cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53855582
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.
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