Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Ok - I never really liked the Dollar Store because I thought it was for the "Wal-Mart" types. But today was a turning point. I my husband pointed out these mini-puzzles for our 6 year old daughter to do on the plane while we travel to Ecuador in a week, I thought awesome idea! When I looked at the price tag it said $11.95...hmm, that isn't "too" bad, I thought.
We left Barnes and Noble buying the mini puzzles. I thought let's stop at The Dollar Store so that I can pick up some dividers for my daughter's homeschooling alphabet letters so she can put together words (she is learning how to read). We stepped in and I thought of medicine tab dividers and yes, they had them. Yay...only for a $1 each...ok this is a lot cheaper than when I looked on ebay last night and they sold fancy ones for over $60 in wood but we are traveling I thought, it would be too heavy. Anyway...I was on cloud nine...but when we found the same mini puzzles that we just bought for $1, I just couldn't believe it..I thought these were "rare" for some reason. But they weren't and we promptly bought our stuff and headed back to Barnes and Noble to return the other mini-puzzles.
The morale is:

1. The Dollar Store has lots of quality items that you pay 3-10x more at a department store

2. Most misc stuff isn't worth retail

3. Toys and such are best bought discounted as kids grow out of stuff very quickly as skills and interests progress.

Not sure what's implied by 'Wal-Mart types,' but dollar stores are a mixed bag. You're definitely getting cheap, poorly made crap. If you accept that and your use case for that crap doesn't require it to be durable, then it can be a great deal.
For one-use things or things that could break very easily it might also be worthwhile going to a dollar store. That includes kid's toys.
My parents would bring me to the dollar store once a week (or maybe every 2-3 weeks), and tell me I could buy ANYTHING in the store that I wanted. This was awesome as a kid, being able to choose anything. Besides, kids can't really tell whether an injection-molded army figure is crappy.

I love the dollar store! It definitely has a place in my life. It's even walking distance from my house.
Things I have purchased there:

Toothpaste

Toothbrushes

Gift bags

Wrapping Paper

Greeting cards

Halloween candy

Plastic spray bottle for water

Bleach

anything holiday, really

Wall art

Champagne Flutes

Energy Drinks (24 oz)

Cream of Mushroom soup (concentrated, 13 oz cans, Campbells are about 10 oz)

Candles

Bath salts

Danish butter cookies (yum)

4Pk Highlighters

Box of Gnocchi

Broom for occasional use
I did buy no-name Shampoo there (24oz bottle) and regret it, it doesn't lather at all, but it does seem to clean OK so I intend to use it up.

Yes, I also purchase holiday stuff, bleach, dish soap and candles at the dollar store. One time they also had a great deal on toddler slippers.

I agree dollar stores have their place -- some things just don't need to be expensive. Like a santa hat that you'll wear to one party. There are also quality items at some of those stores.
But for every item that you're getting a good deal on, I'm sure they have a handful that are overpriced ($.50 worth of gum for $1 type deals). As long as you don't just blindly buy everything at the dollar store, it's worth a stop over.
However, I refuse to even enter a "$1 dollar or more," "Dollar city," or similar store where they actually have items at many different prices. This is no different from any other store, but they are being tricky in their signage.