If you shop at Dollar General, your receipt may say more than the shelf tag did.
Your Daily Dad Joke
Once I asked a hotel receptionist for an early morning wake-up call.
She called me at 6 am and asked: “What are you doing with your life?”
The tag and the receipt
Most of us don’t check the receipt at a store where nothing costs much. There’s a line behind you, the prices flash by on a little screen, and it’s a few dollars anyway.
I get it. Nobody wants to be the person holding up the line over forty cents.
That’s why I wanted to pass this along.
You may have seen CBS News report that the Federal Trade Commission and 20 states sued Dollar General on Monday. They allege its stores routinely charged people more at the register than the price on the shelf, the tag or the ad.
That’s real. But it’s not the whole story. The part that matters to you happens at the register.
In the complaint, the FTC says its investigators made undercover purchases at Dollar General stores in four states this year, and every one rang up more than the advertised price on multiple items. The extra on each trip was a few dollars. At one Cleveland store, the complaint says, 13 of 58 items rang up at a different price than the tag.
A few dollars is exactly why it’s easy to let go. And it’s why it adds up. The complaint says households earning $35,000 or less make up 60% of the company’s revenue, and that Dollar General logged at least 29,265 complaints about a marked price not being honored between January 2023 and March 2026.
So is money coming back to you? Not yet. This is a lawsuit, and nothing has been decided. The FTC and the states are asking the court for refunds, but there’s no claim form and no settlement. Dollar General told CBS its goal is “100% accuracy between shelf and register prices in every store” and that it will defend the case.
Here’s the one thing I’d do. Before I left the parking lot, I’d glance at the receipt for the two or three things I bought because of the price. It takes about ten seconds.
If one of them is wrong, go back and ask for the shelf price. The complaint says Dollar General’s own policies require stores to honor the lowest price, and state settlements in Colorado and Pennsylvania require signs saying so.
And if a tag looks like a real deal, I’d snap a quick photo of it. Earlier this year a class settlement offered money to Dollar General shoppers who could document an overcharge with a receipt or a photo of the shelf price. That claim window is closed now, but the photo habit works at any store.
I know. It feels small. But small is the whole point here.
Anyway, I wanted to make sure you heard about it before your next quick trip.
When the register rings up more than the tag, do you usually say something or let it go? Share it in the comments so we can all learn from it. I read every comment.
Letting a few cents slide doesn’t make you careless. It makes you a busy person standing in a line. But that money is yours, and asking for the price on the tag is just asking for what you were promised.
— Steve
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This is what I’m telling friends like you over coffee. But remember, you do you.