New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a $1.875 million settlement with Dollar General after an investigation found the retailer routinely overcharged customers at its stores.
Under the settlement, Dollar General will donate $1.875 million worth of food and personal care items to Rochester-based nonprofit Foodlink. The company also must make changes to its pricing policies, employee training and receipts to help ensure customers are charged the lowest advertised or listed price.
Dollar General investigation found pricing errors
The Office of the New York Attorney General launched its investigation after receiving complaints that Dollar General charged customers more than advertised prices.
Investigators reviewed more than 900 inspection reports from Dollar General stores across New
York from 2021 to 2023. About 43% of the reports documented price accuracy failures exceeding the state's allowable 2% error rate, according to the attorney general's office.
Investigators also visited 11 Dollar General stores in Western New York as secret shoppers and found they were overcharged for about 14% of the items they purchased.
The investigation found discrepancies between checkout prices and prices listed on shelf tags, in print and digital advertisements, and in digital coupons. Investigators also found that some receipts made it difficult for customers to determine the prices they paid after discounts and promotions.
“When New Yorkers see a sale price advertised on the shelf, they should be able to trust that they’ll be charged that same price at the register,” James said in a statement.
What changes must Dollar General make?
Under the settlement, Dollar General must implement several changes at its New York stores, including:
- Honor the lowest advertised or listed price when it differs from the price charged at checkout.
- Assign employees to keep shelf tags accurate and train all New York employees on pricing requirements.
- Revise receipts to clearly display item-level discounts and show savings from sales, discounts and coupons in one place.
- Post signs explaining the company's responsibility to honor the lowest listed price.
- Hire an independent auditor to conduct unannounced pricing audits at every New York store twice per fiscal year.
- Conduct 15 additional random audits per fiscal year to check whether weekly advertised prices match shelf and register prices.
- Establish a process to verify that register prices match prices in weekly advertisements.
- Require district managers to conduct pricing audits every six weeks.
- Correct pricing discrepancies identified through inspections and audits within 24 hours.
New York law requires retailers to charge no more than the lowest applicable advertised, written, posted or marked price. Retailers also must achieve at least 98% price accuracy during inspections by weights and measures officials.
Foodlink to distribute donated goods
The $1.875 million donation will provide food and personal care items to Foodlink, which works with food pantries and meal programs across the region.
“We are grateful for this donation from the Attorney General’s office and will work with our network of food pantries and meal programs to quickly distribute these goods to our neighbors experiencing food insecurity,” said Julia Tedesco, Foodlink's president and CEO.
Tedesco said the donation will help the nonprofit's network support households struggling to afford food, housing, transportation and other essentials.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Dollar General donating $1.875M in goods to Foodlink after NY probe
