[Skylled]

There's just something off about products from DG, especially the ones in specially marked DG packaging.

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.

[fpgaminer]

It's common for Walmart to convince brand name manufacturers to make "special" (aka cheaper) versions of their normal SKUs for sale at Walmart. Usually this means the product's packaging, contents, and specs stay more-or-less the same, but the general quality of the item is lower in various hard to discern dimensions (cheaper plastics, less metal parts, etc). The idea, I imagine, is to trick comparison shoppers into thinking they got a deal, when really they got exactly what they paid for.

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!

[tomcam]

Best Buy and Wal-Mart love to hit their customers with the HDMI cables, which clearly make up for lost margins on the printers. I often see them priced in $20 territory.

[alexasmyths]

Stay away from the batteries.

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.

[shostack]

Where is a good place to buy batteries online these days? I feel like Amazon is a crap shoot with all the expired product or knock-offs they have.

[rainbowmverse]

I bought some AmazonBasics AAs for my old camera (Canon PowerShot SX100 IS). They last hundreds of shots on a charge.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HZV9TGS/

[mschuster91]

Hmm. In Germany, I shop batteries at conrad.de - an electronic retailer chain. They're expensive, yes, but the stock is quality, you can get weird stuff like coin cells with solderable pads on them (which gets handy when you're repairing old stuff with soldered batteries!) and you can have them ship to the nearest store for pickup.

[alexasmyths]

I think with batteries you get what you pay for.

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.

[xinyhn]

Definitely possible the various brands of batteries have changed since this testing I have referenced this in the past. http://www.batteryshowdown.com/results-hi.html