This has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but to clarify: the business model used to be "everything (almost) is a dollar." Now it has shifted to "Everything is a (seemingly) low price, and all prices are rounded off."

The strategy is predatory: You take a product like name-brand dish soap, divide it up into smaller containers (but not small enough to be obvious!) and presto, your soap is "cheaper" per unit, when in reality, you're charging more per oz. Then you make it as convenient as possible: more locations that Starbucks, nice rounded off prices so customers don't have to do math, and so on. The bottom line is that you end up profiting by over-charging poor people who either don't realize what's happening or have no other viable options.