With grocery prices so high over the past couple of years, more shoppers have been grabbing food at dollar stores. But there is one important there is one important thing to check before you do.

Tina Lanier has to watch every dollar, so she has become a dollar store shopper and saves big money. But when she recently bought a 6-pack of Dr. Pepper, she discovered something was wrong.m

“I got home, went to open the Dr Pepper, and there was no fizz.,” Lanier said.

When Lanier examined the bottle, she discovered it was well past the sell-by date.

“The expiration date was two years ago, June 2021,” Lanier said.

She then checked the store-brand nasal decongestant she also bought and found it was going to expire in three days.

Some of these products are half of what you would pay at the grocery store. But before you buy them at a dollar store, it is important to check that expiration date just to be sure.

Shaquanna Hines is very careful with food expiration dates. She was furious a couple of years ago when her daughter bought and then ate a bag of trail mix, that expired six months earlier.

When she opened them she realized they were stale. They tasted weird,” Hines said.

In 2019, Dollar General and Dollar Tree agreed to pay a $1.2 million fine to the state of New York back doe selling expired over-the-counter drugs. Readers Digest said that dollar store shoppers need to do that checking themselves.

Finally, you may find similar low prices at discount grocers such as Aldi. Plus they have fresh meats and vegetables too, so you don’t waste your money.