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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

(www.theguardian.com)
510 points bookofjoe | 3 comments | 07 Dec 25 14:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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cs702 ◴[07 Dec 25 23:15 UTC] No.46186364[source]▶
> Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65. Bounty paper towels, shelf price $10.99, rang up at $15.50. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Stouffer’s frozen meatloaf, Sprite and Pepsi, ibuprofen, Klondike Minis – shoppers were overpaying for all of them. Pedigree puppy food, listed at $12.25, rang up at $14.75.

Surely, now that this made the news, there will be an investigation into the fraudulent behavior of Dollar General and Family Dollar.

Left unsaid is that both Dollar General and Family Dollar would become unprofitable if they stop tricking customers. (Both companies typically earn only 3-4% on sales.)

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ssl-3 ◴[08 Dec 25 00:54 UTC] No.46187097[source]▶
Some people say it's trickery, but when I apply the razor I find pricing errors more likely to be the result of stupidity than of malice.

Having worked in retail myself, I understand that some days there just isn't time to get it all done. A debt of unfinished tasks can accumulate. It happens. Sometimes old prices get left up. (I think the stupidity is on the part of management more than it is the employees, but it's still more stupid than it is malicious.)

---

Dollar General got into the thick of it with the Ohio Attorney General a couple of years ago[1] over this issue: The prices on the shelf didn't always match the prices at the register. Stores were closed[2] while they updated their price tags to match reality.

And as part of the settlement with the Ohio AG: Nowadays, when I go into a Dollar General and Red Baron pizzas are on the shelf for $5 and they ring up at $7.65, they're required to honor the posted price of $5 when I bring this up to them.

(That last bit really should be enshrined in law instead of the footnotes of a legal settlement with a single entity, but alas: It just isn't that way in Ohio.)

[1]: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/Newsletters/Consum...

[2]: https://www.supermarketnews.com/foodservice-retail/ohio-ag-d...

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1. shepherdjerred ◴[08 Dec 25 01:29 UTC] No.46187297[source]▶
As a company seeking to maximize profit, why would you fix this problem? It seems optimal to say "it's out of our control" -- you get to overcharge customers, and you have a reasonable explanation if a lawsuit comes.

I would be curious to see how often it's the other way around, e.g. they undercharge a customer.

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2. ssl-3 ◴[08 Dec 25 01:58 UTC] No.46187457[source]▶
I prefer to think that people (including those who run corporations at the level of -- you know -- price tags) are broadly more incompetent than they are malicious, dishonest, replete scumbags who would sooner stab a person in the back and take their wallet than give them the time of day.

It is possible that I am wrong about this.

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3. shepherdjerred ◴[08 Dec 25 02:39 UTC] No.46187714[source]▶
I agree that people are usually good, but systems will be abused.

The first think I thought of was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Fuel_system_fires,_...