Dollar General Higher Prices at Register New Jersey Class Action

Do you examine your register receipts to make sure that the prices you paid for items are the same as the prices shown on the store’s shelves? The complaint for this class action alleges that Dollar General stores in New Jersey are charging more for items at the register than the prices displayed. It brings suit against Dollar General Corporation (DGC), Dolgencorp, LLC, which does business as Dollar General, and a group of individuals, for violation of the New Jersey Advertising Regulations and other laws.

A class and a subclass have been proposed for this action:

• The class is all persons who lived in New Jersey on the date this complaint was filed, who at any time between December 5, 2016 and December 5, 2022 bought merchandise at a Dollar General store in New Jersey.
• The subclass is all members of the class who paid more for merchandise than the advertised price shown on the shelf at a Dollar General store located in New Jersey.

According to the complaint, Dollar General sells inexpensive merchandise primarily at prices below $10, aimed at low- to middle-income consumers with incomes of $40,000 per year or less. The complaint alleges that the stores tend to be located in suburban and rural areas fifteen to twenty miles from grocery and big-box stores, with around three-quarters of them being located in towns with populations of 20,000 or fewer people.

The plaintiff in this case, Ryan Button lives in Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey and shops at Dollar General stores. Early in 2022, the complaint alleges, Button began noticing differences between the prices displayed for merchandise at the shelves and the prices he paid at the register, with the prices at the register being higher. Button then began tracking the prices, the complaint alleges.

“Due to [Button’s] experiences in being charged more at checkout than the advertised shelf price for merchandise,” the complaint alleges, Button “started to take pictures of the advertised pries to document the advertised/shelf prices to compare them to what he was charged and paid at checkout.”

For example, on June 16, he alleges, he picked out a half-gallon of Clover Valley 2% milk, with the price shown as $3.15, for which he was charged $3.20 at the register, and a box of Lucky Charms cereal, with the price shown as $4.00, for which he was charged $4.75 at the register. The complaint shows similar alleged discrepancies for purchases made on June 21, June 23, June 28, and July 1.

The complaint claims, “It is Defendants’ policy and practice to charge a higher price at the register for merchandise than the price advertised on the unit price labels for the same merchandise on the shelves in Dollar General’s New Jersey stores.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, Price Not as Advertised