Dollar Tree - Lafayette, LA Review

Let me start by saying that although I chose the Dollar Tree closest to my home to review, this is moreso a review of Dollar Tree in general.

Dollar Tree is a chain of, you guessed it, dollar stores tht sells the typical assortment of items you normally see in dollar stores.  What I really like about Dollar Tree is that everything in the store really is $1 (or less).  I've shopped at Family Dollar and Dollar General, and their prices on name brand name items isn't any better than a supermarket.  NOTHING at Dollar Tree costs more than a dollar.

Ok, so how do they do this?  It's done through a combination of off brands and smaller sized containers of name brand products.  For example, I bought those Caribou Coffee granola bars I reviewed at Dollar Tree.  The come in a box of 2 bars, which costs $1 (surprise, surprise).  I've bought travel sized, name brand deodorant at Dollar Tree which costs less per unit than a regular sized container.

Oh, and the off brands are a source of entertainment (for me, at least).  I've never heard of any of these brands before.  I've always loved the TV show Green Acres, and going to Dollar Tree reminds me of those scenes when Mr. Douglas would go to Mr. Drucker's general store and buy some Klinkwell's cereal, or some such product.  I can't help but laugh every time I open my refrigerator and see my bottle of Plochman's mustard.  It's pretty good mustard though, and according to the label, it's been made since 1852.

As with any off brands, those at Dollar Tree are hit and miss.  The Plochman's mustard is good, but the box of brownie mix I bought one time just couldn't compare to Betty Crocker.  They sell a product there called Mister Plumber, which works just as well as Liquid Plumber.

The best value I have found on any product at Dollar Tree is batteries.  You can buy a pack of 4 AA or AAA Panasonic batteries (anyone wanna guess the price).  Those batteries are just as good as standard Duracel or Energizer batteries, and they're a tremendous bargain.

Why only 4 stars, you ask?  Well, first of all, the store shelves are not very well maintained.  It's fairly common to find things laying on the floor or in disarray on the shelves.  This applies moreso to my local store.  The other thing is a lack of cashiers.  There's usually only one cashier working, and I always seem to get in line behind someone with no less than 25 items.  This negative tends to apply to all of the Dollar Tree Stores I have been in.  in defense of Dollar Tree, I have noticed these same problems at other dollar stores I have been to.

In summary, you might have to experiment a bit with the off brands in order to find good ones, but it's definitely worth it to go to Dollar Tree.