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Family Dollar, Dollar Tree or Dollar General: Which One Is Cheapest?

Elizabeth Djinis

by Elizabeth Djinis

A sign for the dollar tree is shown next to a clear blue sky.
Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder
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In theory, the dollar store seems like it might be a one-way ticket to paradise. A store full of items you need and, yes, some items you want — all for the price of (around) a dollar. What could be better?

Most Americans seem to agree. In fact, a 2023 Tufts University study found that dollar stores are the fastest-growing food retailers in the contiguous United States, doubling their total amount in rural parts of the country. In rural and low-income areas, households spend on average more than 5% of their total food budget at dollar stores. This comes amid an expansion push from notable dollar store chains like Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which were slated to open more than 1,300 new stores this year, per Wall Street Journal reporting. 

Still, it’s important to distinguish real dollar stores from their mere imitations, of which there are many. At the end of 2021, popular chain Dollar Tree announced it would raise the price on most of its products from $1 to $1.25. By this spring, they declared once again they would be raising their maximum price to $7. There may only be one dollar store that still embodies the spirit of the name: Mighty Dollar, which notes on its website that everything is $1.25. 

Other businesses like Dollar General and Family Dollar might sound comparable, but they just sell their items for less. Dollar Tree was the last of the major behemoths to inhabit the true ethos of a dollar store. 

Still, we’ll leave you with a silver lining here. Dollar stores remain an inexpensive alternative to the big box stores where you’ll typically find your essentials, like laundry detergent, trash bags and body wash. In fact, you might be surprised by what you can find for a discount at the dollar store, items like socks, vases, greeting cards and even party supplies. 

But is it really cheaper — and worth the potential inconvenience — than simply going to your local grocery store, Walmart or Amazon? We crunched the numbers to find out how each dollar store compares on the variety of products you need — and how they compare to the big box stores themselves.

When we say crunch the numbers, we mean compare prices. We can’t ultimately decide which option will be best for you based on location, access and products. But we can tell you which will give you the most bang for your buck.

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What I Bought (and How Much It Cost)

Our methodology is simple. We picked 10 items you likely need around the house and compared prices at three dollar stores: Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Dollar General. In some cases, we couldn’t find the exact same product at each, but this should give you a good basis of comparison.

Here’s what we found:

1. Toilet Paper

2. House Cleaner

3. Body Wash

4. Canned Vegetables

5. Pasta

6. Spices

7. Laundry Detergent

8. 13-Gallon Trash Bags

9. Coffee

10. Cereal

So, Which Dollar Store Is Best?

Here are our grand totals, bearing in mind that these aren’t exact product comparables.

  • Family Dollar: $36.72
  • Dollar Tree: $20
  • Dollar General: $36.32

Which is best ultimately depends on the kind of experience and items you hope to find. At Dollar Tree, almost all of the items are $1.25 — reflected in the price difference between it and the other two dollar-store chains. But that also means you have limited options. Instead of a name-brand body wash, like Dove or Suave, you’ll find SpaSoap. In general, the sizes are smaller and don’t come in bulk, like the 10-oz. Gain laundry detergent or the 3.5-oz. bags of Cheerios. 

If your goal is to stock up for a veritable army, then Dollar General is likely your best bet. At the Dollar Tree, however, some of the containers were so small, our writer said, that she’d have to buy 10 bottles of laundry detergent to make up for the size. 

Her best store experience was actually at Dollar General, which she found to have the friendliest employees. Given how this chain fared based on our numbers crunch, it seems to be the obvious winner.

Still, there’s one last metric to run this all through: how do all three stack up compared to some of our non-dollar-store favorites? Let’s take a quick look at how much these items would run you at Walmart and Amazon. 

Here’s how much we would have spent for roughly the same items: 

  • Walmart: $52.26
  • Amazon: $54.66

The number crunch shows that you pay for convenience and experience when you buy from Walmart and Amazon versus a dollar store. That, of course, doesn’t include shipping or an AmazonPrime membership. It’s easy to get lulled into the ease of Amazon, but the prices aren’t always actually cheaper.

What we have shown is the practicality and the cost-savings of the dollar store. One of these three retailers just might help you stock up your house in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

Writer Elizabeth Djinis is a contributor to The Penny Hoarder, often writing about selling goods online through social platforms. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine and the Tampa Bay Times.