RALEIGH, N.C. (NCN News) – North Carolina’s Attorney General Jeff Jackson is taking retailer Dollar General to court. Jackson said the issue centers over pricing policies.
Jeff Jackson is suing the company for raising prices for many of their products without updating the sticker price on shelves, so customers unknowingly paid more at the register.
The Tar Heel State has the second-highest number of Dollar General stores in the country – over 1,000 stores, at least one in nearly every town. In many places in rural North Carolina, they’re the only local option for basic goods, food, and supplies.
“We’re suing Dollar General because they’re ripping people off, and they know it,” said Jackson said in a statement. “People should be able to trust that the price they see on the shelves is the price they’ll pay. But Dollar General has been breaking that trust. They’ve failed state inspections and been told over and over to fix these mistakes. They haven’t, so we’ll see them in court.”
While this lawsuit is pending, here’s what shoppers can do: Check your receipt before you leave the store. If you were charged more than the shelf price, ask the store to correct it. You can file a complaint with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Standards Division via the online complaint form or call 984-236-4751.
Jackson says that Dollar General is “well aware of the overcharging issue at its stores and has had ample opportunities to make sure that its sticker prices match its checkout prices Its stores have failed thousands of state pricing audits and have received almost 30,000 complaints about stores not honoring the listed price.”
Just last week, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture fined 10 Dollar General locations for overcharging customers beyond the listed price. The 10 stores are in Hertford, Pamlico, Carteret, Transylvania, Craven, Onslow, Buncombe, and Scotland counties. In addition, Dollar General stores have failed audits in previous years in Franklin, Alamance, Transylvania, Montgomery, Brunswick, Hyde, Lee, and Moore counties.
The Department of Agriculture regularly conducts inspections to ensure that sticker prices match prices at the register. One Dollar General in Swannanoa had overcharged for 32 out of nearly 300 items inspected. In 28 inspections carried out in 10 Dollar General stores throughout the state in two years, price inspectors found nearly 400 pricing inaccuracies.
Dollar General operates more than 1,150 stores in North Carolina. Approximately 80 percent of their stores throughout the country are located in towns of 20,000 or fewer people.
Jackson’s office is joining with federal officials and about two dozen states in the lawsuits.