'Penny shoppers' are finding hidden $0.01 deals at Dollar General — and it's a sign of a larger problem for the discount chain

• Dollar General cuts prices on some items to $0.01 in preparation for removing them from inventory.
• But understaffed stores don't always take them off shelves, creating an opening for bargain hunters.
• "Penny shoppers" are another result of Dollar General's messy, inventory-clogged stores.

Every week, bargain hunters check the public Facebook group "Dollar General Penny List Shopping" for a list of random products. The group's over 67,000 members have found leftover St. Patrick's Day decor, soup bowls that say "cozy," and LED bulbs, all for $0.01 each.

In the group, shoppers offer tips on spotting which items have been marked down, post photos of their purchases (and receipts), and share the euphoria of snagging a good deal. There's also another, private Facebook group with the same mission that has over 1 million members.

The penny items represent a bargain hunter's dream and the latest manifestation of Dollar General's inventory problems. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Dollar General $21 million, in part, for creating hazards for workers and shoppers with stores overrun by merchandise. Some locations have become so overrun that local fire marshals have ordered them to close until they can clean up.

But this hasn't stopped shoppers looking for extreme deals. 

"Found my first ever pennies!!!," one member posted in mid-July, along with photos showing their receipt and several plastic tumbler cups they said they purchased. "Let me tell you, it was such a thrill, my heart was racing like I was stealing."

Another member posted a photo of almost four dozen photo frames, as well as mugs, coasters, cutting boards, and other home goods.

"Yesterday's penny haul," the caption said. "First timer here!"

Shoppers also show off their finds and tell others what to look for each week on TikTok.

These shoppers have found a silver lining in the disorganization at Dollar General's stores: If you look carefully through the piles of merchandise, you can spot items marked down to $0.01 each.

The products aren't a purposeful promotion, and their price tags don't indicate that they've been marked down. Instead, they're items that Dollar General intends to pull off the shelves and either dispose of them or return them to one of its warehouses.

"It's a way of writing off old product," one store employee in Michigan told Insider.

Dollar General declined to comment for this story.

Frequently, the retailer's stores don't have enough employees to pull the discontinued inventory, and the company doesn't let the ones on duty know what needs to be taken off the shelves, employees told Insider. Instead, the items stay on the shelf for $0.01, a price employees said was an accounting technicality — not a price that the store intended to offer shoppers.

But eagle-eyed customers find them. And shoppers dedicated to the art of sifting through the merchandise have developed a playbook for finding the best penny items.

On the Facebook group, experienced penny shoppers tell newbies to go to stores on Tuesday mornings. This, they say, is when items are discounted to $0.01 in Dollar General's inventory system.

Another tip: "Don't ask employees about penny items," lest they pull them from the shelves, one TikTok video tells penny shoppers. "Know that it's policy that they sell it to you if you find it," the video says.

The video recommends that shoppers use the Dollar General app while they're in stores. The app allows customers to scan items and see how much they'll pay.

But for Dollar General employees, penny items can be a liability.

The store employee in Michigan told Insider that managers at their location kept reports that showed how many penny items each cashier rang up.

"We can get in trouble for selling too many penny items," the employee said.

Rob Alleman, a manager at a store in Tennessee, told Insider that customers regularly approached the registers with armfuls — or cartfuls — of penny items. He suspects that many customers buy and resell the merchandise, he said, something discussed in several recent posts in the public Facebook group.

"My neighbor is this 70-year-old lady," he told Insider. "She'll say, 'I read on these groups that in a couple days, these are going to be a penny."

He said he understood the allure.

"Even if you sell something for $0.05, your profit is much higher than what you paid," he said.

Are you a Dollar General employee with a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@insider.com or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at +1-808-854-4501.