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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

(www.theguardian.com)
510 points bookofjoe | 1 comments | 07 Dec 25 14:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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regera ◴[07 Dec 25 21:07 UTC] No.46185157[source]▶
Dollar stores are private equity with a checkout lane.

In 2025, Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to a group of private-equity firms: Brigade Capital Management, Macellum Capital Management and Arkhouse Management Co.

https://corporate.dollartree.com/news-media/press-releases/d...

It’s a business model cosplaying as poverty relief while quietly siphoning money from the people least able to lose it. They already run on a thin-staff, high-volume model. That 23% increase is not a glitch. They know their customers can’t drive across town to complain. They know the regulators won’t scale fines to revenue.

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sema4hacker ◴[07 Dec 25 21:15 UTC] No.46185228[source]▶
Has private equity ever done anything good for anyone outside of the investors?
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bloppe ◴[08 Dec 25 05:38 UTC] No.46188770[source]▶
If you have a pension, you're an investor in PE. If you live in a country with a sovereign wealth fund, you're a beneficiary of PE. If you're connected to a school with an endowment, a lot of that money ends up in PE funds, and can fund lots of research and student resources.

So ya, I'd agree the PE is rarely good for anyone but the investors, but you'd be surprised how many people are investors without realizing it.

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1. AnthonyMouse ◴[08 Dec 25 05:57 UTC] No.46188872[source]▶
If all of those things never invested a cent in private equity funds that buy up existing companies to turn the screws on their customers and put the money into new business creation instead, they wouldn't be making any less money and the whole world would be better off, including the investors themselves in their role as customers and employees.