When a 25% fail rate isn’t a typo, it’s a policy
Dollar General’s pricing system leaves low-income shoppers picking up the tab.
The story
The FTC and 20 states sue Dollar General, alleging years of deceptive pricing where in-store prices differ from what customers pay at checkout, harming low-income shoppers.
Source: fortune.com
Our reading
Dollar General’s pricing system is like a magician’s trick: you see one price, then another, and by the time you realize, the difference is gone. The company claims it wants 100% accuracy, but the reality is a 25% fail rate, which is not a typo, but a statistic.
It’s not just the numbers that add up—it’s the way the system is designed to let small errors accumulate into big losses for people who can’t afford them. If a store fails 31% of its price checks, it’s not a mistake, it’s a policy.
The company says it wants to fix things, but the real question is: who’s watching the watchmen? The same people who can’t afford to be overcharged are the ones paying for the system’s flaws.
