brands, nutritious foods, household essentials and more. ref: https://www.dollargeneral.com/hereforwhatmatters

> search engine: 22 relevant results in 0.85s.

Being able to understand what those results mean is the important part.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#232

Post by fencepost »

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.

Depending on how much independence the inspectors have they could probably turn a heck of a profit per inspector (thus being able to argue their continued existence to the legislature).

Could an inspector manage two per day? If you figure the full cost of each inspector is $150,000/year but dedicated ones could do 8 inspections at $5k each per week, there's well over $1 million/year per inspector (assuming not all inspections would be the full fine, there's travel costs per inspector, inspectors would have to spend some office/court time, etc. that would bring it down from the potential maximum of ~$1,800,000 each factoring in vacation and holidays).

Even Republicans could get behind it! "We're reducing the direct budget of the department, but authorizing it to hire additional inspectors in order to bring in additional revenue that can be utilized to bring the budget to or above its current levels." It's a cost reduction measure!

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#233

Post by bombcar »

sejje wrote: post #212
IncreasePosts wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no competition in many places dollar stores operate. They moved into those places specifically because they were underserved by larger retailers.

I agree, at least in my area. Two neighboring dollar stores just went out of business in a town I commute through. The culprit? A new Harp's grocery store a block away.

The dollar store in my town is barely holding on - the competition? A Walmart across the street.

The only thing keeping it afloat is literally balloons I feel. Walmart doesn’t sell helium inflated ones.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#234

Post by rtp4me »

mindslight wrote: post #20
tokai wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make the sticker price legally binding and this issue would be solved with almost perfect precision.

The sticker price is legally binding - it constitutes an offer , and the cash register surreptitiously charging a higher price from what the customer has agreed to constitutes fraud . The problem is that asserting your rights takes time, resources, and energy that people shopping at these stores generally do not have. The people that would have the ability to push back instead just use their resources to move on and…

"The people that would have the ability to push back"...

And they can. Just bring it up to the cashier or managers attention, and voila, they adjust the price. Please let me know if you have had a different experience.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#235

Post by gruez »

rs186 wrote: post #224
gruez wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Private equity is far worse. It’s mean 100% ownership by a group of sociopaths who are executing on a plan to extract as much cash as possible quickly with no other goals at all. ...as opposed to the average public company? An average company might have more "average joe" shareholders (almost by definition, because private equity is typically off limits to non-accredited investors), but outside of meme stocks, there…

Let me explain this with a simple example: * If a company controlled by PE goes bankrupt, shareholders (PE) likely make a profit * But if a publicly listed company goes bankrupt, shareholders lose their money In other words, PEs almost never lose money, so they could extract the last bit of a company, even more short sighted than shareholders of a public company

>* If a company controlled by PE goes bankrupt, shareholders (PE) likely make a profit

That's not necessarily a bad thing, or sign of anything sinister. If a business is failing, and you buy it for pennies on the dollar, and despite your best efforts it still goes under, so you liquidate it, you can still turn a profit if the price you paid is lower than what you got from liquidating it. That's not bad, because private equity (or anyone else, for that matter) isn't expected to operate as a charity. The only reason they're willing to stump up the cash to buy the business in the first place is the expectation that they'll make money. It's also not bad for the original owners either, because the fact that they hold to PE rather than someone else, or liquidating it, suggests that the PE offered a better deal than either.

>But if a publicly listed company goes bankrupt, shareholders lose their money

Often times yes, but sometimes not, eg. hertz.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#236

Post by collingreen »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #177
VerifiedReports wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell that to former JoAnn Fabrics customers.

They should have paid more for the fabric, I guess. Private equity tends to loot things on the way down. Joann was on the way out regardless.

Lol, the "it's actually good for customers" response is "they should have paid more"? I love it.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#237

Post by gruez »

darth_avocado wrote: post #206
gruez wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why private equity is singled out here, when every time a public company does a bad (eg. Boeing), people crow about how public companies only care about juicing next quarter's earnings.

The big difference is the extent to which PE will go to juice the quarters earnings. Public companies cannot and will not just fire all staff, fleece customers to the point they won’t return and take on debt that they have no intention of paying back. PE will do all of the above and more if it means they get their money. Which means, you as a customer get screwed over more when PE is involved.

>Public companies cannot and will not just fire all staff, fleece customers to the point they won’t return and take on debt that they have no intention of paying back.

Why? Is there some code of conduct for public companies but not private ones?

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#238

Post by collingreen »

luckylion wrote: post #201
hellotheretoday wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this would be somewhat arguable as okay except for their introduction into categories like daycare, emergency rooms, drug and alcohol rehab, care homes for the geriatric and disabled, etc. things that probably shouldn’t be profit oriented to begin with yet are and are being snatched up by private equity, worsening outcomes in basically all of them

"shouldn't be profit oriented" is another way to say "costs will quickly grow exponentially", because there's absolutely no incentive not to let them. Is anyone better off if elderly care becomes too expensive to offer at scale?

1: "Shouldn't be profit oriented"

2: ???

3: "too expensive to offer at scale"

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#239

Post by bombcar »

silisili wrote: post #78
_fat_santa wrote: post #34

I experienced this first hand maybe a year ago when I randomly walked into a dollar general to get something, their prices often times are pretty close to the "regular" versions of the product, but packaged specifically for dollar stores. I get why people shop at them in rural places because that's the only shop within 10-20 miles but in cities it makes no sense. Had prices been 20-30% cheaper but in a smaller size i…

Same. My city has a Walmart, Publix, Food Lion, Kroger, and Aldi. Yet they keep building dollar stores, I think there's now 5 within 10 miles of my house. They all seem to do decent traffic, which baffles me. The stores are a mess, items disheveled everywhere, and rare to see more than a single person working. Really depressing places, I cannot figure out their appeal.

People still think they’re getting. Deal. They’ll figure it out eventually. Same with goodwill selling clothes for at or above new prices, eventually the knowledge propagates.

The main thing keeping the local dollar stores alive is the death of Party City as far as I can tell.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#240

Post by bombcar »

iinnPP wrote: post #6

This happens at Walmart Canada all the time. The policy there is to slash 10$ off shelf price (or free for anything 10 or less). Since COVID, Walmart has stopped having immediate fixes of the problem. Since 2020, I have accumulated about $1200 in free merchandise using the above. Almost always food.

The disastrous Target Canada (iirc) was similar; obviously nobody cared at all.
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