Here’s something you don’t hear too often: beware of candy! At least the dollar store kind. A few years ago, two friends and I stopped into the dollar store to pick some up, then headed home to watch a movie. Naturally, we share among ourselves, and as we’re going through the last bag (off-brand stuff that I won’t identify), one of my buddies says “don’t eat the yellow ones, they smell off”. Naturally, we’re curious, but not (very) stupid, so I grab a yellow one and smell it, recoiling from the scent, and offering a comment to the effect of “yeeugh, that’s nasty”. Well, that tempts my other friend, who also takes a sniff and makes what was, in retrospect, the best disgusted face I’ve ever seen. Well, a challenge can’t go unmet, so I gingerly take a bite out of one.
I spit it out with enough force to make it stick to the TV, eight feet away. I spend the rest of the night trying to get the taste out of my mouth. It didn’t work. I didn’t actually swallow any of the candy, but it was so bad that six hours later, I was in the bathroom dry heaving, trying to rid my body of something it didn’t contain.
The moral of the story: stick with the brands you know, and failing that, smell it first.
Dollar Tree is a must prior to a movie. I can’t eat popcorn any more so I grab a couple of boxes of candy- Dots, Junior Mints, Lemonheads, or similar. The price in the theater is 3-4 times higher.
My mom was too frugal to buy name-brand ANYthing, so I grew up snacking on “PrettyGoodGourmet Almond Windmills” or “DollarWyse Iced Oatmeal Cookies” (Damn, I still love those, dipped in piping hot dark roast coffee).
**“Oreos? What are we, the Rockafellahs? Here, you can open the new bag of Val-U-Karbz Duplex Sandwich Cremes!”
**
So I’m the guy walking out of the dollar store with my “thinnest plastic bag ever made” filled with “FamilyDollarGourmet Iced Oatmeal Cookies”…
Big bag of cheap toys, for taking on the airplane with a toddler. Nothing works to keep a kid quiet like pulling out a new toy/book/roll of stickers etc. every 12 minutes for 3 hours.
My go-to items include sponges, scrubbers and sometimes liquid cleaning solutions for house cleaning, scissors, crayons and coloring books to entertain kids/moms who are bored at my place of work, and plastic baskets for house, garden, laundry, and shower curtain liners, etc.
I don’t buy many of their other items because I so often get not-working or useless crap. Recently, I bought some fingernail polish remover, and it was just colored vinegar. I tried to take it back, but they would not accept the return. It’s still on the shelf at the store, too. The gift wrap I bought has so little paper that I didn’t feel like it was worth a buck. The cleaning solutions are hit or miss.
we count on them for Fiddle-Faddle, mesh hampers that fold up for the dirty clothes and recycle bottles and cans we have to separate ourselves, here. Many of the items already mentioned, too. I missed out on the $1 unbrellas when they had them last.
We notice that one franchise seems to have a store across the street from a cemetery, many of their stores, anyway.
Not all Dollar stores are ‘Dollar’ stores.
We also like the stores called “Tuesday Morning”. How they maintain that large inventory of junk and still make money, I don’t know, but they always have imported chocolate bars at a decent price, and picture frames, decent but cheap.
Gift bags, wrapping supplies
Toothpaste
Allergy pills
Pepto Bismol type stuff
Hairspray
Cleaning supplies
Candles
Glasses (the kind you drink out of)
Candy
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
Ponytail holders
Body spray
Aluminum foil
Paper plates
Party supplies
Kitchen stuff when it’s something that doesn’t require accuracy
Crossword puzzles/coloring books for friends who were in jail
I love my dollar stores. All fifty bazillion of them.
I like dollar stores for tools that I’ll use about once every ten years, like a big bag of assorted hex keys or a set of cheap teeny, tiny screwdrivers for that one thing that has teeny, tiny screws. I think I have at least two dollar store tape measures as well.
Except when words are spelled wrong. My friend bought her Christmas cards at a dollar store and “throughout” was spelled “thoughout.”
I buy generic Woolite. I do a lot of hand washing and name brand Woolite is way too expensive. Can usually find readers (eyeglasses). I’m also of the “I didn’t know I needed that until I saw it at the Dollar Store” shopping mentality.
One really neat* “I didn’t know I needed that until I saw it at the dollar store!” thing I found there last summer is a collapsible flower vase. It’s made of plastic somewhat thicker than cellophane but somewhat thinner than a storage container. It lies completely flat when not in use - you could use it as a bookmark without damaging the spine of a book. When you want to use it, you fill it with water, which pops the bottom out and it stands and holds flowers!
I mean, is there more wasted storage space than a bunch of glass vases you use once a decade?! I love these things.
*in my favorite phrase that makes market researchers pull their hair out: “It’s perfect for camping!”
Holiday decorations, especially those that will get trashed by a pre-schooler.
Cheap toys, again destined for preschooler destruction
Craft supplies
Gift bags
Baskets or other little containers.
Occasional food products, but I’m a bit leery about them, even if they’re canned or boxed name brands.
In some parts of the country Dollar General has opened full market stores, with fresh meat and produce as well as a wider selection of dairy, frozen foods and canned and dry goods.
Birthday candles!!! They come in a package of 80 for $1. I keep a stash at home and work.
Several of the things that I go there planning to buy have already been posted (Sunday paper, scented small trash bags, gift bags. trays to abandon at potlucks, ponytail holders…)
At Christmas time I’ve found they have good packaging for cookies (though you have have to buy them early in the season).
And recently, cute plastic “solar powered” animals that wiggle.
I just thought of something else… if you need a bath pillow, I’d much rather pay a buck for a smaller one than $5 for a slightly bigger one that won’t last any longer.
I buy mainly notebooks, index cards, greeting cards and snacks at the dollar store. I used to buy compact disc jewelcases, but they quit offering the standard jewelcase design several years ago.
Guess where the souvenirs from my trip came from? They will never know the purty chopsticks came from the 100 Yen Shop! I also picked up some mittens with grippy patterns on them, hair traps for the sink and an iPhone case. Yes, I was even cheap on my vacation.
They will never know the purty chopsticks came from the 100 Yen Shop! I also picked up some mittens with grippy patterns on them, hair traps for the sink and an iPhone case. Yes, I was even cheap on my vacation.