The dollar store tends to be everyone's favorite place to shop for great deals, especially during emergencies. Right? Well, you might be surprised with some of the unexpected and lesser known dollar store facts, U.S. News reported.
Have a craving to shop? A dollar store can easily satisfy that.
Contrary to what we might believe, dollar store shopping spree has the magical touch of satisfying us more than shopping at an expensive store. Jeremy Shapiro, an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University's Department of Psychological Sciences, claims a human being's brain gets more enjoyment from small purchases rather than a pricey one.
"Dollar stores are a great option for shopping sprees because of the way the mind translates purchases into pleasures," Shapiro told U.S. News. "We get a little kick from each purchase we make, and the size of the purchase makes less difference than the number of buys."
Everything for $1? Not really.
A Fox reporter in Idaho recently discovered that a few items she had bought from the dollar store could have been purchased much cheaper from a local grocery store. Two tricks can be used to avoid buying pricier products:
1. Knowing a bunch of stores around your area that have the best prices for the products you use regularly will make it easier to identify and compare the best deals when a product goes on sale.
2. Keep track of the sizes and the price per ounce of each product.
Brands have a place in dollar stores.
Despite what you might think, dollar stores do carry name-brand items. But be careful, since most of these branded products can be purchased for cheaper prices at other stores.
Off-brand products might just be worth your purchase.
"Blind taste tests have found that both ordinary people and wine experts like what they drink much more when they see it poured from an impressive bottle than a cheap-looking container," Shapiro told U.S. News, "and something similar probably happens with the items we buy from different types of stores."
When you're shopping, try comparing the ingredients between a name-brand and a generic product. You might just be surprised to find no difference.
Every six hours: The birth of a dollar store.
According to the brokerage firm Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc., so many new dollar stores opened as of July 2013, that it equaled a new store every six hours.
