Getting your money’s worth at dollar discount stores

Ever needed a basic item for your kitchen or bathroom and just didn’t feel like heading to a department or big box store to find it?

The convenience of grabbing a pack of sponges, paint brushes for a quick touch-up project, or a bottle of glass cleaner at the local discount store can’t be beat – especially since those spots are generally easy to navigate, the checkout lines are relatively manageable and the prices aren’t bad.

But what do you do when the three or four bucks you planned to spend turn into $15 or $20 when you check out? The problem might not have anything to do with your ability to walk past a sales table at all. The items in your basket might just be a bit more at the register than you thought.

Not that long ago, everything on every shelf at Dollar Tree stores across the country was only $1. But in early 2022, the chain rolled everything under its roof to $1.25, citing increased operating and shipping costs. The company had been testing even higher prices in their Dollar Tree Plus stores, introducing items that were up to $7.

According to CNN, the company started to raise some item prices in regular Dollar Tree stores from $1.25 to $1.50 in 2024. Since not all packages have prices, it can make knowing the cost of the glass bowl that’s caught your eye a bit of a mystery.

“Dollar Tree doesn’t have signs telling you what prices are,” said Sandra Morton. The Orange County shopper added that sometimes, surprises happen in the checkout line as they did recently when she visited a local store to pick up items for her grandchildren’s Easter baskets.

“I bought five items. When I was checking out, I was told the total was $19.75 with tax,” she said, noting that two of the items were $7 each. “I wasn’t expecting them to be that much. It was in the ‘Easter section,’ not the $5 section.”

Although she thought about not getting the items, she did make the purchase.

“It is what it is,” Morton said. “I was shocked. But I wasn’t going to put stuff back because I went in there to get those specific (things).”

Regional pricing problems

In Dollar General and Family Dollar stores, sometimes the item price listed on the shelf may not be the price it rings at the register.

A 2025 an investigation by The Guardian discovered that both Dollar General and Family Dollar stores have had shelf-pricing issues. Since January 2022, 4,300 Dollar General stores across 23 states failed accuracy inspections while Family Dollar failed more than 2,100 price inspections in 20 states over the same period.

What that means is that all those items may have been priced lower on the shelf than they rang up at the register.

In Pennsylvania, there are more than 900 Dollar General stores. In December, the commonwealth’s Office of the Attorney General reached a settlement with store’s parent company, Dolgen Corp., LLC, after an investigation found shoppers were charged higher prices at store registers.

According to a press release from the Attorney General’s office, Dollar General stores failed more than 40 percent of pricing accuracy inspections in Pennsylvania between 2019 and 2023. The company agreed to pay $1.55 million in penalties and costs as well as to improve business practices through employee training and increased staffing – the latter of which has been named as a reason the shelf prices aren’t changed when prices change.

“Our investigation found widespread and repeated instances of Pennsylvanians being overcharged at checkout — blatant deception of customers all over the Commonwealth,” Attorney General David W. Sunday Jr. said in the press release. “We are hopeful the corporation takes this settlement very seriously, as Pennsylvanians expect to pay the price that is on stickers and labels.”

In November of 2023, Dollar General, which has 186 stores in New Jersey, agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle merchandise pricing violation allegations across the state.

And in New York in 2019, the state Office of the Attorney General secured a $1.2 million settlement with Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar in fines and damages over the sale of expired over-the-counter drugs, obsolete motor oil and failure to comply with the state’s bottle deposit law. Although the settlement in New York wasn’t the result of pricing discrepancies, it was for issues people generally don’t want to experience with the products they buy.

In response to a Straus News inquiry, Dollar General indicated that the company is committed to providing customers with accurate prices and expressed disappointment when they are unable to do just that.

“When a pricing discrepancy is identified, our store teams are empowered to correct the matter on the spot for our customers,” a statement from the corporation’s public relations department reads. “Additionally, we have in place a number of measures designed to help us deliver on our commitment to pricing accuracy, including scheduled time each week for price change execution.”

Family Dollar and Dollar Tree did not respond to requests for comments by press time.

Handling pricing issues

But what should shoppers do if they find the price at the register doesn’t match the store’s shelf price?

“The first step is to talk to the store manager. Simply walk to the item on the shelf with them and see if there is a discrepancy,” said John O’Reilly, director of the Orange County, N.Y., Department of Consumer Affairs and Weights and Measures. He added that the office conducts price accuracy checks on about two stores in the county each month.

He suggested getting help if the issue can’t be resolved in-store or through a call to the corporate office by calling his or the N.Y.S. Attorney General’s Office to get relief.

“That’s one of the things we want to keep an eye on,” he said.

To reach the Orange County Consumer Affairs, call (845) 360-6700 or log onto https://www.orangecountygov.com/242/Consumer-Affairs-Weights-Measures.

For the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General, call (717) 787-5211 or log onto https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/public-protection-division/bureau-consumer-protection/.

To connect with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, call (973) 504-6200 or log onto https://www.njoag.gov/programs/consumer-protection/.