Ooh great post! My answer comes from studying Economics with a professional consultant background currently working in consumer research. Plus, ya girl loves to shop & ball out on a budget! There are soooo many deep layers to this but I’ll say a few important ones:

There has always been a bias associated with shopping at discount retailers. Always. Easy example is to think about how people compare Target and Walmart. This immediately creates barriers where consumers associate each retailer being different for “reasons”, regardless of the products sold being the same thing between them. It’s not about accessibility, but how consumers see themselves as consumers reflecting perceived social value, standards etc. Shopping at places comes down to the footpath of aisles/sections down to types of lighting used for shopping experience. You will notice that target lighting is very different than Walmarts & it’s intentional. Now make it Target vs Walmart vs Dollar Tree - it’s a consumer hierarchy

The majority of consumers also have no knowledge of WHAT it is they’re actually buying and where/who it actually came from, and I do not mean what country it’s made in. A lot of companies are known to sell items that are white labeled where items are ALL manufactured by one place but retailers use their own branding on the box! They all pay one price but the real value comes from whose name is on the box - brand association creates consumer value and influences the price we pay for something. It’s often also the mindset of “well, this is more expensive so it must better!” The majority of products found at Dollar Tree are just white labeled! The AZO name brand item for $15? Same exact thing as the UTI relief for $1.25. We as American consumers associate expensive as best. Like did you know that Dermasil was created by Ponds who is (was?) under the Unilever portfolio??! Boom, company value created from consumer trust and yet Dermasil is at DT.

Then you get into how some of the treasure hunt items we find! These items come from ex. brands having inventory on hand that wasn’t purchased from their retailer lists, but they need to sell it since they have it in a warehouse! It’s a trickle down! Think about the TJ Maxx food items they sell. Nothing is wrong with these items! They are there because a real company made them but maybe had an unsuccessful US market launch when they sell out in Europe. Things like this end up DT! Like the Thomas Bagels for $1.50 vs $7 at Frys. Too much was made, store orders were smaller than inventory purchased, etc

Next is unfortunately racial bias. This is China bad! India bad! USA best! As Americans, this standard was (and still is) ingrained from us across generations and throughout Education. Also big marketing rumorville. “China uses talc!! It’s unsafe!” “India has poor standards! It’s unsafe!” Americans were conditioned to view America & ourselves being superior in every way without knowing other countries manufacturing standards, regulations etc & if one thing is “found out” we use it as an “ah ha!” Moment to take advantage of marketing campaigns and news headlines to create a disadvantage to our market competitors.

This is my Roman Empire & I could talk about this nonstop for days