Originally published at: Dollar Tree kills $1 price limit, joining other major chains | Boing Boing
…
4 Likes
I was in Dollar Tree two days ago. A third of it’s shelves are bare mostly in the plastic containers section. Shipping delays from China and many factories over there now shutting down a few days a week to deal with a energy situation isn’t helping that situation neither.
11 Likes
And yet none of these chains are changing their names, despite the widespread business-school definition of a brand in part as a promise. The scamification of America continues, with those who can least afford it being the favourite target of all this nickel-and-diming (“dollar” stores, rent-to-own, payday loans, “easy” credit, etc.)
11 Likes
And as a reminder, they were already badly priced to begin with.
16 Likes
The retail death spiral is happening, it was completely predictable and totally avoidable. Christmas is going to be interesting, maybe those Walkmans from the 80’s up on a shelf [for 35 years] will make a comeback…
8 Likes
It really will be. This time of year, the media starts touting the hot toy – usually made in China, usually with a lot of plastic componenty – that parents will be battling over on Black Friday. In 2020 that didn’t happen, and now with serious supply chain problems I doubt anyone will try.
8 Likes
what could they change their name to ? “the 1.75 store”? “the still pretty cheap store”? “the 0.000042 bitcoin store”?
4 Likes
The only one that really bothers me is the “99 Cents Only” chain which has a name with a very specific promise. “Dollar Tree” is a bit more vague of a name. It’s not “The One Dollar Store.”
8 Likes
“What do you MEAN I can’t get a room for six dollars a night anymore? This is false advertising!”
9 Likes
I’ve always wondered why Safeway has about 2 feet of shelf space dedicated to electronic goods like DVD players and clock radios. Are they thinking they can get in one some of Best Buy’s action?
I’ve never seen such dusty boxes of Citizen, Lloyd’s and Jutan crap in my life.
2 Likes
Crossing my fingers that at least the Haribo products won’t increase much. Dollar Tree is the only place out of the big chains like 7-11 or Walmart or others that hasn’t broken the $2.50 barrier yet.
2 Likes
“Cheaporama”, “Discountree”, “Discount General”, “El Cheapo”. But no, they’ll be “dollar stores” even though most of the items they sell are already above that price.
TIL about the origin of that brand name. Though it looks like the founders of the motel chain grasped the concepts of both inflation and branding enough to exclude the dollar sign from their name.
3 Likes
“Dollar Tree” need not be interpreted as being limited to the singular. They now sell things that cost more than one dollar, just as Burger King will sell you more than one burger.
9 Likes
Or a tree that produces dollars. I still haven’t seen that magic tree.
6 Likes
And the Dollar General has always been kind of sketchy about the details of his supposed military service.
16 Likes
Similar story with Super 8 motels.
6 Likes
And who in the family is in possession of the Family Dollar?
6 Likes
Even if inflation remained relatively low forever there’s no way that a store like this can maintain the exact same price on their products indefinitely. If nothing else they’ll need to pay their workers more over time as the minimum wage goes up.
They kept prices at a dollar for 35 years. It was a good run.
11 Likes
Raise the price to $2, and call yourself The Deuce.
3 Likes
