It's the same products I usually buy, but at a subtly lower quality. I always know, by taste, when cookies come from a dollar store.
Duracell batteries just don't seem to last as long.
Things like that.
I imagine DG and other stores are doing the same thing, or at least taking advantage of the alternative SKUs.
Side note: Contrast this with Costco, which does the opposite. They get manufacturers to release better versions of their normal SKUs, either higher quality, extra features, extra doodads. My last company sold an electronic product and for a brief time struck a deal with Costco to sell in a few of their stores. Normally our package just includes the product and power supply, but they asked us to also include an HDMI cable for the Costco version of the packaging, just to make things easier for customers (most customers needed an extra HDMI cable to use our product any way, but we never included one usually because our margins tended to be quite thin).
So I've experienced Costco's reverse-Walmart tactic both as a customer and a supplier. It was a neat thing to learn!
Most other things though - you realize how badly we are getting ripped off everywhere else.
Chocolate, canned things, paper.
I loathe going to the 'Dollar Store' because it's so tacky, but then, I feel like a fool for buying the more expensive 'same thing' elsewhere.
Here is a business plan: the 'Target' version of the 'Dollar Store'.
Someone needs to make 'the cheap store' that is hip - a little focus on colour, layout. Just some thoughtfulness in terms of merchandising would go a long way.
It's a tragedy that there is no objective measure for gosh sakes - some last hours some last days. Can't tell from the label.
The name-brand batteries I get tend to vastly outlast the off-brand ones - Im amazed they can't put some kind of 'kWh' on their labels.