The other day I went into a mall in the Richmond area and the people I was with happened to have needed to go to the restroom. As I waited, I noticed that there was this dollar store called “Buck or Two”. From first glance, I just assumed it was like any other dollar store except with this one nothing was over $2.

They happen to have a lot of its items displayed outside of the store so passer buyers can get a glimpse at the products that they sell. What caught my attention were the prices as it looked like so many items were well over $1 or $2.

For example, there was this inflatable baby pool that was marked as $9 as you can see here:

As well, there were a lot of other things such as balloons that cost almost $15. So the prices definitely caught my attention, but in a different way than intended I’d say. I’m almost inclined to say that seeing items like that would discourage one from shopping at a place like this as the uniqueness is suppose to be the price and this in a sense makes it a regular store.

Maybe in this case since it was a summer item they felt that more people would buy it regardless of the price as there would be more demand. I always perceived a dollar store type of place as a quick grab and go for small items though and not a place where you would want to contemplate too much if you could get a better deal elsewhere.

A person was telling me how he just signed up for this in-store credit card and how he got such an awesome deal. Basically, anyone who signed up got this free small portable radio player of some sort that was the size of a cell phone it seemed. To him he basically got like $30 for free.

The funny thing was I passed by a store not too long after and was surprised that I saw that exact same player for sale. Wouldn’t you know it, the price was $1 and there was a stack of them. And no, I didn’t end up telling him that.

You always have to think too as if the guy is willing to throw in all these little items for free just how much are they really worth? Buying a cell phone is a great example as many times dealers say they throw in all these phone holders and extra goodies that are worth over $50 yet you can probably find them in places like dollar stores as well.

Seminars and workshops are the most prolific examples too I’d say as companies often clamor that just for attending you get these high valued items for free. Similarly, they are probably only worth few dollars in the market.