After inflation began to spike during the pandemic, shoppers started to look for ways to decrease their grocery bills. One way they did this was by turning to dollar stores; according to an article by Dawn Allcot, “Dollar stores saw an 89.7% increase in food purchases between 2008 and 2020,” with a more substantial growth observed in rural areas.
However, as prices have continued to rise, those dollar stores are less of a deal than they once were. Shoppers observed that many items for sale in dollar stores could be purchased for less in stores like Walmart, and over time, these dollar stores opted to increase their prices far above the dollar in their name.
Recently, Dollar Tree announced that it would be setting a new price cap for its items at $7, an increase from its previously announced cap of $5.
The internet’s reaction was swift. One user showed herself buying as many items from Dollar Tree as possible before the price increase, while another observed that the company was attempting to target a higher income bracket than in previous years.
It should be noted that this does not mean that prices will be increasing to $7 across the board. Rather, as Dollar Tree CEO Rick Dreiling put it in a Mar. 13 earnings call, some items will be stocked at the $7 price point, and “over time, you will also see us fully integrate multi-price merchandise more into our stores so our shoppers will find $5 bags of dog food next to our traditional $1.25 pet treats and toys, and our $3 bags of candy will be found in the candy aisle.”
Despite this, a user on Reddit says that the in-person reaction of shoppers has not been great.
“Had a lady call today about price increase,” writes u/HappyDay2290 in a post on r/DollarTree. “People are losing their minds over this news about DT doing a price increase…told her the facts and she didn’t want to hear it. She said she would be up to buy all of our toliet paper. Thank goodness my shift ended.”
Immediately, commenters put forth the idea that customers should not blame workers for this move, but corporate.
“Why don’t they take that energy and call corporate?” asked a commenter. “Customers think the individual store made the price changes? It’s always ‘you’ not ‘them in corporate.’”
“Calling the store to complain to people that have nothing to do with the change… yeah I don’t miss working here,” added another.
“Literally everything else in this world has had price increases. You don’t think DT needs to increase theirs too?” questioned a third.
Although most commenters stressed that many items will remain at the low price point, others claimed that the various price increases, and the risk of future price increases, have driven them away from shopping at the store.
“Dollar tree is so silly bc i will literally not buy anything over the $1.25,” said a user. “I wont even get things from the current $3-5 section. Like i went there to spend $1 not anything more.”
“It’s not really the ‘dollar tree’ anymore,” observed a second. “Half the appeal is that you know how much everything costs. It’s just a store now that sells kinda cheap stuff.”
The Daily Dot reached out to HappyDay2290 via Reddit message and Dollar Tree via email.
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