Price discrepancies were found at discount stores across the state including Butler and Montgomery counties.
Dollar General filed a motion on Jan. 6 in Butler County Court to dismiss the case, saying the allegations are “vague and ambiguous” and lack sufficient proof of misconduct.
The company further argued that the “whole context of the interaction must be considered,” adding that stores are required to display a screen at the register that shows the exact price customers are being charged for any item.
At a Dollar General Market on Friday in Fairborn, Dayton Daily News reporters purchased $49.45 worth of goods, out of which two items rang up at incorrect prices: one 25 cents over the advertised price, and one 25 cents under the advertised price.
Dollar General staff offered to correct the issue when it was brought to their attention.
Yost has requested a hearing regarding a preliminary injunction that would require Dollar General to abide by Ohio consumer laws as this case progresses. Yost announced lawsuits against Tennessee-based Dollar General and Virginia-based Family Dollar over the pricing discrepancies in November 2022.
In the months since the lawsuit was filed, the attorney general’s office has received 116 complaints regarding Dollar General’s shelf-pricing issues, according to a release from Yost’s office.
In November, the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office investigated this issue, scanning 50 random items at every Dollar General and Family Dollar store in the county and comparing them to the sticker price.
The auditor’s office found the price at the register didn’t match the list price for items at 26 of the 32 Dollar General stores and 15 of the 23 Family Dollar stores in Montgomery County, according to data obtained by the Dayton Daily News.
Overall, the county auditor’s office said that Dollar General failed tests 69% of the time, and Family Dollar stores failed 43% of the time. The Ohio Department of Agriculture, which regulates pricing statewide, only allows stores to have an error rate of up to 2%.
More stores failed between early November and mid-December than in any of the last five years, Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith said.
“The stores that failed that round, we give them another within the next 30 days and we’ve been going back sooner than that,” Keith said. “We’ll have to go back and inspect again. Then, after that, we’ve got some options that we’re looking at and weighing.”
A representative of the auditor’s office confirmed Friday that they followed up with the stores that failed and rechecked them, and the results of those follow-up inspections were not available yet.
The auditor’s office can file with the director of the Department of Agriculture, which oversees their weights and measures program and can levy a fine on the stores for failure to comply. The office also can go to common pleas court and file an injunction to have the store closed.
The $800,000-plus Dollar General lawsuit was filed after the Butler County Auditor’s Office investigated 20 Dollar General stores countywide and found prices on store shelves were lower than at the registers. In Butler County, the auditor’s price verification checks at Dollar General stores showed double-digit error rates up to 88%.
The attorney general’s office reported from March 2021 to August 2022, it received 12 complaints detailing similar “unfair and deceptive practices” by Dollar General stores in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Highland, Lucas, Madison, Richland, Summit and Trumbull counties.
Both the Montgomery County auditor and Greene County Auditor David Graham said that understaffing and undertraining of workers are possible contributing factors to the failure rates. In Greene County, auditor’s office staff tested five Dollar Generals after receiving complaints, Graham said, and each of them passed.
Anyone with complaints about unfair pricing practices in Montgomery County are encouraged to contact the auditor’s tip line at 937-225-6309, or on the auditor’s website.
