Suit that cites 2025 Guardian investigation alleges ‘pattern of inaccurate pricing’ that ‘affects millions of purchases’

The Federal Trade Commission and 20 states have sued Dollar General, the nation’s largest dollar-store chain, for persistently overcharging customers at its more than 20,000 stores across the United States.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nashville, cites a Guardian investigation published last December.

“Dollar General has for years engaged in deceptive conduct that harms the very consumers it claims to serve,” said the 95-page legal complaint.

  • Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz
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    3 days ago

    In at least one case I noticed that the prices on their app were lower than the ones in the store itself.

    In any case, dollar stores do not save consumers money in most cases. They just sell smaller-sized products at higher markups per serving.

    • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Also, notably, Dollar General and Family Dollar are not dollar stores, which are in many ways even worse. Dollar General is a supposed “discount grocery” store, if you will, although it’s more like just shittier products and per-unit prices.

      Although I suppose the term is probably soon meaningless, as actual “dollar stores” are disappearing as the dollar gets you so little that they just can’t anymore. But even if they become like “five dollar stores”, the difference is that nothing in the store exceeds a certain price, whereas Dollar General has items costing many dollars. heh

      Not making a big deal, mind. (just like those stores are not a good deal! tee hee hee)

      • adarza@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Dollar General is a supposed “discount grocery” store

        they haven’t been that for years… decades even. being the only and overpriced grocery option in a town or neighborhood is why they exist. and why they haven’t had even a single unprofitable quarter in over a decade (the site i used goes back ~14 years, there were none. zero quarters of negative net income)

        • CannonFodder@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Soon we’ll be calling them the ‘five and ten’, which is what they used to be called. Except back then they were talking about cents.

  • mokus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    My wife worked as store manager at a Dollar General for many years. The only group DG shits on more than their customers is their in-store employees (including store managers). She spent so many weeks pulling 60-100 hours, large chunks of it as the only worker in store, because corporate wouldn’t pay enough labor hours to actually staff the store properly. Neither of us has set foot in one since the quit nearly 20 years ago.

  • green_goglin@thelemmy.club
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    3 days ago

    Dollar General and Dollar Tree are also the retailers most impacted by diesel prices at the moment. Convienent timing for everyone long puts and/or short selling the company.