Dollar General agrees to New York overcharge settlement with price safeguards

Regional food bank will receive $1.875 million in food and personal items

Dollar General, the nation’s largest dollar-store chain, has agreed to a $1.875 million settlement with the New York attorney general’s office over allegations that its stores repeatedly overcharged customers. The company will donate food and personal items worth that amount to a regional food bank in upstate New York and must establish comprehensive price-accuracy safeguards at more than 600 stores statewide.

The state’s findings covered prices displayed on shelf labels, signs, advertising circulars and Dollar General’s mobile app. The New York attorney general’s office said Dollar General often charged customers more at checkout than the advertised prices and characterized the practice as “repeatedly and persistently” overcharging.

One check of 114 items across multiple stores found individual overcharges as high as 26%, 38% and 39%, the attorney general’s office said.

“When New Yorkers see a sale price advertised on the shelf, they should be able to trust that they’ll be charged that same price at the register,” the New York attorney general, Letitia James, said.

Under the agreement, Dollar General must schedule staff to help ensure shelf tags reflect accurate prices and hire independent auditors to conduct secret-shopper tests. The requirements apply across the company’s more than 600 New York stores and form part of a broader set of policies and procedures required by the settlement.

State investigators also found that Dollar General receipts contained “various confusing formats” that made it difficult for consumers to determine what they were paying. Dollar General must reformat receipts under the settlement.

Dollar General promotes itself as “a lifeline for affordable, everyday essentials.” The company neither admitted nor denied the New York authorities’ findings and did not respond to The Guardian’s questions about the settlement. Dollar General previously told The Guardian that it was “committed to providing customers with accurate prices on items purchased in our stores, and we are disappointed any time we fail to deliver on this commitment.”

A 2025 Guardian investigation found that Dollar General frequently overcharged customers across the nation for products including Flintstones vitamins, Peter Pan peanut butter and Prego pasta sauce.

The Guardian said Dollar General stores failed more than 4,300 government price-accuracy inspections in 23 states between 2022 and 2025. At one Dollar General in Port Henry, New York, an inspection flagged overcharges on 78% of the items checked.

The New York agreement applies to more than 600 company stores in the state, while The Guardian reported that Dollar General’s pricing issues were not limited to New York. The settlement requires changes to staff scheduling, independent testing, receipt formats and broader price-accuracy practices at the stores covered by the deal.