For me dollars store are the reliable place to buy toxic stuff, cleaning supplies and in general non-food item.
I like that it’s small and to the point.
The food there make me sad, though. It’s almost exclusively crap.
It depends upon what type of food you are looking for. If you are looking for branded things like pop, chips, chocolates/candy etc, then they are very good deal.
Dollar Stores are hit and miss. I needed some emergency earbuds for a trip. Wow, I didn't know you could manufacture earbuds that sounded that bad, even at the $1 price point. I am by no means an audiophile either.
Can you give a more specific example of this? Like if it's two different brands of "chicken noodle soup", then I'd assume the ingredient list could/would change.
But are you saying that a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup in the dollar store is different from the Campbell's can at Walmart? e.g. the same brand ingredients change?
It was about two years ago when I checked. I noticed an item in the refrigerated section at Dollar Tree, where the item was $1, yet I had just purchased the same item at the grocery for more money. I purchased the item at Dollar Tree and compared the ingredients.
Then I checked one other item, as it occurred to me. It was idle curiousity more than anything else. I know there much be some difference between the item at a dollar store and the item at a non-dollar store, either expiration, item size, item ingredients, or something else.
Obviously the stock is somewhat inconsistent.
Yikes! Cleaning supplies and medical stuff are things I will _never_ buy from a dollar store. Most of the cleaning chemicals have more fragrance than active ingredients, they never work well but the place smells like you cleaned like mad. I have to assume the medical stuff is just as poor quality, but I have no way of assessing it.
It also bothers me that a lot of the cleaning products are packed in bottles shaped like drink bottles; an illiterate or merely distracted person could be in for a nasty surprise.
We agree on the food, for sure. It never _says_ it's expired, but it tastes ten years old.
One thing I always get at the dollar store is lint traps. The big box charges 3x the price for an absolutely equivalent product. Lint traps and office supplies. I don't think I've ever bought envelopes or binder clips anywhere else.