With inflation hammering our wallets every time we shop, one of the last holdouts was Dollar Tree. But not anymore as shoppers are discovering this month.
For three decades, Dollar Tree was the one store where shoppers like Willa Davenport knew everything would cost one dollar.
Last October, she found canned food for a dollar. Greeting cards – a dollar. Party supplies – a dollar.
During a visit last fall, we grabbed this roll of Glad wrap and this jug of drain cleaner for just a buck. We wondered: how could they afford to do that?
But a return trip this past week found those one dollar signs gone. Replaced by big $1.25 signs. Those Glad products and drain cleaner are now $1.25.
Shopper Larissa Liss understands, given the soaring costs of shipping and materials.
"Prices go up for everything. Dollar Tree, you can only get things for a dollar for so long. I knew it eventually was going to happen,” she said.
Dollar Tree says by May all its stores will have raised prices to $1.25, with a few items even higher.
Its CEO said, however, the store is still providing "an undeniable value, whether it is $1, $1.25, or $1.50."
Diedre Harris says these days $1.25 is still a bargain.
"!t's still worth it, still worth it," she said.
But other shoppers like Shannon Carr are lamenting the loss of one of the last holdouts to rising prices.
"That's why we go there. Because it is a dollar, not a dollar fifty. One dollar," she said.
With raw materials and shipping costs soaring, though, no store can continue selling products like its still 1990.
One nugget of good news: we found greeting cards still a dollar, which is one fifth the cost at chain drugstores.
And that way you don’t waste your money.