The Price of "Cheap"

For millions of Americans, the bright signage of Dollar General and Family Dollar represents affordability and accessibility. These shops often occupy areas where supermarkets are few and far between, which means they serve as vital sources of food, toiletries, cleaning essentials and small household goods. Their business model is built on the promise of cheap convenience. A detailed investigation by The Guardian has now shown that the reality is very different. Many customers are consistently being charged more at checkout than the prices printed on the shelves.

The problem was exposed clearly during a routine inspection at a Family Dollar branch in Windsor, North Carolina. A state inspector scanned the shelf price of 300 separate items, entered each into a laptop, and then proceeded to the cash register to check if the till price matched the label. It did not. Sixty nine of those items scanned higher. Packs of frozen pizza that were meant to cost five dollars rang up as seven dollars and sixty five cents. A package of paper towels labelled at ten dollars ninety nine cents was scanned at fifteen dollars fifty cents. These discrepancies were found across many product categories, including food, pet supplies and basic medicines.

This single example reflects a much wider pattern. According to publicly available reports from 45 states and more than 140 counties, Dollar General stores have failed over 4,300 pricing accuracy inspections since January 2022. Family Dollar stores have failed more than 2,100. At one Dollar General location in Ohio, more than 75 per cent of items were found to be incorrectly priced. In New Jersey the failure rate reached 68 per cent. In Utah it reached 48 per cent. Some shops have failed inspections year after year with little sign of improvement.

A clear theme appears across the investigation. Chronic understaffing is a major cause of the problem. When the central system updates a price, workers must physically replace the tags displayed on shelves. In stores with very few employees, this essential job is often delayed or overlooked entirely. Paper tags remain in place long after the price has gone up in the company database. Customers who rely on these tags to plan their shopping are left paying more than they expect. Given that many of these shops have only one or two employees on duty at any moment, the scale of the discrepancy becomes easier to understand.

The cost to customers can be high. One elderly shopper interviewed for the investigation explained that she often buys in small quantities because her income is extremely limited. After one shopping trip, she discovered that about half of the 23 items she had purchased had been charged at higher prices than listed. Travelling back to the shop to dispute the charges was difficult for her, and she believed that many other customers in similar situations probably never notice the difference at all. In communities where incomes are already very stretched, even small overcharges can accumulate into a considerable burden over time.

Both Dollar General and Family Dollar have issued brief statements promising to improve pricing accuracy. However, the repetition of errors across multiple states suggests that the issue is systemic. Many states also limit the amount inspectors can fine retailers. Penalties are often capped at a few thousand dollars which, for large national chains, represents a minor cost of doing business. Consumer advocates argue that until fines reflect the scale of the problem, companies will have little incentive to correct the issue.

This investigation highlights a painful irony. Shoppers who flock to these stores often do so because inflation and rising living expenses have made every penny count. Discount chains market themselves as lifelines for families and older people who are struggling financially. Yet it is precisely these individuals who end up paying the highest price when shelf labels fail to match the till.

For many American households, a few dollars of unexpected cost can determine what groceries reach the kitchen table. Accuracy in pricing is therefore not a minor detail but a basic requirement of fairness. Until retailers improve their systems and invest properly in staff, customers will continue to face uncertainty every time they approach the checkout. The promise of low prices remains central to the identity of these stores. The investigation suggests that this promise is now being broken far too often.