12-packs of Coca-Cola are up by as much as $1.50 at Family Dollar and bags of Lay's potato chips cos
- Prices are creeping up at dollar stores as inflation soars.
- An analyst highlighted price increases at certain Dollar General and Family Dollar stores in the US.
- A 12-pack of Coca-Cola cost $1.50 more at some Family Dollar stores versus the year before, the analyst found.
Inflation has hit dollar stores, sending prices of a Coca-Cola 12-pack up by as much as $1.50, according to an analyst.
Price checks by Gordon Haskett analyst Chuck Grom, cited by The New York Post, revealed that several products sold at Family Dollar and Dollar General stores had crept up in price over the past year.
For example, a 10-ounce bag of Lay's potato chips at Dollar General stores in the Southwest was up $0.50, now costing $3.75 in August, Grom said. Frito-Lay is owned by PepsiCo, whose CEO has been outspoken about its plans to raise prices.
Grom found that a 12-pack of Coca-Cola cost $1.50 more at Family Dollar stores in the Northeast in August this year versus the year before.
Price hikes weren't limited to national brands either. Grom said that private-label milk at Dollar General's Southwest stores was also up by $0.74.
Dollar stores are among retailers that are raising prices as inflation soars to 30-year highs because of the rising cost of labor, raw materials, and supply chain expenses.
Last month, Dollar Tree, the only surviving major dollar store chain to sell items for $1 or under, also said it would be breaking the buck and stocking new items at $1.25 and $1.50. Dollar Tree's parent company owns Family Dollar.
In its most recent earnings call, Dollar General's CEO, Todd Vasos, discussed inflationary pressures, and said that while it was able to offset some of these costs, it had to raise prices in some cases.
But Vasos said that the chain has one key advantage over some of its competitors outside the dollar-store segment. It stocked a limited number of products – about 10,000 to 12,000, compared to about 60,000 found at a typical supercenter like Walmart – so it can just pick and choose which ones it wants to keep or drop if prices rise.
By not having the full assortment, it has greater flexibility — and Vasos said this is a tactic it has used a lot in the last two quarters.
Watch: Dollar stores may seem like an easy way to save money, but here's why you may be tempted to spend more
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