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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

(www.theguardian.com)
510 points bookofjoe | 8 comments | 07 Dec 25 14:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.41s | source | bottom
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JSR_FDED ◴[07 Dec 25 15:10 UTC] No.46182225[source]▶
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.

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1. gessha ◴[07 Dec 25 16:39 UTC] No.46182983[source]▶
What this calls for is an Amazon-style optimization of inspections. Given X inspectors and Y locations, what is the most optimal routing to optimize for coverage and penalty collection?
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2. mindslight ◴[07 Dec 25 16:48 UTC] No.46183043[source]▶
Amazon-style optimization? You mean they send three different inspectors to the same store on the same day, each scanning one third of the necessary items for the audit?
3. burnt-resistor ◴[07 Dec 25 17:32 UTC] No.46183404[source]▶
Offtopic, but I made the mistake once of buying groceries from Amazon and they instead sold me a package of cheddar cheese that was completely blue from mold. Some "quality" inspections they got going don't bode well for public-private "partnerships" that outsource essential government functions to a corrupt third-party that's likely to be owned by a craptastic private equity hedge fund.
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4. terminalshort ◴[07 Dec 25 20:23 UTC] No.46184790[source]▶
Better optimization would be to make everybody an inspector. You catch a store doing it on video and report it to the agency, you get 50% of the fine.
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5. adamsb6 ◴[07 Dec 25 20:45 UTC] No.46184981[source]▶
The error rate is nonzero, but in my experience Amazon will make it right with little friction. A short chat is almost always enough, no labyrinthine phone trees or escalations.
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6. rootusrootus ◴[07 Dec 25 23:17 UTC] No.46186396{3}[source]▶
Last time I had to contact Amazon the chat option was no longer anywhere to be found. I gave up and actually called. They were nice enough on the phone but it was a good reminder of how much Amazon’s customer service has degraded.
7. PopePompus ◴[07 Dec 25 23:36 UTC] No.46186551{3}[source]▶
Yes, but all problems with tainted food are not as visually obvious as mold. After some bad surprises, I've decided to never eat anything I ordered from Amazon.
8. Paradigm2020 ◴[08 Dec 25 00:53 UTC] No.46187087[source]▶
In Australian supermarkets when the price of the item is wrong you get the item for free. (At least it was like that in 2011). Cashiers would run into the store to go fix the price tag.