Re:Dollar-stores overcharge cash-strapped customers while pr...
by kaluga on Monday December 08, 2025 @07:16AM
(#46191384)
What this investigation really shows isn’t “bad dollar stores” — it’s a perfect case study in how misaligned incentives scale.
If updating shelf prices costs labor, but failing inspections costs almost nothing, then the rational outcome is widespread overcharging. And when the customer base has low mobility, limited alternatives, and little time to notice each discrepancy, the effective penalty for inaccuracy approaches zero.
This isn’t a glitch in the system — it’s the system working exactly as designed. Any market where the poorest customers face the highest frictions will inevitably become a profit center based on those frictions.
The surprising thing isn’t that this happens.
The surprising thing is that we still pretend it’s accidental.
If updating shelf prices costs labor, but failing inspections costs almost nothing, then the rational outcome is widespread overcharging. And when the customer base has low mobility, limited alternatives, and little time to notice each discrepancy, the effective penalty for inaccuracy approaches zero.
This isn’t a glitch in the system — it’s the system working exactly as designed. Any market where the poorest customers face the highest frictions will inevitably become a profit center based on those frictions.
The surprising thing isn’t that this happens. The surprising thing is that we still pretend it’s accidental.