Dollar Tree Vs Dollar General: Which Offers The Best Value On Groceries?

With inflation's impacts ever-present these days, folks are on the lookout for cheaper shopping options. Dollar stores stay affordable compared to the competition, making them a popular choice. Chains like Dollar Tree are also a great place to find discontinued snacks and other items that are hard to find elsewhere — but, overall, are groceries cheaper there?

In general, one can often save money buying certain groceries at a dollar store — but just how much money depends on the specific store. In comparing two competing dollar store chains, Dollar Tree and Dollar General, the question of which was the cheaper option used to be a cut-and-dried matter — Dollar Tree had the win hands down, with its one-price-for-all-items approach to doing business. These days, though, it's not so straightforward, as that retailer's prices have continued to gradually climb in recent years. Dollar Tree no longer offers merchandise at one low price across the board — the former practice that made it a go-to for bargain shopping.

Dollar General, on the other hand, hasn't had one-dollar-only pricing for many years. In fact, only about one-quarter of the merchant's goods sell for $1 or less these days. But that doesn't mean Dollar General is always the higher-priced option. The reality is that some items now have a lower price point there.

In the Dollar Tree versus Dollar General debate, the short answer is that a trip to Dollar Tree still delivers basic groceries at a low cost, and, as of December 2025, you're still likelier to save more money there. But, if you truly want to save the most money possible, you may now need to do an item-by-item price comparison between Dollar Tree and Dollar General before shopping.

In the past, the term "dollar store" meant just that — everything had a $1 price tag or cheaper. These days, sometimes the only thing "dollary" about certain stores is the little dollar symbol next to the prices, which are definitely higher than $1 on the whole.

Among popular dollar store brands, Dollar Tree hung in there the longest as a pure "dollar" store, keeping its prices at $1 until 2019, at which point the brand began introducing some higher-priced "Dollar Tree Plus" items in certain locations. Then, in 2021, Dollar Tree announced it was hiking its across-the-board pricing from $1 per item to $1.25. Shopping there was still a simple matter, though. Aside from the scattering of new Dollar Tree Plus goods, priced between $3 and $5, the entire store still otherwise had a consistent price of $1.25 per item, no matter what you were buying. That's gradually changing, though. Nowadays, while many Dollar Tree items are still $1.25, others now retail at $1.50, while still others are marked up to $1.75, as of December 2025. Some of the "Plus" merchandise has increased to $7 or higher, too.

Overall, Dollar Tree is still more affordable than Dollar General — for now. The majority of Dollar Tree's grocery items still ring up at $1.25, as of December 2025. From dry goods and canned foods to condiments and spices, you can still get most of your basic food needs for that low price. With the brand's changing business practices, though, Dollar Tree's model could eventually look a lot more like Dollar General's, with varying price points for varying items. The store's pricing approach is already trending that way.

Just as Dollar Tree has fully abandoned the $1 pricing model, Dollar General has been reintroducing it, in part. Approximately 2,000 merchandise items now ring up for $1 or less in Dollar General stores, as of 2025, and the company was also pricing many seasonal items at $1 going into the 2025 holidays. Dollar General is reportedly seeing the efficacy of that $1 price tag in its bottom lines. For the second quarter of 2025, for instance, items in the $1 sections of the company's stores outsold the rest of Dollar General's merchandise by about double.

Various grocery items are among those $1 or less goods, including snacks, beverages, canned foods, and baking supplies. While some items do undercut Dollar Tree's cost, though, many of Dollar General's food products are far more expensive. For instance, a can of original SpaghettiOs at Dollar Tree is (you guessed it) $1.25, while the same can at Dollar General is $1.80. Even in terms of higher-priced items now offered at Dollar Tree, many still beat out Dollar General's merchandise. A 14-ounce package of Double Stuf Oreos from Dollar Tree, for instance, rings up at $3.75. Over at Dollar General, the same package of cookies is $4.25.

Though you'll pay more at Dollar General on average, one tradeoff is that the company's stores have a much broader selection of merchandise. This is a reality Dollar Tree has cited in justifying its own price increases — veering from the one-price-fits-all model means more choices for consumers and better-quality goods. It seems, then, that inexpensive items and plentiful choices don't go hand in hand, meaning consumers may have to decide which matters more as they choose their shopping destination.