BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio (WXIX) – A Butler County foodbank will receive thousands of dollars in settlement money after Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued Dollar General back in November of 2022.

Butler County Auditor Nancy Nix and Yost announced that Shared Harvest Foodbank, a partner of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks and Feeding America, is the recipient of the money from the Dollar General lawsuit.

“I’m very pleased to select Shared Harvest as the recipient of the funds earmarked for Butler County,” Nix wrote in a press release. “This food bank supplies donated and purchased food to 40 different pantries throughout the county and previously was selected by the County Commissioners to receive a federal funding allocation.”

Multiple complaints across Ohio were filed to the Attorney General’s office in 2022 after customers claimed that Dollar General marked items as one price and would charge more at the register.

William Anderson, a St. Clair Township resident, wrote a complaint to the Butler County Auditor’s Office back in October about the error in pricing at the Dollar General at 950 S. Main St. in Hamilton. Management even put up a sign that said, “Prices cannot be changed at the register. All prices are final.”

Investigators with the Butler County Auditor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office price-verified Dollar General’s items and found that failure rates were between 16.7 and 88.2%. The acceptable error rate is 2%.

Attorney General Yost later filed a lawsuit in Butler County Common Pleas Court on Nov. 1, stating the store used “false prices on items” and “engaged in bait advertisement,” which violates Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act.

As a result, the lawsuit cost the company $750,000 of a $1 million settlement.

In addition, each Ohio county with at least one Dollar General will receive a minimum of $1,000 from that money, and the rest will be distributed based on how many stores are in that county.

According to the press release, there are more than 980 stores in Ohio and 20 in Butler County.

Yost says he hopes Shared Harvest Foodbank receives the money before the winter holidays, however, he did not specify how much the organization will receive.

Other than paying a large sum of money, Dollar General will also have to do the following:

• Ensure there is a proper staff that makes sure the prices are marked correctly on shelves.
• If a consumer points out that the price of a product is different on the register than on the shelf, the employee must fix it within 24 hours.
• Random price checks will be conducted every 45 days by district managers.
• If a store receives three failed auditor reports within six months, the store will complete a “full-store assessment” and check the price of every item.
• Dollar General must educate all employees on this new policy and post signs in Ohio stores.

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