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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

#241

Post by jkaplowitz »

almostgotcaught wrote: post #203
jkaplowitz wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theoretically there is a third option, stay in the store near the cash register and call the police to come deal with it on the spot before the purchase. The problem is that they probably won't bother coming, and if they do, they won't come quickly enough to make it worth waiting for them given the amount of money at stake. Edit: Yeah, I did say before the purchase, but I should have said after the purchase when they…

this is a tort not a criminal act - cops wouldn't/couldn't do anything.

In a lot of places in the US, the lower of the shelf price and the scanner price is by law the most they can demand, at least for retail sales to consumers. Attempts to stop the customer from leaving after having paid the legally appropriate amount would be criminal acts by the store, no?

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#242

Post by jkaplowitz »

sejje wrote: post #200
jkaplowitz wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theoretically there is a third option, stay in the store near the cash register and call the police to come deal with it on the spot before the purchase. The problem is that they probably won't bother coming, and if they do, they won't come quickly enough to make it worth waiting for them given the amount of money at stake. Edit: Yeah, I did say before the purchase, but I should have said after the purchase when they…

Call the police to come deal with...mispriced items? That's not the job of police, sorry. Not in the US anyway.

Call the police to stop a store from criminally restraining the freedom of a customer to leave with their purchase after the customer pays the legally mandated maximum price which is often the lower of shelf and scanner price, yes. That's not going to be a high enforcement priority for the police, but it's absolutely a crime if the store does that.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#243

Post by sergiotapia »

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…

private equity is a tumor on this country. it seems any business stained with this actively becomes worse for the customer for as long as possible.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#244

Post by gruez »

CPLX wrote: post #216
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…

> The rest of the shareholders (eg. pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices) can be assumed to behave like ruthless capitalists chasing the highest returns, regardless of whether the company is public or not. Right but they are seeking the highest returns as equity holders typically, usually through things like stock buybacks. Private equity firms have much more devious ways of looting the comp…

>Private equity firms have much more devious ways of looting the companies, like management fees, acquiring other portfolio companies, and various other tricks.

"looting the companies" is non-nonsensical when they also own it. It's like saying a scrap yard is "looting" the cars it bought by taking out the valuable parts to resell or whatever. The rest of the stuff might make sense in the context of the LPs getting screwed over, but not in the context of portfolio companies that they own.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#245

Post by [deleted] »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #230
js2 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was having trouble getting Verizon to unlock an iPhone that had been purchased (not financed) from Best Buy and that had been on Verizon's network for more than two years. Verizon support said only BB could unlock it[^1]. I thought that was poppycock. I filled out a form on the FCC's web site just before midnight. By 8 AM, the FCC had forwarded the complaint to Verizon. By 9 AM Verizon executive relations called me…

I bet you didn’t try that this year when every single part of the federal government is actively trying to harm people.

[deleted]

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#246

Post by apparent »

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.

Seems like it actually creates an incentive to go big or go home. If you're already going to be busted and hit with the maximum fine, might as well have even larger mispricings, so you come out ahead after the fine is taken into account.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#247

Post by jkaplowitz »

gruez wrote: post #219
almostgotcaught wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a tort not a criminal act - cops wouldn't/couldn't do anything.

Not to mention that cops only have powers to arrest/issue tickets, not to adjudicate disputes. This isn't Judge Dredd where cops can mete out judgements as they see fit. That's the whole reason why we have courts and judges.

It's not about adjudicating disputes in an arbitrary sense, it's about enforcing consumer protection laws about prices displayed and then charged at retail. Many places legislate that the lower of shelf or scanner price be the maximum price charged.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#248

Post by bombcar »

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.

They already (at least Target and Walmart) do the “cheaper online than in store”) - if you catch it they’ll price match themselves but who is checking all prices every time?

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#249

Post by gruez »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #242
sejje wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call the police to come deal with...mispriced items? That's not the job of police, sorry. Not in the US anyway.

Call the police to stop a store from criminally restraining the freedom of a customer to leave with their purchase after the customer pays the legally mandated maximum price which is often the lower of shelf and scanner price, yes. That's not going to be a high enforcement priority for the police, but it's absolutely a crime if the store does that.

>Call the police to stop a store from criminally restraining the freedom of a customer [...]

Realistically no store is going chase after the customer for that, but that doesn't mean the average shopper is going to risk arrest/banned (for what the store essentially sees as shoplifting) to send a $2 message over the price difference. And all of this assumes your novel legal theory is actually correct.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#250

Post by skippyboxedhero »

cm2012 wrote: post #186

Dollar stores have on average a 2% profit margin, just like grocery stores. They are not the villains here.

Their returns (margins are irrelevant) are usually lower than grocery stores. Large retailers will turn over their inventory tens of times a year, dollar stores won't so the returns are typically lower.

For some reason, left-wing journalists turn into law of one price zealots when confronted with this issue. The reality is that these locations have low-volume and stores everywhere are relatively expensive to run now. For some reason, journalists get angry at the company rather than people who control how much it costs stores to operate. I mean local governments in the US had no problem accepting Dollar General's sales tax from their poor constituents shrug probably more than the corporation is making from the store.

I live in the UK and there is a store like this, Co-Op. The Guardian finds it easier to blame evil foreign corporations because the Co-Op has much higher prices but is a non-profit so the narrative of the evil corporation crumbles.

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