Dollar General and Family Dollar say they offer low prices, but inspectors keep finding that a lot of items ring up higher at the register than the shelf price, especially in poorer and rural communities where people do not have many other places to shop. Since 2022, thousands of their stores have failed price accuracy inspections, sometimes with huge error rates, and many are repeat offenders. Some states have sued and reached settlements, but fines are often small compared with profits, and in a lot of states there is barely any enforcement at all.
Inside the stores, prices in the computer change automatically while workers, who are usually stretched thin and dealing with stocking, cleaning and the register, cannot keep up with switching shelf tags. Former employees say that is the main reason for the mismatches and some even claim fake sale signs are used to make normal prices look like discounts. The people paying the price are shoppers on tight budgets who may not notice a few extra dollars here and there or cannot afford to travel to another store. The companies say they care about accuracy and fix errors when they are told, but the pattern across states, fines and lawsuits shows a system that keeps overcharging the very customers it claims to help.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/03/customers-pay-more-rising-dollar-store-costs