The truth about dollar stores

My family and I live in San Antonio, TX and we shop at the 99 cents store a lot. It really helps out, because they sell 5 lbs bags of potatoes for 99 cents and a gallon of milk for $ 1.99. They also sell fruits and vegetables and other groceries there. I do not buy everything there, only what is cheaper there than in other stores.

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Listen i go to these dollar store on a regular basis and i never had any problems with any of there products,thats just goes to show you how they are looking out for their customer.

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I think that the reason why we don't trust dollar stores is because we think that the deals are too good to be true. Plus we stereotype that dollar stores are for lower income people who don't care if their food is stale. This is untrue because I know plenty of middle to higher income families who choose to save some money by going to their local Dollar Tree or Dollar General or Deals. I myself shop at the Dollar General here in town because the food is FAR cheaper than the food at the other grocery store in town, plus none of the food is expired (unlike at the grocery store, milk is usually a day or two past the sell-by date and it cost far more than what it does at Wal-Mart). We may have our fears about shopping at dollar stores and 99 cent stores, but we have to come to terms that there is nothing at all wrong with anything there.

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Those points mentioned may be fallacies but there is one you did not hit upon. The dollar stores sin is lack of quantity, not quality. If you divided up that dollar by how much of something you're actually buying you are cheating yourself to purchase it at a dollar store. For instance, the garbage bags you buy there are half the size and half the amount you could get elsewhere for the same per bag cost. Some things are good buys, but not all things. You have to pay close attention to make sure you are not getting taken. In most cases, dollar stores are just convenience stores with a lower price point.

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I LOVE THE DOLLAR STORE'S I AM FROM THE BRONX NEW YORK,SOME OF THE DOLLAR STORE'S HERE SELL ALMOST THE SAME THING YOU GET IN A SUPERMARKET,LIKE SOAP FOR CLOTHES,LUNCHABLES,NEDDLES TO NAME A FEW AND I CAN FILL MY CABINET'S ALL 4 OF THEM AND I GO TO THE WESTERNBEEF SUPERMARKET AND DO THE MAET SHOPPING I STARTED DOING THIS 8 YEAR'S AGO WHEN I BECAME DISABLE MONEY GOT TIGHT AND WELL I STILL HAD TO EAT AND FEED MY FAMILY.MY KID'S ARE GROWN AND MARRIED WITH KID'S OF THEIR OWN AND THEY STILL COME TO MY HOUSE TO EAT AND THEY TELL ME ALL THE TIME AND THEY SAY THEY LEARN FROM ME.THEY DO THE SAME THING I DO DOLLAR STORE FRIST AND THEN WESTERNBEEF ONE HADS FIVE KIDS,ONE HADS TWO AND ONE IS STILL WATING BUT ALL THREE CAN FEED A FAMILY OF TEN BECAUSE OF MY NEW WAY OF SHOPPING.........AND YES EVERYTHING THAT I BUY FROM THE DOLLAR STORE IS GOOD AND FRESH.PS IF THEIR IS A WESTERNBEEF STORE NEAR YOU TRY GOING SHOPPING THERE THE PRICE'S ARE UNBELEVIERABLE

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Marlene,
Thanks for pointing this out. we get most of our shampoos, soaps, household products at Dollar Stores and we buy our groceries from Aldi. We save a ton of money. People need to get over buying brand if they want to save/make money. For other money saving ideas, coupons, codes and deals just Google: Mojo Savings.

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Your comments concerning ' Fallacies' about Dollar Store products is somewhat untrue. Eatingware from China is often tainted with lead based products and warnings on the labels verify that. Why do they continue selling eating & drinkingware that is ' hazardous' to humans?
Further, their candy and food sections are laced with products that are known to cause obesity and fatten a Dentists wallet. Its called JUNK foods and beverages included.
Their shampoos and toothpastes include ingredients that are known health problems for human use, yet they sell it.
Not to say, other retail stores don't do the same thing. They just do it for much more money...
There are some bargains in the Dollar-Type stores but, you have to be aware of whats a deal and what is not.
Nonetheless, those stores are filled with JUNK and poor quality products. Buyer Beware !.....

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i frequently use a dollar store, as it is on my route, however, on certain items, i.e., men's socks, don't trust the size label, everyone was large and all of them were too tight to wear..........so, as in everything, caveat emptor.

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Your first 'fact' is hardly a fact. It's straight up opinion.

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They were fine when they were actually "dollar" stores now they added "plus" after the 99 cents or the Dollar. Even the thrift stores are charging a fortune compared to what it should really be and all of this for merchandise they get cheap. Those who shop at either of these places as a rule don't have but a few dollars to spend and so it is awful that they play with the consumer like they do.

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These are all good tips and nice work, except for the one about batteries. I noticed that the batteries always tend to die fast; when I put some fresh out of the box into my digicam, it immediately put up a low battery warning. So I decided to whip out a multimeter and see exactly how many volts were in it. For comparison, I bought a pack of AAs at both the dollar store and the grocery store. AA, AAA, and some others are supposed to be 1.5 volts. The grocery store ones measured just that. What did the dollar store batteries come out with? .7 volts.

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I personally do love shopping at dollar stores, just for the good deals you can get. Its always with a grain of salt, however, and I usually try to stay away from foodstuffs...then again, I've never seen a dollar store try to sell fresh fruit (gotta say, i wouldn't trust it - waaaaay too many untrained hands touched that stuff before I did). My favorite item is laser pointers (for the cats, drives them nuts ;) - especially because when you buy them for a dollar, they may not work, but every one that doesn't work is a set of perfect batteries for the ones that do!

Regular type batteries are also usually fine from there - if you're using alkalines in your digital camera, you're doing it wrong. I have dollarstore batteries in my house for miscellaneous things, and then proper rechargable Nicads for the things that actually use battery power (camera, Wiimotes, that's about it really). Those batteries are worth the seven bucks you pay for each one - they're made for high-drain devices. Dollar store batteries are made to fit eight in a package that costs a dollar.

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Hiya

Clearly you are a Canadian writing about dollar stores. Here's something that's always puzzled me: ever wonder why they aren't called 'Loonie Bins'?? ...sorry, couldn't resist a bad joke!

But seriously, I absolutely agree with your points. I'm also glad to hear about the battery thing. I've always been leery but will now add them to my bin on my next visit.

It is actually quite funny to go to much higher priced 'gift' shops and come across exactly the same merchandise as my local $ store is carrying and being expected to fork over 4-5 times as much money.

Good article. Thanks.

Gwen McCauley

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regarding batteries, never get 'heavy duty'. Get alkaline. You'll save plenty of money this way.

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My first experience at a Dollar Store was with my 10yr old daughter. Went to look at little makeup stuff candles, etc.

What I walked out with was a pair of workshop goggles ($5 at Home depot) a set of 10 electronics size screwdrivers ($6 at HD), instant lemonade sugar free (best supermarket sale $2) and a few food items (I'm too cheap to buy roasted red peppers for $4 at supermarket to top a sandwich).

The bill was $10, and the 'need' items were well over $20 in value.

My only concern there is the credit card companies may look at Dollar store type purchases as an alert item. I wrote about this at http://joetaxpayer.com/credit-card-big-brother with a link to the original public radio story. So it's not my claim, and I don't know whether to give it much thought. My Dollar store takes no credit card, so moot point.

As far as junk food - all stores sell junk food, Dollar store isn't guilty of pushing it into your cart.

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If you don't like the Dollar Store, stay away from it. If you do, shop until you drop. This store offers so many good things and the way the economic is today, I see people in the store, that wouldn't grace it before.

So, to those who say they would not buy anything out of there, be careful. The main things we say we wouldn't do, we do them.

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Thanks for the info. I always assumed that dollar stores items were old or defective.

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im not sure if this applies but i have a buddy who works for a brewery and he comes home with cases of beer every night because they arent "up to standards" as in they arent completely full, a label didnt stick right, imperfection in the bottle, etc.... so im pretty sure dollar stores pick up on those items as well.

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I actually own a dollar store. We only carry fresh candy purchased locally or direct from the candy company to ensure freshness. We are inspected by the Dept. of Agriculture to make sure we are not carrying any out of date products, but even if we were not inspected, we would not do that. We carry a large selection of party, crafts, toys, gift bags, batteries, household items and much more; some items are over $1 this year. After 10 years at $1, we could no longer hold the price on some items. We do not carry what I call "dollar store junk". These are the items that are not even worth a dollar. We are a family owned and operated franchise and care about our customers. Our store is all about customer service. Any defective item can be returned for a refund. We don't want to sell anything that doesn't work and the only way to know that is if the customer returns it. We special order for our customers if needed. We just finished with back to school where we even packed up our customers school supplies for them with everything on the school's supply list and even sharpened their pencils for them if they wanted us to. We are a dollar plus store with top customer service. Don't be afraid to shop at a dollar store. You might just be surprised what you might find there. And if your dollar store doesn't meet your expectations, let them know why.

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I always start at the $ Store and then go to other stores. Products have been just fine and certainly cheaper. Have been shopping there for years.

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