New to Dollar General Penny Shopping?

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So, you are new to Dollar General penny shopping.  It’s really easy compared to a few years back, now that Dollar General has their own app that you can look up prices in real time.

So, first, go to the app store and download the free Dollar General app.  The Dollar General app allows you to scan items in the store to see what the prices are.

This is the link to the Google Play store:
Dollar General App

This is the link to the iTunes store:

Dollar General App

We are not affiliated with Dollar General.  We use the information from various channels including our Facebook group, emails, messages, and shopping ourselves to compile lists of what has or will be pennying soon.

The Penny Puss APP with DG Penny Finder is available in the app stores for a one-time fee of $2.99 and is a great way of finding what items have pennied in the past.  Always verify with the DG app though as they can change prices at any time.

You can also join our group *Friendly DG Penny Shopping with Penny Puss on Facebook to see what others are getting in their penny hauls.

The ongoing lists are here:
Dollar General Ongoing List

Dollar General’s markdown process for seasonal items usually starts at 25% off and progresses through 90% or even quarter or dimes and then to pennies.  Sometimes they skip a 90% and go from 70% to a penny … they mix it up here and there.  Other times, they have a sliding scale where items maybe $10 and up are $2 and items under $10 are now only $1.  We never know for certain.  But, what we do is track the clearance.  We are avid Dollar General shoppers and when the clearance process begins, we figure out what is included.  While there isn’t always much  left when clearance goes to a penny, we do still find things.

Dollar General sends lists to the stores on what to pull when items are “pennying out”.  We get the items that they miss.  This does not mean that they are not doing their job.  Their job is much more than pulling penny items from the sales floor as Dollar General usually keeps their employees busy.  But, another reason why we find items that are pennies is because some are “unmarked”.  For example, if red dot is supposed to go to a penny, they pull things with the red dot on the tag, but don’t realize that there are many unmarked items that are marking down with red dot.  We sometimes call these “hidden pennies”.  They are not actually hidden … but just unknown to the employees.  While I’m talking about hidden … PLEASE DO NOT HIDE ITEMS in the store!  This is a no-no.

That was seasonal clearance, their regular or core clearance differs a bit.  They usually start marking them down at around 10% off and they can stay 10% off for a long long long (did I say long) time.  Regular or core clearance can penny at any percentage, but they usually are on clearance for a while.  Sometimes the stores get the lists for these items and sometimes these items are surprise pennies.  Surprise pennies are when the item or items were not on a list and the stores had no idea that they were supposed to pull them.

I’d suggest doing a little studying of what people are finding before heading out.  You can only scan so much!  Plus, following markdowns gives you a better idea of what will be included when they finally go to a penny.

A few rules for penny shopping: 

  • Do not make a mess.
  • Do not ask where the pennies are.
  • Do not hide items waiting for them to go down in price.
  • Be kind.

If you have any questions, let us know.

Happy shopping!