Can dollar stores simultaneously be guilty of both ‘predatory pricing’ and ‘price gouging’? Some progressive elites seem to think so

By Mark Perry.

"In a FEE article by Laura Williams “‘Let Them Eat Whole Foods’: The Appalling Elitism of Dollar Store Bans” she points out this glaring inconsistency (illustrated graphically in the Venn diagram above):

You’ll also hear critics claim dollar stores engage in “predatory” behavior by offering prices that are simultaneously too low (undercutting potential competitors) and also too high (as compared to a per-unit cost at the Costco 15 miles away).

The first article cited is “Why dollar stores are bad business for the neighborhoods they open in” which complains about the predatory low prices of dollar stores (bold added):

Up until 2015, Haven, Kansas, a town of just over 1,200 people, had one grocery store: the Foodliner, a mom-and-pop store owned by a local, Dough Nech. Around 225 locals a day would cycle through the store, picking up basics like bagged lettuce and chicken.
That changed when a Dollar General opened in Haven in February 2015. Almost immediately, Nech saw a drop in the flow of customers through Foodliner. By last year, they rang up only around 125 people; sales dropped by 40%, he told The Guardian. This August, the Foodliner permanently closed.
Dollar General is the fastest-growing retailer in the U.S. and it, along with its competitors Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, have made a killing in recent years by expanding into some of the county’s most vulnerable communities: small, rural towns, and urban, predominantly black neighborhoods. When that happens, dollar stores essentially take over the market, making it impossible for independent local retailers, like Foodliner, to thrive.

The second article “Dollar stores are thriving – but are they ripping off poor people?” complains that the prices of some food items at dollar stores are higher than similar items at Walmart, Costco or Whole Foods:

The bags of flour at a Dollar Store just south of San Francisco cost only $1, but they also only weigh two pounds [50 cents per pound]. Most bags in the supermarket are five pounds, and can be scored for less than $2.50 [50 cents per pound] at cavernous retailers like Walmart or Costco – though these require time and, often, a car to access.
Dollar store raisins are only 4.5 ounces. At a big box store, however, 72 ounces of raisins cost $10.50 – meaning dollar store customers are paying 52% more.
Cartons of milk at a dollar store are only 16 ounces – which prorates to $8 per gallon, more than what you would pay for even top-of-the line milk at Whole Foods.

Note that those same criticisms could also be directed to the thousands of convenience stores and gas stations across the country that also charge higher prices for food items than Walmart, Costco, and Whole Foods. Plus, to get the low prices at Costco you need to first pay a $60 annual membership fee, which may be prohibitive for many low-income shoppers.
Here’s the conclusion of Willams’ article on the appalling elitism of banning dollar stores:

For people with cars, free time, and disposable income, “just drive two miles to the grocery store” may seem like benign advice. But for people just getting by, it’s dismissive of their real challenges.
If the same work had been done by a food bank—30,000 locations providing ultra-affordable, shelf-stable groceries, concentrated in areas with the most need—would we applaud it?
Perhaps, but only if the signage were subtle and they weren’t close enough that people could walk to them. We wouldn’t want to look like the kind of neighborhood that needs those.
It’s not wrong to care about community character or beautiful streets. But it’s an injustice to care about them so much that you’ll use government power to block (other) people’s access to affordable bread, pencils, and toilet paper. And it adds condescending insult to injury to claim to be doing so “for their own good.”"