For some, finding a good deal is a win. On the other hand, there are a few who actively spend their shopping experience searching for upcoming discounts. Across social media, penny shopping has become a popular trend among bargain hunters for the past few years. However, one avid savings enthusiast attempted to cash in the penny items she discovered at Dollar Tree, only to have it backfire at the register.
What is penny shopping?
Penny shopping is the practice of finding hidden discounted items listed for a penny. Retailers like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Home Depot are among the most popular stores for penny shopping. Because the inventory is intended to be removed, it is marked to the penny to alert employees. Since employees have occasionally forgotten to pull the merchandise from the shelves, bargain hunters have discovered it and shared this information. Thanks to human error, it manifested into a large phenomenon.
A Dollar Tree penny shopping trip gone wrong
In her recent adventure inside her local Ocala, Florida Dollar Tree, Danais (@danais_0.00) pulls out wrapped paper bowls from a shelf and places them one by one in her cart.
“So far, so good. I wasn’t even planning to penny shop today,” she says in a hushed voice. “’Cause if not, it’s gonna end up in the garbage can.”
After loading her cart, she moves on to a garden aisle, where she unveils a row of various colored Gladiolus bulbs on one shelf and Flower Rocket flower seeds at the bottom.
“Look what I just found,” she says. “Now, I have a lot of them at home, but all of this is a penny.”
Then, the content creator holds a purple Coneflower Grow Kit from the same aisle. “I just scanned this. So, this is a penny as well, I’m gonna get this,” Danais states, adding the kit to her growing cart.
To prove it, she scans the bowl on the app, where ‘Product Not Found’ pops up, a sign of a penny item. Before checking out, the deal finder scans all of her products–paper bowls, grow kit, and pollinator– at a designated price checker where they all ring up for a penny.
When she tries to pay for her items, she is thrown a curveball.
“All right. [The worker] is denying the sale,” the content creator says, and adds to the employee, “It’s gonna end up in the garbage anyways.”
Despite Danais’s answer, the employee isn’t budging. “I know but I can’t do it,” she responds. Instead of arguing, she leaves Dollar Tree empty-handed. “It’s not her fault, though. It’s corporate,” she says.
Viewers expressed their anger in the comments section
The video accumulated over 7,800 views. Many viewers accused Dollar Tree of being wasteful for not selling the penny products.
“That’s so sad. Corporate would rather throw away than donate or let customers purchase for the price it rings up. America’s Corporate is greedy and wasteful,” one viewer commented.
“Truly sad and a waste,” another echoed.
“Our country is ridiculous!!!!! they would rather waste a product and throw it away then sell it smh good ole ‘merica!” a third agreed.
Why did the Dollar Tree employee deny the sale?
Due to the outrage, former and current workers elaborated on the reason why the employee in the clip rejected the transaction.
“The manager will get in trouble for selling that stuff. It’s really sad that it all goes in the dumpster. I used to work there a long time,” one commenter said.
Another elaborated, “I work for dollar tree and even the employees can’t buy stuff that’s Pennie’d out we have to destroy it. I be so mad when we have to put it in the dumpster but if it’s stuff that people can use I tell them before I’m taking it out so they can get it.”
According to the U.S. Sun, Dollar General isn’t supposed to sell the penny items but will honor them, whereas Dollar Tree doesn’t. Although there isn’t a public policy on penny sales, an alleged upper manager revealed the consequences on a r/dollartree subreddit.
“Penny items are [pulled] and [destroyed] with no exception. If upper management, or god forbid asset protection finds you are giving out or taking these items you will be immediately terminated after a lengthy investigation into internal theft if giving away/taking these is what your SM is teaching,” an alleged Dollar Tree upper manager explained.
Since every Dollar Tree location is different, results may vary if you penny shop there.
@danais_0.00 Smh ? #fyp #pennyshopper #dollartree #dumpster #viral ♬ original sound – PennywithDanais
The Mary Sue reached out to Danais via TikTok comment and direct message as well as Dollar Tree via press email.
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