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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

(www.theguardian.com)
510 points bookofjoe | 2 comments | 07 Dec 25 14:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.593s | 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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1. progval ◴[07 Dec 25 20:13 UTC] No.46184708[source]▶
Regulatory capture is when a large company encourages stronger regulations that small competitors cannot afford to satisfy. Here the issue is regulation that is too weak, not too strong.
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2. thfuran ◴[07 Dec 25 20:38 UTC] No.46184919[source]▶
No, that’s just one form of regulatory capture. If this legislation is a result of lobbying from retailers opposing imposing meaningful fines, particularly if the state of things before its adoption was that penalties from failed inspections were often higher, then this is regulatory capture.