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Haul videos have long been a mainstay for influencers showing off their latest clothing finds from Zara, makeup from Sephora, or an array of pricey Christmas gifts.
Now, the genre has expanded to feature laundry detergent hauls and couponing hacks from dollar stores.
On TikTok, regular shoppers at Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and other dollar stores garner millions of views by posting videos of their weekly store purchases.
Some highlight products you wouldn’t expect to find at the dollar chains, such as Beyond Meat burgers. Others share deals shoppers can unlock with coupons or by demystifying a store’s schedule for discounting seasonal merchandise.
Typical haul videos feature high-end or visually appealing products, but dollar store haul videos tend to feature household items. One TikTok user, savannahkthrower, posted a video in April showing Dollar General purchases, including a chalkboard menu sign and a wicker basket.
“I just went in to grab beef bouillon cubes, and I left with more than that,” she says in the video.
Compared to some of the largest accounts posting haul videos, the dollar store chains themselves have modest followings on TikTok.
Dollar General had 25,200 followers as of Monday morning, while Dollar Tree had 49,600. Both chains post videos featuring products for certain seasons and craft projects done with items from their stores. They also post videos from customers based on their experiences in the stores.
Neither company responded immediately to requests for comment on their TikTok strategy from Insider.
User victoriasofiadoll also posted a haul in April, showing off fake eyelashes and store-brand versions of Scrub Daddy sponges she found at a Dollar Tree store.
“They were not playing any games,” the user says of the store she visited. “They had everything in there.”
Some videos are focused on specific categories of products. User kimnuzzolo shows viewers in a video posted earlier this month cosmetics, including contour sticks and facial mist, worth buying at the chain known for its selection of $1.25 items.
“This highlight makes you look like an angel,” the user says in a caption over an L.A. Colors product.
Another account, dollartreedinners, has almost 792,000 followers and posts videos showing viewers how to shop for groceries at the dollar store chain on a budget, such as $20 for Mother’s Day brunch.
“I don’t like calling these videos a ‘challenge’ because someone out there only has $35 a week on groceries,” the poster says in another video providing an overview of her channel. “I feel like calling it a challenge sometimes makes a game out of someone’s lifestyle.”
Dollar stores are also featured in coupon hacks, another popular genre of TikTok.
User torok.coupon.hunter shows viewers how to combine coupons for items as mundane as heating pads and toothpaste.
“If you’re ready to destroy Dollar General, make sure you get your butt up tomorrow and go score,” she says at the end of one video for a recent series of coupons.
Dollar stores have become go-to shopping destinations for consumers. In many communities, they are the only stores still open. Inflation has also pushed more wealthy consumers to the chains for their reputation as cheap places to buy basic groceries and household items.
But Dollar General, the largest dollar store chain the US with over 19,000 stores, has had problems keeping its stores orderly, with boxes of unpacked dog food, bottled water, and other goods cluttering aisles at some locations. The mess is so bad at some stores that local fire marshals are ordering them to close for fire code violations, Insider previously reported.
Ohio’s attorney general has also taken action against Dollar General for charging customers more for some products than the store lists on shelf tags.
Do you work or shop at a dollar store and have a story to share? Reach out to Alex Bitter at abitter@insider.com or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at (808) 854-4501.
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