The auditor’s office will start performing its routine inspections of all Montgomery County retailers soon.
County auditors inspect retailers to ensure that prices on the shelves match the prices at the register. In a retailer the size of a dollar store, inspectors will select and scan 50 items at random off the shelves, according to an auditor’s office press release.
If more than 2% of items tested are found to be inaccurately priced, the retailer fails its inspection.
“We will continue to make sure the price you see in the aisle is the price you pay at the register,” Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith said.
The auditor’s staff have price-checked more than 3,100 items during 63 inspections that spanned from January to June at Dollar General locations this year.
A store at 720 E. Main St. in Trotwood has failed four times. Its fail rate during its four 2023 inspections has ranged from 16-42%, according to the auditor’s office.
Three shops in Dayton, one in Huber Heights and one in Vandalia also failed their initial inspections, but all stores passed at least one follow-up inspection, according to auditor’s office data.
This is a stark contrast from last year’s inspections. Twenty-two of the retailer’s 32 Montgomery County locations failed inspections during the price verification sweep of Dollar General stores, according to the auditor’s office.
The bargain chain showed little improvement in follow-up inspections, with 13 stores failing a second time and six failing three times in a row before the end of 2022, according to the auditor’s office.
Despite the improvements, Keith says consumers should still be vigilant. If a consumer believes they are being overcharged at Dollar General or another retailer, he advises them to ask store staff to correct the price.
If they do not resolve the issue, they can call Keith’s consumer hotline at 937-225-6309 to request an inspection.
The auditor’s staff inspects more than 5,000 gas pumps, tests more than 2,000 scales, and performs scanning tests on more than 18,000 items at more than 340 retailers each year.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost took Dollar General to court in Butler County a year ago. From March 2021 to August 2022, they received complaints detailing similar “unfair and deceptive practices” by Dollar General stores in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Highland, Lucas, Madison, Richland, Summit and Trumbull counties.
Dollar General will also pay $250,000 in its settlement for penalties and reimbursement for investigative costs. The settlement details that Dollar General does not admit wrongdoing.
“I’m glad to see Dollar General pay up for their breach of their customers’ trust,” Keith said. “We supported the state’s litigation by providing them with evidence of overcharging from our pricing inspections here in Montgomery County.”
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