Bradford donates money to food pantry

VW independent staff/submitted information

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost found a creative way to disburse nearly $1 million in settlement money he won from Dollar General’s price discrepancies this past year. Yost asked each county auditor to pick one or two food pantries in their county to award their share of the settlement dollars.

Van Wert County Auditor Jami Bradford instantly thought of Karla’s Kupboard & Cooperative Ministry Food Pantry, which serves residents in Van Wert County to award Karla’s Kupboard & Cooperative Ministry Food Pantry $1,161 of the settlement money. Karla’s Kupboard is at Trinity Friends Church in Van Wert.

“I am glad Attorney General Yost fought quickly to have Dollar General change their practices and then thought of this creative way to get the funds to the people hurt by the company,” Bradford said.

Dollar General, a Tennessee-based discount retail chain with nearly 1,000 stores throughout Ohio, displayed prices on its shelves for certain items but charged higher prices at its registers, and failed to correct prices at the point-of-sale to the lower shelf price.

Yost’s office won a settlement in his lawsuit against the company after working with Ohio’s County Auditors who perform price verification at local stores. The money was disbursed to each county auditor based on the number of Dollar General stores located in their county.

“Most people don’t shop at Dollar General because they have a lot of extra money to spend,” Yost told County Auditors at their winter conference in November. “So when a bottle of shampoo that should cost $1 costs $2 at the checkout, that’s a real thing, and you all brought it to light.”

The settlement reached between Yost and the retail chain also mandates requirements for Dollar General stores to make sure the errors don’t happen again, including staff keeping shelf tags updated, and price matching if the register rings up an item at a different price. In addition, district managers are required to conduct random price checks every 45 days. If any store fails an audit three times in six months, they will be required to complete a full-store assessment.