These dollar store chains increase product prices at checkout, Ohio lawsuit says
The Ohio attorney general sued two dollar store chains, accusing them of charging higher prices at checkout.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit against Family Dollar and Dollar Tree for “unfair and deceptive” actions and “bait advertising,” according to the complaint filed in the Butler County Common Pleas Court on Monday, Nov. 7.
The owner of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, Dollar Tree Inc., told McClatchy News on Nov. 9 that it was “dedicated to serving the needs of our shoppers and providing them with great values on the products they need and want,” and “committed to operational compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws.”
The complaint says the stores list one price on shelves but sometimes charge a higher price at checkout. This damages buyers “whether they realize the pricing difference at the point of sale or not,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the actions were “unfair and deceptive” by “representing that a specific price advantage exists, if it does not.” They also accused the stores of “bait advertising” by offering items at a certain price without genuinely trying to sell the items at that price, the complaint says.
“We’re looking not just for reimbursement, but we want a court order to make them stop doing this and to put adequate controls in place so that the price you see on the shelf is the price that they charge at the register,” Yost said in a news release.
Dollar Tree and Family Dollar have more than 400 stores throughout Ohio, the complaint says. Dollar Tree purchased Family Dollar in 2015 to target “low- and lower-middle income households through its urban and rural locations.”
The Ohio attorney general filed a similar lawsuit against Dollar General on Nov. 1, according to a news release, accusing the chain of “deceptive pricing.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 12:16 PM with the headline "These dollar store chains increase product prices at checkout, Ohio lawsuit says."
