Different than the grocery store food?
Being that they’re cheaper but why taste different?
A lot of discount stores sell salvage goods. The food may be out-of-season, in damaged packages, or near its expiration date. It may also be products that just didn’t sell well in normal channels.
Which dollar store? I shop at Dollar Tree weekly and actually prefer some of their goods to things that I can get in the regular supermarket. Some examples are their New Orleans spice mixes and minced garlic. My daughter wants to know how I make the best chicken wings ever. It is just chicken Teriyaki marinade from Dollar Tree. Some of their other stuff is complete crap but that is the place to buy some food items, cleaning supplies and batteries.
Other discount stores just specialize in things that most people don’t want at normal prices so that explains why they don’t appeal to most.
Yes, it’s Dollar Tree in particular but Dollar General has some pretty good food.
Could be a placebo effect. Try buying the same or equivalent item from a regular store and do a blind taste test.
They don’t taste any different. It’s the same stuff.
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No, they do taste different. It’s like they’re bland. Their chips and dips taste totally different. Candies are pretty good though.
Some cookies taste weird. I like their frosted animal cookies though.
Anyway, I didn’t get sick or died (yet). 
I tried out assortments and find what to buy and what not to.
Most of it is brand named stuff and I never noticed anything worse then the same brand you would find in a regular grocery store.
With some items, like juice, there is a big difference between brands. That difference is the same at the dollar stores. Read your labels.
I found them to be a great place to buy potato chips. Then I had to remind myself that potato chips aren’t something I should eat often at any price. Luckily, they have cashews, honey roasted peanuts and other slightly better snacks down the isle.
In addition to being near the expiration date some dollar store foods might have sat too long in a truck trailer in the heat or cold.
Manufacturers’ product testing can indicate that a particular run might not be so primo so they sell it at a discount to their less picky customers. Don’t want to tick off their main customers.
And on and on.
Some “off-label” brands use cheaper ingredients that are similar to, but not exactly, what the big brands use. Plus, the quality control may not be quite as good.
China.
I’ve had Snickers bars that were more like a Mars bar, as if they were either packaged incorrectly or simply a bad production run. It is likely that these stores buy up these defective products in bulk and that’s why a $2 dollar candy bar costs $1. There is always something just a little bit off about most of the products I’ve tried, especially ones that are a major brand.
Some of it is but not all of it. You can get some really good deals at Dollar Tree as long as you stick to some key categories. I only buy a few food items there but candy is a big one especially around Halloween. It is the same as everywhere else as far as I can tell but just a lot cheaper. Cards and really basic office supplies like pens and notebooks are another. Their line of Sunbeam batteries work just fine for things like remote controls and Blutooth keyboards.
Where they really shine is in the cleaning isle. You can get a large bottle of laundry detergent for $1 that works great. It isn’t Tide but it cleans clothes perfectly well as long as you aren’t a sanitation worker or a serial killer. They have a mild toilet bowl cleaner that works so well that I have seriously thought about repackaging and selling it as a CPAP tank cleaner. It makes encrusted travesties look like new with no chemical smell.
I wouldn’t buy everything at Dollar Tree but it is a huge savings to stop there to buy the things that they are good at for exactly $1 a piece before you go to the fancier stores.
OP: Are you asking about the same brands (e.g. Frito’s brand corn chips sold at the dollar store vs. at a “regular” grocery store)? Or about different brands of the same kind of item?
If it’s the former: Usually the same thing will taste the same no matter where you buy it from. If it doesn’t, one possible reason is that the stuff you get at the dollar store is older and staler (check the Sell-By date on the package if you’re worried about this). Another possible reason is that the dollar store may be selling a version of the item that was manufactured in and/or for a different country.
If it’s the latter: I suspect Flyer’s explanation is most likely:
Though there may also be other factors at work, like the placebo effect scr4 suggested.
It’s off brands.
Some of it is, some of it is not. Even the off-brands are usually produced by name brand companies, though.
This is so individualized to product, store, region, and individual consumer preference that there is no answer. Try different things, make note of what you like.
mmm
Exactly what I’m doing but I sure tasted some odd assortments.
Some of the off-brands are trying really hard to look like the real thing - for example, Poundland in the UK launched its own cheap knockoff of Toblerone - called Twin Peaks.
Apparently, it’s pretty good, but there are only two possible outcomes for this sort of imitation:
1 - The off-brand turns out exactly like the thing it imitates. Great, but nobody notices. Not worth talking about
2 - the off-brand product is not exactly the same as the thing it imitates. Some people will perceive it as ‘better than the real thing’, but, because ‘the real thing’ is often regarded as the standard, most will probably perceive the difference as inferiority to the established brand (“It’s good, but it’s not quite the same”)
Labels have to be correct or they will do a recall. Think allergens etc…
I even think the Mars Company would rather destroy a bad production run than sell it for cheap but that might be a local decision.
I’ve seen overlabelling in some cases for branded products on sale in discount stores - although those were products intended for a different geographic market, overlabelled with English language ingredients labelling etc - but the grey market could also be a factor in the OP’s question - some manufacturers of food products formulate their products differently for different world markets - either to cater for taste demographics, or to maintain shelf life in a different climate - and this will affect the flavour.
(also, there’s the fact that the product for a different market could be rolling off a different production line, backed up by a different supply chain with different local ingredients that are technically the same, but vary a little in flavour)