Dollar General is under fire after a man’s on-camera weight test of their store brand products sparked calls for lawsuits

A TikTok video by user Jimmy Wrigg (@james_wrigg) has gone viral after showing that Dollar General’s Clover Valley powdered sugar bags weigh much less than the 2 pounds stated on the label. The video has already received over 170,000 views and has sparked anger among shoppers over what many are calling false advertising.

In the video, Wrigg goes inside a Dollar General store to investigate the store’s generic Clover Valley brand powdered sugar. He first shows his digital scale working correctly, then weighs several bags of the powdered sugar, all of which are clearly labeled as 2 pounds.

The results were striking. According to Brobible, multiple bags weighed in at around 1.2 pounds, while others came in at about 1.5 pounds. Not a single bag he tested came close to the 2 pounds shown on the label.

Dollar General’s powdered sugar bags appear to fall well outside what US packaging laws allow

Wrigg initially called his findings “definitely shrinkflation,” which is when a product gets smaller in size or quantity while its price stays the same. But many commenters pointed out that this goes further than shrinkflation, since the label itself states an incorrect net weight, which is closer to outright false advertising.

Under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA), packaged food sold in the United States must accurately list its net weight. The law requires that the “net quantity of contents… shall be separately and accurately stated in a uniform location.” 

While some variance is allowed, the average weight of bags from the same batch must meet or exceed the labeled amount, and individual bags cannot be drastically above or below the stated weight.

A batch of sugar bags averaging 2 pounds, with individual bags ranging from 1.9 to 2.1 pounds, would likely be within legal limits. But bags consistently weighing between 1.2 and 1.5 pounds when labeled as 2 pounds appears to fall well outside what the law permits.

TikTok continues to be a powerful platform for exposing consumer issues like this, and there are strong arguments for why TikTok deserves to stay accessible to the public. The comments section of Wrigg’s video filled up with frustrated reactions. One commenter wrote, “I’m glad that tik tokers are doing the job that the government dept of weights and measures is supposed to be doing.”

Another user pointed out, “And we wonder why the recipes don’t work out right.” A third commenter was direct: “all the packaging companies have probably been doing this for years. that’s how the rich get richer.”  For those who want to keep following stories like this on TikTok, here is how to use TikTok after the ban. Wrigg ended his video by advising shoppers to “check your weights” when they are out shopping.