Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices • Hacker News Board

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#361

Post by ssl-3 » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 12:54 AM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #258

> Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65. Bounty paper towels, shelf price $10.99, rang up at $15.50. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Stouffer’s frozen meatloaf, Sprite and Pepsi, ibuprofen, Klondike Minis – shoppers were overpaying for all of them. Pedigree puppy food, listed at $12.25, rang up at $14.75. Surely, now that this made the news, there will be an investigation into the fraudulent…

Some people say it's trickery, but when I apply the razor I find pricing errors more likely to be the result of stupidity than of malice.

Having worked in retail myself, I understand that some days there just isn't time to get it all done. A debt of unfinished tasks can accumulate. It happens. Sometimes old prices get left up. (I think the stupidity is on the part of management more than it is the employees, but it's still more stupid than it is malicious.)

---

Dollar General got into the thick of it with the Ohio Attorney General a couple of years ago[1] over this issue: The prices on the shelf didn't always match the prices at the register. Stores were closed[2] while they updated their price tags to match reality.

And as part of the settlement with the Ohio AG: Nowadays, when I go into a Dollar General and Red Baron pizzas are on the shelf for $5 and they ring up at $7.65, they're required to honor the posted price of $5 when I bring this up to them.

(That last bit really should be enshrined in law instead of the footnotes of a legal settlement with a single entity, but alas: It just isn't that way in Ohio.)

[1]: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/Newsletters/Consum...

[2]: https://www.supermarketnews.com/foodservice-retail/ohio-ag-d...

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#362

Post by chongli » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 12:55 AM UTC

darth_avocado wrote: post #301

chongli wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've seen, they take a terrible business and liquify its valuable assets for their investors, freeing up capital to be invested more productively elsewhere in the economy. Of course those investors could take the money and commission a bunch of statues of themselves, but frequently they do something more productive than that. A lot of the negative reaction to them seems to me to be mostly emotional. They'll…

> lot of the negative reaction to them seems to me to be mostly emotional Mine specifically stems from PE buying up all but one 24x7 emergency vets in a 20 miles radius from me. All of them were thriving businesses. There is only one remaining non PE ones has its days numbered. After monopolizing the emergency vet market, they shut down a few locations, which previously acted as competition for each other, effectivel…

Lots of businesses have big positive externalities [1]. They provide more benefit to their communities than they take in for themselves. Unfortunately, these sorts of businesses are easy pickings for PE.

Artists are a classic example. They generate huge positive externalities for a community while reaping almost none of the benefits for themselves. Artists get severely exploited by the economy for this!

To counteract this problem we need other ways of addressing the positive externalities. In the case of artists, this usually comes in the form of public (and private) patronage and endowments for the arts.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Positive

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#363

Post by panny » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 12:56 AM UTC

Do any of you actually shop at Family Dollar? I do. They're cheaper on a lot of stuff. A box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is $2 less than the same box at the grocery store in town. I bought a pair of shoes there for $4. They weren't stylish, but lasted longer than the last pair of Nikes I purchased.

Yeah, sometimes the sale price posted on the shelf is no longer applicable. Either the employees don't feel like they are paid enough to be vigilant or maybe they're too overworked to keep up. Whatever the case, you just learn to keep an eye on the checkout, or alternately ask for a price check on it before the cashier starts ringing merch. The second approach is more polite and the cashiers appreciate that.

The same thing commonly happens at the grocery store, and other stores I shop at too. It's not unique to Family Dollar or Dollar General. But I will note, at the Family Dollar, the cashiers will often say "This is on sale now, but it's not posted yet. That whole shelf is discount." And they will give me a better price than what I was expecting to pay. They have to manually adjust the price to give that discount to me a lot of times. Grocery cashiers just scan as quickly as they can and don't check.

So while all the yuppies who never step into dollar stores are acting hyperoffended about this story, I think the story is unfairly targeting the dollar stores. Apparently saving money gives some people here the "ick" but the employees there are only human. A lot of times, lower paid humans. Cut 'em some slack.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#364

Post by stevenjgarner » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 12:57 AM UTC

stevenjgarner wrote: post #351

It is important to understand that Dollar General and Family Dollar serve thousands of flyover communities where there are no Walmart stores or other viable market access. Dollar General has stated that it can generate profits in communities with fewer than 1,000 homes. Walmart generally requires a much larger population base for its stores. Dollar General is the largest retailer in the US by number of locations, wit…

I am not an attorney, but given that Dollar General and Family Dollar are highly likely to serve a much larger percentage of SNAP-eligible customers, isn't there a far more serious FEDERAL crime being perpetrated here of retailer abuse and fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often referred to as food stamp fraud? That is, if the SNAP customers have no other means of purchasing food (living in a food desert), and the retailer is intentionally charging more for food items, isn't the retailer committing fraud against the US government? Federal criminal prosecution of SNAP violations could result in fines up to $250,00 and imprisonment up to 20 years. More significant consequences than otherwise being reported here.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#365

Post by tzs » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 12:57 AM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #258

> Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65. Bounty paper towels, shelf price $10.99, rang up at $15.50. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Stouffer’s frozen meatloaf, Sprite and Pepsi, ibuprofen, Klondike Minis – shoppers were overpaying for all of them. Pedigree puppy food, listed at $12.25, rang up at $14.75. Surely, now that this made the news, there will be an investigation into the fraudulent…

>> Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65.

The crazy thing is that even if it did ring up at the correct price it isn't a good deal. It's around $4.80-4.90 at Walmart and Target and others.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#366

Post by biddit » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 12:58 AM UTC

josh_p wrote: post #359

When I worked grocery retail when I was a teen 20ish years ago, any time a customer disputed the price of something during checkout, we’d have someone check the shelf and find the display tag. If the price was lower as the customer suggested, we’d always give them the item at the price listed on the display tag. An employee usually just missed that tag during price change day. It’s so foreign to me that any retail pl…

You need to think like an owner/operator to understand why you would defer to the system.

It’s to prevent employees from stealing. To “defer to the tag” requires a manual price override of some sort, which becomes an abuse vector.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#367

Post by cyberax » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 1:00 AM UTC

joncp wrote: post #221

Waterluvian wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying in bulk is about having the ability to both afford next week’s food this week and have the means to store it. Not to mention the annual subscription. Responding to a comment about dollar stores preying on the poor with, “that’s why I shop at Costco” is… a choice.

... and a car to haul all that stuff, and time to drive to the nearest Costco. It really is a luxury that a ton of people can't afford.

Why is car a luxury? A clunker car worth $2000 will still work fine for years with minor maintenance that can be done by yourself.

Oh, yeah. Cities. Cars are expensive when you live in a 100 sq. ft. box.

Perhaps that's what is causing problems?

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#368

Post by itchingsphynx » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 1:00 AM UTC

motza wrote: post #284

Full_Clark wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requirements about surcharge notifications and displaying all-up prices are nice, but the gap here will still be about enforcement and not regulation. The core problem for dollar-store shoppers in the US is about getting the retailers to honor the sticker price, not whether the sticker price shows all state and local taxes. Is the Australian shopper protected simply by a stronger culture of adherence amongst retailer…

I guess it might be a cultural thing? The shelf price is the binding price here in practice. If you get to the register at the supermarket and the price is higher, you can just let them know and they will send someone to check the price and match it.

Yes, seems to be partly regulation and enforcement partly cultural in a voluntary code of conduct that tends towards benefit to the consumer. For example,

[All the major grocery retailers] are signatories to the voluntary code of practice for computerised checkout systems in supermarkets. Generally, this means that if an item is scanned at the checkout at a higher price than it says on the shelf or as advertised, a customer is entitled to receive the first item free and all multiples of the same item at the lower price.

https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advic...

This practice not just matches price (dang, you caught us out this time), but incentivises minimising errors (oops, our bad, have it for free).

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#369

Post by nerdponx » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 1:01 AM UTC

ssl-3 wrote: post #361

cs702 wrote: post #258

> Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65. Bounty paper towels, shelf price $10.99, rang up at $15.50. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Stouffer’s frozen meatloaf, Sprite and Pepsi, ibuprofen, Klondike Minis – shoppers were overpaying for all of them. Pedigree puppy food, listed at $12.25, rang up at $14.75. Surely, now that this made the news, there will be an investigation into the fraudulent…

Some people say it's trickery, but when I apply the razor I find pricing errors more likely to be the result of stupidity than of malice. Having worked in retail myself, I understand that some days there just isn't time to get it all done. A debt of unfinished tasks can accumulate. It happens. Sometimes old prices get left up. (I think the stupidity is on the part of management more than it is the employees, but it's…

Hanlon's Razor is not relevant with large amounts of money at stake. in fact the complete opposite is the best approach: The more money that's involved, the more you should suspect malice until it has been conclusively ruled out.

Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

#370

Post by antonvs » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 1:02 AM UTC

array_key_first wrote: post #310

antonvs wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I mean, it's in the name .

You’d have to explain why you believe that. Just because someone in poverty can afford to purchase items in the store, doesn’t mean it’s good value, i.e. it’s not necessarily providing relief from poverty. In fact, it’s the opposite. See e.g. “How the dollar-store industry overcharges cash-strapped customers while promising low prices”:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/03/customers-pa...