Gideon Resnick

Over the weekend, Hong Kong's last major opposition party, the Democratic Party, voted to disband as members reported pressure from China.

Now to a story that examines a trend at dollar stores across the United States.

It's been a year of strong sales for these discount brands.

And stores like Dollar General and Dollar Tree noted growth even among higher earners, as many look for ways to reduce their expenses.

But even though the discounts are there, the total at checkout can sometimes be a surprise.

The Guardian investigated this trend across the country and found that a combination of understaffing, poor inventory controls, and misleading sales pricing is causing many people to overpay.

Jocelyn Zuckerman, one of the reporters on the story, spoke to us about it.

These inspections are part of a regulatory process that involves state government employees who are quite literally sometimes carrying a laptop and a scanner gun, like the one that you might see at a checkout.

They look to see how different the labeled cost is for an item versus its cost at checkout, and if the price tags are out of date.

Failed inspections have led to major fines or expensive legal settlements, but that hasn't always delivered much improvement.

And just last week, Dollar General said it had agreed to pay more than $1.5 million after the Pennsylvania attorney general found that the store was overcharging customers in the state.

Neither Family Dollar nor Dollar General agreed to interviews with The Guardian.

In statements, they said they were committed to providing customers with price accuracy.

And Dollar General noted its employees were empowered to correct mistakes at the register.

According to lawsuits, experts, and employees, overpricing often stems from a labor issue within the stores.

When prices change, registers get automatically updated.

But the listed prices on the shelves require staffers to manually replace them.

That difference in cost can be critical for shoppers that have fixed budgets and rely on these stores in their communities.

And finally, a few other stories we're following.

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