It seems that we're in a phase where most parts of society is distorting reality to extract value from others. I don't know if it's a usual step in human groups cycles but it's worrisome.
Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
541–550 of 754 posts
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#542Dollar 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…
Makes me wonder if the right way to help lower classes is to give them some space (association, platform) to meet and solve issues on their own terms so nobody tries to leech from them.
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#543I never heard of something like this happening in Europe. Do we simply have better control and regulations?
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#544Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Those are single-member LLC revenue numbers. You can get $10M in revenue just by being in a low-margin business. For industries with a 1% margin that's $100k a year in net income, i.e. wages and benefits for one person. I'm not sure I understand your argument? Wages come out of revenue not income? So the $100k would go to the owners, but as captical gains not wages.
It's a single-member LLC. The person doing the labor and the person who owns the company are the same person and whether they pay themselves the money as wages or dividends is not really the issue. A thousand employees is a business on the scale of a mid-sized bank or companies like VeriSign or LendingTree or Iridium Communications. Companies with something like a billion dollars in revenue. $10M in revenue is a smal…
> It's a single-member LLC
Maybe exempt pass-throughs?
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#54523% 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.
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It really is... God I'm glad I don't have to live there.
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#546Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if private equity is so benign, where do the returns come from? “During the last 10 years PE on average did not outperform the public markets in aggregate” [1]. (Individual firms overperform, some of them consistently.) > even if you like P/E as a VEHICLE (which - I would argue it hasn't been a 'good' ones since like the late 90s), you can't ignore the fact that it's returns have largely been eaten by fees Yup! Tho…
What are you arguing then? That a growing asset class that increases prices, destroys communities because of lack of ties, and shifts wealth from builders to owners that doesn't outperform public markets in aggregate is a good thing? Hard to argue this is 'good for society!' > VC returns as an asset class (outside of a handful of firms) have underperformed in the past 20 years. I don't even count it here. > PE as an…
> That a growing asset class that increases prices, destroys communities because of lack of ties, and shifts wealth from builders to owners that doesn't outperform public markets in aggregate is a good thing?
You added a bunch of stuff in front which isn’t substantiated as being an effect of private equity or unique to it.
Most complaints about PE tend to boil down to complaints about, in the extreme, private ownership, and in the specific, leverage or non-local control. Those are legitimate complaints that attach to PE. But not necessarily. And in some cases, not in most cases.
> it's the builders who have built over multiple decades who profit (great!) one time
Sure. They get the multiple. They can now build more.
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#547Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cost of the car itself is minimal compared to insurance, gas and storage costs.
What "storage"? You put it on your driveway. The minimum liability insurance around here is about $50 a month.
Some people do not own a driveway or a car space. There is an active rental market just for that.
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#548Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
A competently planned city makes car ownership unnecessary.
Sprawl comes from urban planning. I think you mean to say a certain approach to planning makes it unnecessary.
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#549Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paying 10 to 20 cents more for an item can still be a better deal than traveling further away to a larger store. The mis-pricing is completely unacceptable, though.
But because these stores exist, they lead to grocery stores no longer existing, because they eat the majority of the profit from grocery stores. This forces people to shop at the dollar stores because it's the only thing nearby. The dollar store model increases prices, reduces consumer choice, and makes us less healthy.
Do they make higher margins?
Re: Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
#550I never heard of something like this happening in Europe. Do we simply have better control and regulations?
In Ireland, knowingly charging more than th display price is a criminal offence; the fake sales mentioned in the article are also illegal, though I’m not sure if that one’s criminal or civil. I expect it’s similar elsewhere.
_Prosecution_ is often more of an effective threat for companies than summary fines, as judges will tend to throw the book at repeat offenders.
Also, the nature of US urbanisation might be a factor. If you can get to more stores easily it’s harder for them to screw your; you will just go elsewhere.
I tend to do my shopping in small batches when walking home from work, and have a decent short term memory for numbers. I don’t remember _ever_ being overcharged by the likes of Tesco/Lidl/whatever. Very occasionally by small shops.