Marco Cruz pulled off a four-lane road into the parking lot of a Circle K convenience store in McAllen, Texas, 12 miles north of the US-Mexico border.
asserted
Cruz → pull → border
It was 1.20am on a mild November night in 2025, and Cruz was looking for a bedtime snack after a day of visiting family and friends.
asserted
Cruz → look → family
He grabbed a pack of beef and jalapeño cheese sticks from the shelf, where they were priced at $3.99.
asserted
they → grab → 3.99
At the counter, though, they rang up at $4.19.
asserted
they → ring → 4.19
Cruz asked the cashier to charge him the lower shelf price.
asserted
Cruz → ask → price
The employee refused, he said, and threatened to call the police when Cruz grew more insistent.
asserted
Cruz → refuse → police
“All I’m asking you is honor the price,” Cruz told the attendant before leaving the store and, later, filing a complaint with the Texas attorney general.
asserted
Cruz → ask → general
Problems like these – register prices that exceed shelf prices, or advertised sales that don’t materialize – were becoming a regular annoyance for the 29-year-old.
asserted
that → exceed → old
In just six months, Cruz said, he had run into similar issues at convenience stores at least five times.
asserted
he → say → stores
Earlier that day, he tried to buy two bottles of water at the same Circle K after seeing an in-store promotion offering a free energy drink with any such purchase.
asserted
he → try → purchase
At the register, he said, the manager told him the offer was no longer valid.
asserted
offer → say → him
Cruz is not alone, a Guardian investigation has found.
asserted
investigation → find → ?
The country’s two biggest convenience-store chains – 7-Eleven and Circle K – routinely charge customers more than the shelf prices for snacks, beverages, toiletries, tobacco and medications.
asserted
chains → charge → snacks
Between 2023 and 2025, Circle K locations failed 35% of their government price-accuracy inspections in Florida, 62% in North Carolina and 82% in Columbus, Ohio.
asserted
locations → fail → Columbus
Over the same period, its larger rival, 7-Eleven, flunked 47% of inspections in both Colorado and Utah and 79% in Ontario county in upstate New York.
asserted
rival → flunk → York
In some cases, inspections turn up multiple overcharges in a single sample.
asserted
inspections → turn → sample
This February at a 7-Eleven in Cruz’s home town, Casa Grande, Arizona, a state inspection found that 12 out of the 25 items rang up higher at checkout than what was listed on the shelf – a 48% error rate.
asserted
what → find → rate
These included a 10-cent bump on dill-flavored Pickle Bites and a 40-cent bump on a KitKat bar.
asserted
These → include → bar
A “mega pack” of Wrigley’s watermelon gum, priced at $3.99 on the shelf, came up as $4.99 at the cash register.
asserted
pack → price → register
These kinds of overcharges – inside convenience stores and outside at their fuel pumps – put added stress on family budgets already burdened by years of high inflation.
asserted
kinds → put → inflation
As tariffs, war in the Middle East and other economic turmoil have helped drive up prices for groceries, fuel and other products, consumers are not inclined to overlook even the smallest overcharge.
asserted
consumers → help → overcharge
“We expect to pay what we see on the shelf,” Cruz said, “even if that already doesn’t seem like a good deal.”
asserted
that → expect → deal
Circle K and 7-Eleven declined interview requests and did not answer detailed lists of questions from the Guardian.
asserted
K → decline → Guardian
Instead, both provided brief statements.
asserted
both → provide → statements
“Delivering value and maintaining trust amongst our customers is a top priority and we take pricing accuracy very seriously,” a spokesperson for 7-Eleven said.
asserted
spokesperson → deliver → Eleven
A spokesperson for Circle K said that the company is “committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations”.
asserted
company → say → laws
The spokesperson said the chain’s mission “is to make our customers’ lives a little easier every day, so their satisfaction is a top priority.
asserted
satisfaction → say → ?
We take customer concerns seriously and are always working to improve their experience in our stores.”
asserted
We → take → stores
David Friedman, a legal scholar at Oregon’s Willamette University who has written extensively about deceptive pricing in the American marketplace, says major merchants have no excuse for charging customers more than the prices they promise on shelves and gasoline signs, especially given how advanced their inventory management tools have become.
asserted
tools → write → shelves
“It strains credibility for them to say, ‘Well, we’ve invested in all these sophisticated systems,’” but they’re “not really capable” of ensuring that all prices are correct, he said.
asserted
he → strain → systems
Complaints by Cruz and other convenience-store shoppers about overcharges come at a time of consumer anger about how big companies treat their customers.
asserted
companies → come → customers
In a 2024 poll by Navigator Research, 72% of respondents agreed that big corporations are pocketing large sums by “overcharging American consumers”.
asserted
corporations → agree → consumers
According to court claims, government reports and interviews with consumers, Americans get soaked by add-on costs built into a wide range of transactions, such as “junk fees” tacked on to apartment rents and big-league baseball tickets, and hidden charges on auto sales and home loans – as well as overcharges at brand-name chains across the bricks-and-mortar retail sector.
uncertain
Americans → accord → sector
Customers frequently pay more at checkout than what shelf tags promise not only at convenience stores but also at chain supermarkets, big-box stores, drug stores and hardware stores.
asserted
tags → pay → supermarkets
In December, the Guardian revealed that Dollar General, the nation’s largest dollar-store chain, continued to overcharge customers after paying millions of dollars in penalties to officials in multiple states.
asserted
General → reveal → states
In Wisconsin, for example, the chain failed 31% of its price inspections in the 23 months after its $850,000 settlement with the state.
asserted
chain → fail → state
Convenience stores are the worst offenders among all retailers in the US, according to a little-noticed 2024 report by the National Council on Weights and Measures.
uncertain
stores → accord → Weights
They failed 34% of price-accuracy inspections by regulators in 26 states, followed by dollar stores (29%) and auto parts stores (27%), the report found.
asserted
report → fail → stores
Despite evidence of overcharging at convenience stores, most government authorities are not paying attention.
asserted
authorities → overcharge → attention
Many states give low priority to inspecting convenience stores – responding only to consumer complaints in some cases – and instead focus their inspections on grocery and big-box stores.
asserted
states → give → stores
…and 106 more, not listed.
The Aporia
