Dollar-store shopping has always been a tightrope act for me, requiring weighing my desire for a bargain against my limited patience for stores with spotty inventory and lines that snake down the aisles. Then something happened to make the balancing act even more challenging.
In late November 2021 Dollar Tree, one of the largest national dollar-store brands and a place I shop regularly, announced that after 35 years of offering all merchandise for just $1, it was raising the price across the board to $1.25.It’s a sign of our inflationary times. This March, the Consumer Price Index, a measure of the average price of goods and services, rose by 8.5 percent over last year, the biggest spike in 40 years.
And yet, the 25 percent increase in prices at Dollar Tree is almost three times the rate of inflation. So I wondered: What does this say about the quality of the bargains at Dollar Tree these days, and are dollar stores in general still places to get a deal?
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I had a good baseline point of comparison. Last year, in "The Truth About Those Dollar Stores," Consumer Reports investigated the Big Three of "value" retail: Dollar Tree and the national chains Dollar General and Family Dollar. Including myself, eight CR staffers and secret shoppers from across the country purchased 14 everyday items—pasta sauce, toothpaste, breakfast cereal, floor cleaner, and more—at the three dollar stores to compare prices against those at their local supermarkets.
In our report, Dollar Tree returned the lowest total prices for the entire haul 50 percent of the time, and Dollar General had the best prices the other half. To find out whether the two still reign supreme inflation notwithstanding, I did a one-man spot check, shopping for the same market basket of goods at the very same Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and supermarket I had visited in Brooklyn last year.
Here’s what I found this time, including a price comparison of the six items that I was able to find in all three of the stores.
My Observations
Inventory in dollar stores has always been unpredictable—with, say, pancake syrup in stock one week but not the next—and savvy shoppers know to get what they want while the getting is good. But at least in the case of Dollar Tree, the prices were always consistently one dollar—until now.
Dollar Tree
With the news of the price hike, the company said Dollar Tree would “materially expand its offerings, introduce new products and sizes, and provide families with more of their daily essentials.”
But I was hard-pressed to see much “material expansion” during my recent visit. Shrinkage is more like it. Last August, a 15-pack of 7x6-inch sheets of Lysol Disinfecting Wipes sold for $1. Those were gone this time, replaced by "To-Go Travel Size Packs” of Lysol wipes, 15 in all but measuring a measly 3x4 inches for $1.25. CR’s request for comment from Dollar Tree representatives about the downsized wipes went unanswered.
The Lysol Lemon Breeze multi-surface cleaner and Hunt’s Garlic & Herb pasta sauce were still the same size, as were the Betty Crocker fudge brownie mix and Palmolive Ultra dishwashing liquid. Crest baking soda and peroxide toothpaste was actually larger—up to 2.4 ounces from last year’s 2.3 ounces. Last year the Dollar Tree market basket was $7.55 before tax (based on unit prices and hypothetical standardized package sizes). My most recent receipt came to $9.09—a 20 percent increase, very close to the 25 percent across-the-board hike the chain instituted.
Dollar General
It seems that while Dollar Tree has sworn off dollar pricing, Dollar General has embraced it. This March, Dollar General executives informed investors that 20 percent of its merchandise is priced at $1 or less and that they are committed to keeping prices low. The store currently claims to have “over 2,000 name brand items for $1 or less” and even has an aisle devoted to dollar deals.
In August 2021, six of the items on my shopping list were a dollar or less. This time, eight were, including Palmolive dishwashing detergent, Kraft barbecue sauce, and Crest toothpaste. In 2021, the entire Dollar General market basket was $7.65 before tax. My most recent receipt came to $8.17—up 7 percent.
Pathmark
At the Pathmark supermarket that I last shopped in 2021, prices for Hunt’s pasta sauce, Palmolive dishwashing detergent, and a single-serve cup of Kellogg’s Fruit Loops remained exactly the same. The price of Barilla thin spaghetti, Crest baking soda whitening toothpaste, 35-count Lysol disinfecting wipes, and Kraft barbecue sauce each rose by 10 to 20 cents.
The most significant increase over last year’s receipts was in the health and personal care aisle, where the price of a 24-count box of 200 milligram Advil tablets rose by more than 50 percent, from 4.99 last August to $7.59. Last year the entire Pathmark supermarket market basket was $11.24 before tax; my most recent receipt came to $12.37—up 10 percent.
Bottom Line
The major difficulty with doing a year-over-year store-vs.-store comparison in value retail is the unpredictable availability of items and the varied sizes they come in across stores. So while I had hoped to be able to re-shop my entire list of 14 items from a year ago, this time I was able to find only six items in common at all three stores.
Last summer, Dollar Tree and Dollar General were neck-and-neck in the race for dollar-store dominance. But now, at least based on my little shopping experiment, Dollar General comes out on top.
Calculating the unit price of standard sizes of the six items—Hunt’s pasta sauce, Betty Crocker brownie mix, Kraft barbecue sauce, Lysol multi-surface cleaner, Palmolive dishwashing liquid, and Lysol disinfecting wipes—that were consistent at the three stores, I found that Dollar Tree’s prices rose by 20 percent, Dollar General’s by 7 percent, and the supermarket’s by 10 percent.
So if the question is, "Are dollar stores worth it?" in my book, the answer is yes—depending on the store.
True, I shopped at only one outpost of two dollar-store chains and one point-of-comparison supermarket, and cannot claim that my limited spot check captures national trends. True, the dollar-store aisles were as cluttered as ever, the lines as long, and the inventory as hit-or-miss. For fresh food and items in big-box-store sizes, you’ll still have to shop elsewhere. And while you may not reliably be able to find everything you require to feed your family or clean your home at a dollar store, when you do find what you need, the savings can be real.
Today, that matters. As inflation continues its skyward trajectory and I watch my utility costs grow more cringeworthy with each passing billing cycle, I for one am willing to put in a little effort to save a little money. In fact, because inflation is making so many of us poorer by the minute, searching out deals can feel like the financially responsible strategy. The five bricks of Top Ramen I scored for a dollar last week? I like to think of it as both dinner on the table and money in the bank.
