Chain With 1K PA Stores Overcharged Customers, Must Pay $1.5M: Officials

PENNSYLVANIA — A popular convenience store chain with nearly 1,000 locations in Pennsylvania will pay a hefty fine for charging customers higher prices than what was labeled and advertised on shelves.

State Attorney General Dave Sunday has announced a settlement with Dollar General Corporation and its parent company, Dolgen Corporation after an investigation revealed numerous occasions in which consumers were charged higher prices at the store registers.

The inquiry also found that Dollar General stores revealed that Dollar General stores failed more than 40 percent of pricing accuracy inspections between 2019 and 2023.

Under the settlement, Dollar General will pay $1.55 million to the state in penalties and costs and has agreed to improve their business practices via employee training and sufficient staffing.

”Our investigation found widespread and repeated instances of Pennsylvanians being overcharged at checkout —blatant deception of customers all over the commonwealth,” Sunday said in a statement. “We are hopeful the corporation takes this settlement very seriously as Pennsylvanians expect to pay the price that is on stickers and labels.”

This settlement resolves allegations that Dollar General misrepresented prices and engaged in practices that are prohibited by the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.

In addition to the financial penalties, the settlement further requires that Dollar General modify its business practices to prevent future violations of the consumer protection law. As detailed in the settlement agreement, Dollar General will undertake the following steps in its Pennsylvania stores:

• Train employees on ensuring price accuracy as well as their obligation to honor the lowest advertised price.
• Maintain sufficient staffing to update shelf tags on at least a weekly basis;
• Ensure each store undergoes at least two unannounced pricing audits during each fiscal year;
• Conduct either an enhanced audit or full store assessment of each store that fails three or more price audits during a 12 month period;
• Correct all reported or known price inaccuracies within 24 hours; and
• Post a notice at each register (point of sale) stating that the lowest posted price will be honored and informing customers that they can seek a price override if necessary.