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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

(www.theguardian.com)
510 points bookofjoe | 4 comments | 07 Dec 25 14:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.364s | source
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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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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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1. 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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2. 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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3. rootusrootus ◴[07 Dec 25 23:17 UTC] No.46186396[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.
4. PopePompus ◴[07 Dec 25 23:36 UTC] No.46186551[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.