According to Woman’s World, Dollar Tree has a secret discount system that isn’t advertised, nor are they supposed to be on the shelves. There are the penny items, typically discontinued or out-of-season products that have been marked down to $0.01 in the store’s system. Technically, employees are supposed to remove them, but they get left behind for a smart hunter. For one Penny Shopper, this hunt turned into a frustrating encounter.
Andrea, who posts on TikTok as andreajones119, recently shared a video detailing her experience at a Dollar Tree located in Wichita, Kansas. Andrea and her husband were excited to find several items, including Nathan’s onion rings, Gloria’s empanadas, and chicken Alfredo, that they identified as penny items. So, they loaded up their cart, but things got ugly at the register.
In her video, Andrea noted, “Once she started scanning and saw they were a penny, she became upset.” The cashier proceeded to remove half of the items from the couple’s pile, placing them on the register behind her. Andrea questions her, and then summarizes the cashier’s alleged statements, writing, “’you people’ come in and buy things, then ‘my people’ don’t get them.”
Andrea argues that corporate policy allows her to buy the items
According to Andrea’s recording, the cashier argues, explaining, “I have my evening people coming here. I have kids coming here. They’ll be gone. They’ll be gone in an hour.” When Andrea’s husband pointed out that there were other shoppers in the store, the cashier insisted, “I have my regulars, so people can save them for.”
In the video, the cashier then states something along the lines of, “I can’t let you take all of it,” and “You don’t need all of them.” Andrea, who was clearly frustrated, told the cashier, “Well, that’s not what corporate saying.”
The situation felt discriminatory to Andrea, who captioned her post, “Dollar Tree 🌳 Racist employee encounter. I debated on posting this but I decided to for a few reasons. Mainly, Racism is wrong. We were discriminated against by this employee because we were white.” In the video, she added, “She was very, very angry that we were getting items for a penny because we’re stealing them from her people.”
The TikTok was supportive of Andrea. Users like KlɅNɅ | CPT | ContentCreator commented, “I’m disgusted. I’m so sorry Andrea,” while ESHA wrote, ““My people” THAT MAKES ME SO MAD!!!! Sorry you went through that.”
Others shared similar frustrations with store policies and staff, such as Jeannie 🇮🇹🇺🇸, who mentioned, “I also had a manager remove all the items I had just purchased at another dollar tree for a penny… I just complained to corporate. Horrible employees in most stores.”
It’s important to note that, according to Woman’s World, penny shopping is a bit of a gray area because it’s not an official store policy. Thus, managers or employees can technically refuse to sell these items if they are meant to be pulled from the floor. However, customers often feel that if an item scans for a penny, they should be allowed to purchase it. As one user, DawnDevonshire, pointed out, “Corporate dictates limits, however, not employees.”
The good news is that Andrea provided a follow-up update the next day. She said that she had initially, even before she put up the first video, tried to get in touch with corporate through a form on the website. She only posted her video after she didn’t hear back. However, the video has picked up enough steam that the store manager reached out to her.
Andrea explained that the manager “told me that corrective action has been taken and she has talked with her employees and managers within the store, letting them know about, basically about the penny policy.” The manager clarified to Andrea that the store is not supposed to limit these items or decide arbitrarily who gets them. Andrea added, “I wasn’t the first complaint about this employee having some rudeness issues with customers, so I’m glad that she’s been talked to.”
Some users like Its_Me_Kristi seemed skeptical about the follow-up, noting, “but meanwhile, the product was not sold to you. It’s easy for them to say sorry the next day.” Andrea, however, was satisfied with the outcome. She mentioned that she plans to return to that location. Her advice to others? “It’s not always easy to be that squeaky wheel, but sometimes you have to squeak loud enough for the right person to hear you.”
Dollar Tree is highly valued for being budget-friendly. So much so that one TikToker is working to create her own business inspired by the company after she couldn’t partner with them. Additionally, another TikToker recently posted about her own incident with a Dollar Tree cashier, specifically, a nosy one.
Published: Jun 19, 2026 12:00 pm