HOUSTON – Dollar stores are among the fastest-growing segment of retail right now. It’s not just shoppers trying to save money. Hoards of people are headed to Dollar General every week to hunt for items that cost just one penny. It’s a movement getting a lot of traction on social media. People are posting and sharing items they have found for one cent.
How it works
Before you head to a Dollar General store, you need to join a Facebook group. Just search for “Dollar General penny shopping.”
The Freebie Guys’ page has more than one million followers. Kendall Motzny gets a list of items Dollar General is clearing out of inventory. The list is meant for store employees.
“What happens is the Dollar General employees tend to leak the list,” Motzny explained. “And they will leak the list and then people like me will post the list ‘Heads up! Here’s what’s gonna be a penny. Get ready. It’s gonna be a fun week.’”
The trick is getting to a store before employees have removed all of the items off the shelves. Since corporate has already cleared them in the system, they will ring up as one cent.
“It’s not a published sale. It’s not a published clearance,” warned The Freebie Guy. “So you can’t go into a Dollar General and say ‘Hey! I saw someone talking about your penny items. Where are they?’”
What you can get for a penny
Finding the items is half the fun. Just some of the products purchased from Houston area Dollar General stores include bathroom rugs originally $10, pom-pom throws that were originally $15, decorative pillows, dish towels, LED candles and travel cups. All of the items were just one cent.
“I got 247 Monster Energy drinks. And I paid $2.47 for 247 Monster Energy drinks,” The Freebie Guy shared.
You can use the Dollar General app to check the price before you take the product to the register. Make sure you get as many as you want the first time because once the cashier rings up an item for one cent, they won’t let you go back for more.
“They’re supposed to ask where you found it, and then the employees are instructed to go back and find the rest of them and remove them from the shelves,” Motzny explained.
The Freebie Guy donates a lot of his finds. Others have turned the treasure hunt into a side hustle.
“There are people that have made a full-time living out of clearance shopping by reselling the stuff,” he said.
Dollar General’s penny deals are certainly the most popular right now, but you can find penny deals at other retailers too like Home Depot and Amazon.
