Budzinski Calls Out Dollar Store Pricing as Shoppers Face Higher Everyday Costs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), led 29 Members of Congress in a letter to Dollar Store and Family Dollar raising concerns over widespread price discrepancies at locations nationwide. The letter follows a recent Guardian investigation that found items at these stores routinely ring up at checkout for significantly more than their posted shelf prices – and that, in many cases, stores fail to honor the lower price.

“At a time when Americans are struggling to make ends meet, companies that brand themselves around affordability should not be contributing to the very practices that make life more expensive,” said Budzinski. “The allegations raised by this reporting are incredibly troubling – especially for rural and underserved communities, where dollar stores are often the only nearby option for everyday necessities. “I am determined to make life more affordable for Central and Southern Illinoisans, and this letter is just the first step toward demanding real change, accountability, and honesty for hardworking Americans.”

The letter is signed by: Shontel Brown (OH-11), Andre Carson (IN-07), Greg Casar (TX-35), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Bill Foster (IL-11), Laura Friedman (CA-30), Chuy García (IL-04), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Daniel Goldman (NY-10), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Mary Kaptur (OH-09), Robin Kelly (IL-02), Seth Magaziner (RI-02), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Kristen Mcdonald Rivet (MI-08), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-Delegate), Johnny Olszewski (MD-02), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Mike Quigley (IL-05), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Emily Randall (WA-06), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Janice Schakowsky (IL-09), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Dina Titus (NV-01), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12)

The letter is endorsed by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), Groundwork Collaborative, and Public Citizen.

“Working families trust that the price on the shelf matches the price at the register, but dollar stores are violating that trust. These practices, and others like surveillance and dynamic pricing, are designed to squeeze families as much as possible. Rep. Budzinski and her colleagues in Congress are rightly shining a light on these deceptive practices and working to ensure that all families, no matter where they shop, are paying a fair price,” said Milton Jones, UFCW International President.

“The price on the shelf should be the price at the register. Shoppers deserve accurate prices when they load up their carts, but Family Dollar and Dollar Generalare trying to pull one over on Americans who are just trying to stock their fridges and pantries. As families across the country feel the squeeze in the grocery store checkout line, Representative Budzinski and her colleagues are holding companies accountable and fighting for fair pricing for consumers,” said Liz Pancotti, Managing Director of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative.

“As families struggle with rising costs, corporate greed and corruption only deepens the affordability crisis. Public Citizen applauds Representative Budzinski for taking action to investigate dollar store chains that appear to be overcharging customers and leaving working people with no meaningful recourse,” said Joshua Miller, Director of Congress Watch for Public Citizen.

To read the letter, see below or click here. 

Todd Vasos Chief Executive Officer Dollar General Corporation 100 Mission Ridge Goodlettsville, TN  37072

Duncan MacNaughton Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Family Dollar 510 Volvo Parkway Chesapeake, VA  23320

Mr. Vasos and Mr. MacNaughton,

We write to express serious concerns regarding a recent report which found that Dollar General and Family Dollar stores have failed a total of 6,400 price accuracy inspections across several states since January 2022. These staggering numbers lead us to wonder how seriously your companies prioritize affordability, consumer transparency, and corporate ethics for the constituents we represent.

Americans are facing an affordability crisis. Recent data show that grocery prices have spiked almost 30 percent over the last five years, with the highest increases occurring in everyday goods like ground coffee, beef, and eggs. In the same time frame, median household incomes have been stagnant. These increasing costs are also being paired with the use of technology, such as electronic shelf labels, which are enabling price gouging by dynamically adjusting prices based on personal data like income, race, and gender. This upward cost pressure as a result of skyrocketing prices across sectors, including groceries, coupled with flat household incomes has squeezed working families.

Despite this challenging economic climate, a December 3, 2025, report in The Guardian found that the prices for household essentials listed on the shelves at your stores often are not the same as the prices of these items at checkout. Per the report, “some of the biggest flops include a 76% error rate in October 2022 at a Dollar General in Hamilton, Ohio; a 68% error rate in February 2023 at a Family Dollar in Bound Brook, New Jersey; and a 58% error rate three months ago at a Family Dollar in Lorain, Ohio.”

The report shows that these incidents are not isolated to a geographic area or to a handful of stores across the country. Instead, the scale of documented violations seems to be the result of systemic failure within your corporate operations, leading to customers overpaying for their groceries, potentially without knowing, at a time in our history when they can least afford it.

In addition to the affordability concerns widespread across our country, many of our communities suffer from a lack of grocery options within easy walking or driving distance. In many instances, the local Dollar General or Family Dollar is the only viable location to purchase everyday goods and groceries. Because your stores are often the sole option for essentials in underserved neighborhoods and rural communities, your companies occupy a unique position of trust and responsibility. It is deeply troubling to see that these limited options have been exploited to the detriment of working families as a result of negligent pricing practices or deceptive marketing.

Further, the report found that some of your stores refuse to honor the shelf price or provide refunds when errors are caught. In an effort to stymie consumer recourse, your mobile app terms of service force customers into arbitration, effectively blocking class-action lawsuits for small-dollar overcharges. This refusal to honor shelf prices coupled with forced arbitration agreements takes away virtually any possible course of action for customers who have been wrongly and unfairly overcharged at your stores.

In response to this deeply troubling report, we request responses to the following inquiries from each of your businesses in writing no later than January 10, 2026:

• Why have your stores’ internal auditing systems continuously failed to detect pricing error rates of this magnitude before state inspectors arrive?
• What specific technological or procedural safeguards are you implementing to ensure the point-of-sale system automatically triggers a “stop-sell” or alert when a price change has not yet been physically verified on the shelf?
• What is your official corporate policy regarding “shelf price guarantees?”
• Do you acknowledge that systematic overcharging has a disparate impact on financially vulnerable populations?
• Did you consult consumer or outside stakeholder groups representing consumer interests in your app development?
• Do you plan to invest in additional pricing and shelf pricing technologies? 
• What specific steps are you taking to provide restitution to communities where chronic overcharging has been documented?
• Will you commit to waiving mandatory arbitration for disputes involving pricing discrepancies so that consumers have a realistic path to legal recourse?

Additionally, we request the following documentation from each of your companies:

• All email communications, policies, or memoranda regarding price labelling practices from January 2022 to the present. 
• All documents and communications related to the decision to require forced arbitration for app usage.
• All documents and communications regarding the financial impact of pricing errors, including any analysis of revenue generated from positive versus negative scan errors from January 2022 to the present.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and we look forward to your responses.

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