‘It’s actually a signal to employees’: Expert shows how to look for Dollar General’s penny sale—and what you can expect to find

For anyone on the hunt for deep discount bargains, a viral video is showing shoppers how to take advantage of Dollar General's penny sale.

"Every week, Dollar General marks down certain items to only a penny, but you're not supposed to know about that," a narrator says in a Lemon8 video shared by @savvycouponing. "It's actually a signal to the employees to remove the items from the shelves—but not if you buy them first."

These so-called penny items are inventory that Dollar General is having a hard time getting rid of for some reason or another. As @savvycouponing notes, they're meant to be taken off the floor by employees and thrown out to make room for new products.

But if you manage to get them to a register first, they should ring up at just one cent.

That said, they aren't necessarily items that won't continue to be sold at the store. Some of them ultimately do get restocked when a new shipment comes in, at which point they are no longer priced at a penny.

How do you find penny sale items at Dollar General?

The rest of the video offers tips to shoppers who are interested in tracking down these cheap finds. 

To start, @savvycouponing suggests following them for weekly lists rounding up the latest items at Dollar General that should only cost a penny. There are plenty of websites that offer this same information if you do a simple search online.

Secondly, they note that these markdowns usually take place on Tuesdays. This makes Tuesday morning the ideal time to check out your local stores for deals. If that fails, some locations might offer better luck on Wednesday mornings. Either way, the key is to get in there early and start hunting before employees get a chance to clear the shelves.

The penny list is a great place to start, but you can also download the Dollar General app and scan items in the store to double-check the price.

"Use self check-out," the video concludes, "as employees are supposed to be taking these items off the shelves and could decide not to sell them to you."

Viewers offer advice—and warnings

In the comments section, Dollar General employees and shoppers chimed in with tips of their own, as well as potential setbacks for those pursuing the penny list life.

"The messier the store the more likely you're going to find penny items. Look for items that look like they've been there for a long time," suggested one commenter. "Check top and bottom shelves!"

"I used to go from town to town. the biggest rule is do NOT make a mess," another said. "if u do, clean up after yourself. if they won't sell to u, even though their policy says they can, try not to argue. either present the current policy or call corporate while in store if u really want it that bad."

What is Dollar General's policy?

Exactly what the corporate policy currently is seems to be up for debate.

A recent post on TheFreebieGuy.com shares what appears to be a Dollar General memo from 2014 that instructed employees to sell penny items to customers. That's only if the customers managed to locate and scoop them up before they were removed from the shelves.

However, several viewers claimed that may have changed, while others seemed to think the policy is still in play.

"They posted a memo saying they are to decline the penny item sale," wrote one viewer.

"We can get in trouble for selling them to you, just dumpster dive they are in black trash bags." another suggested.

"Couple tips from a DG manager," a third wrote. "Most stores have removed their self checkouts. Also at regular checkouts they're supposed to ring up everything that you have whether it's a penny item or not." In other words, she says, "if it's in your cart [it's] your item they're not supposed to take away that they can't sell it unless it's a recall item."

"Most of us won't stop you and will even help you find them," a further user said.. "We really don't care."

The Daily Dot has reached out to Dollar General via email and @SavvyCouponing via Lemon8 comment.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post ‘It’s actually a signal to employees’: Expert shows how to look for Dollar General’s penny sale—and what you can expect to find appeared first on The Daily Dot.