We investigated how they charge more for less.
So, we now know on a direct statistical level that Dollar General is literally making the Vimes Boots Theory of Economic Unfairness into a part of its core business model.
Sweet jesus…
True, the chain pays its workers industry-low wages in under-staffed stores that can be magnets for armed burglary. And yes, Dollar Store management targets economically struggling communities, focusing on customers who make less than $40,000 a year and visit the store multiple times a week. “The economy is continuing to create more of our core customer,” CEO Todd Vasos said in 2018.
But to those working class consumers, Dollar General promises to deliver “everyday low prices.”
In reality, without knowing it, customers are often paying Whole Foods prices for dollar store groceries.
A More Perfect Union investigation reveals that Dollar General charges premium prices across a range of staple goods—52% more per pound for chicken breasts than its cheapest competitor, for instance—but masks the high cost from consumers by stocking smaller pack sizes.
In other words, Dollar General often charges more for less. It offers low absolute prices for national brands, but in smaller pack sizes than other stores, in order to push per-unit costs higher.
The comments under this post will make you so tired. Poor people do not buy smaller portions because they cant do unit price math. They do it because the nearest aldis is a 40 minute bus ride or a 2 hour bus ride or a 3 hour car ride away instead of a 10 min walk away and they do it because they need to make a grocery budget for one or two or four people fit into $200 or $100 or however many increasingly small number of SNAP dollars or leftover dollars. And if youre already at the dollar general, you might as well buy a broom or a shirt or whatever else even if its a little too much, especially if you just got kicked out of your last place or rats ate your big bag of rice or your last good shirt.
Can you imagine it for a moment. I dont care if “you are poor too and you would never be so stupid” or “you managed to save up for that Costco card.” There will always be someone else just a little too tired and a little too hungry and a little too kicked around to ever do that. I promise they exist, so can you stop assuming everyone is you and imagine being that person for a single goddamned moment.
