Forbes has an article called Are Dollar Stores Really a Bargain? that's worth a quick read. In a nutshell, it says that the best deals are usually on paper products (paper plates, napkins, etc.), seasonal items (Karen always grabs a lot of cheap wrapping paper and cards right after Xmas), kitchen ware, kids' coloring books, and things like paintbrushes, tape, etc. Items to avoid (usually due to quality issues) include electronics, clothes, medication and vitamins, power cords, and toothpaste.
I think the two most important things when shopping in dollar stores are:
1) know whether the price is really lower than elsewhere ("price book" data comes in really handy here)
2) take the quality into account;
The hard part (for me at least) is that most of the dollar stores around here don't have websites or put out any info (either online or on paper) about their prices and sales. To check for bargains, I have to go into the stores and have a look around. Occasionally, I do that, but not on any sort of regular basis. So even if there are bargains to be found, I'm missing them because I'm not there.
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