NEW YORK -- The Federal Trade Commission has sued the bargain chain Dollar General for what it characterized as “long-running deceptive pricing practices” by charging customers more once they reach the register than the prices that are displayed on shelves and in advertisements.

Twenty states joined in the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. It said that Dollar General failed to correct the issue despite what it said was “extensive corporate knowledge of the problem.”

“Dollar General has betrayed the trust of millions of American consumers and imposed significant financial harm on communities and consumers who are already struggling to make their paychecks last,” wrote Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Dollar General, based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, did not immediately return a request for comment from The Associated Press.

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[–] 4 points 5 days ago (9 children)

I'm not lying, I'm genuinely confused.

Based on how Americans online talk about shopping, it seems to me that if I go to America and see a $5 price tag on something, I have to pay more than $5 to get it, and Americans just accept this as normal.

What is different about what Dollar General is doing?

I am asking sincerely.

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  • [–] 12 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Because even though sales tax not being included in the list price is dumb, it is expected. You don’t get to the register and have a completely unrelated price. What DG is doing here, if I understand, is having the final price be completely decoupled from the list price.

    I don’t know about you, but I don’t double check each line item on my receipt against the aisles after checkout. So while you might think it seems a bit high, you don’t automatically assume something fishy.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 days ago

    I know it's not sincere because this part was the lie.

    they attempt to explain yet again that showing a price lower than the cost is normal and good?

    That didn't happen. Not to mention this article said absolutely nothing about sales tax which is what you were told is the only thing remotely like this, so it's pretty obvious you weren't genuinely confusing the two.

    Getting used to something that sucks isn't the same as accepting it. You ask 1000 people if they'd prefer this change, probably 998 would say yes. The 2 saying no would just be because they're used to it.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

    Anyone that tells you they don't know the price is playing dumb or is dumb. All you need to know is your state's sale tax and do the math.

    Sometimes you'll get hit with a small city or county tax in an area you don't know (usually 1-2%), but these are rare and in the most populus areas. Most places it's just the state tax.

    Point is if you are shopping in your home state in your home city you know exactly what you need to pay. Doing the math is inconvenient, I won't argue that. But it's not a total mystery. If someone were that concerned they can lookup tax rates and calculate.

    What dollar general is doing is they are updating a price in their computer system, but not changing the tag. So an item with a $5 price tage should cost $5 plus the local tax. But in reality the item was $6 plus the local tax because dollar general didn't change the price tag so you can't know the price.

    Don't get me wrong I wish everything was included on the tag, but it's not some unknowable random price. There are rules

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (4 children)

    Problem being, our sales taxes vary by state, county and city and sometimes by area (like a beach hotel with higher taxes) and they can change every election. Aside from being a pain in the ass to keep up with labelling, no one wants to be the hero with "honest" pricing and go out of business for seeming more expensive.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    If the cash register can manage to figure out granularity in the local taxes, so can the price tag printer. Updating tags every couple years after an election might be a pain, but it isn't exactly a herculean task - they seem to manage it in places where tax-included pricing is required.

    The problem is, as you say, no one wants to be the hero: No business wants to appear more expensive than competitors, and no legislator wants to be the one to make cost of living appear even higher.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago

    If the cash register can manage to figure out granularity in the local taxes, so can the price tag printer.

    That's fine, until you have multiple locations in multiple jurisdictions, but you publish your prices in newspapers, radio, tv, etc.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago

    in places where tax-included pricing is required

    I've gotten the impression from comments that places like the EU are not nearly so granular in sales tax. Know if that's true?

    Anyway, this started long before tag printers and easy scans. It's a sort of stupid, I dunno, "tradition" by now?

    I did miss the part about political will! That's a non-starter. NO politician would go for that. Just imagine the attack ads and couple that with how dumb we Americans are. "Did your prices go up after $asshole took office?!" Yeah.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago

    It's also because businesses don't pay sales tax on their purchases. Only the end user pays sales tax. European businesses don't either. They do pay VAT at the time of purchase, but they get to reclaim their VAT payments when they file their taxes. Only the end user actually pays VAT.

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