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HOUSTON – Dollar stores are easy to find and they’re in most neighborhoods.

AP photo

James Breedlove should know.

He's convinced he saved money by getting super glue for his broken fishing rod at his neighborhood Dollar Store.

“Somewhere else you pay about $1.89 and you probably get one pack,” he said.

Everyone’s looking for a good deal -- especially since gas and food prices keep rising. Dollars stores have become a popular choice for shoppers like Denise Savillon.

“I go to the Dollar Store. It’s cheaper than WalMart,” said Savillon.

But Leandra Henderson prefers the big discount stores.

“You can get everything there because by the time you finish ripping and running you have wasted gas going all over town,” she said.

11 News asked Marketing guru, Betsy Gelb if dollar stores are better bargains than big discount retailers. “The answer in marketing to everything is “it depends.” And it clearly depends in this case. How many different things are you buying, how flexible are you and how much did you just spend on gas to get there?”

11 News did the research to help you become a better shopper.

We purchased a variety of household items and products at a local dollar store and then bought the same items at a nationally known discount retailer.

Here’s what we found:

Ajax cleanser

$1.00 at dollar store $0.96 at discount retailer

Palmolive dishwashing liquid

$3.50 at dollar store  $2.97 at discount retailer

Tide liquid/36 loads

$10.00 at dollar store $9.96 at discount retailer

Pine Sol cleaner

$ 2.85 at dollar store  $2.97 at discount retailer

Can cream corn 

$  .50 at dollar store   $  .58 at discount retailer

Can sweet peas

$  .50 at dollar store  $  .50 at discount retailer

Kellogg apple jacks

$2.65 at dollar store   $2.82 at discount retailer

2 liter soda

$1.09 at dollar store  $1.25 at discount retailer

Colgate toothpaste

$2.00 at dollar store  $1.88 at discount retailer

Angel Soft toilet paper/4-roll

$2.00 at dollar store  $1.08 at discount retailer

Total without taxes:

$26.09 at dollar store

$24.96 at discount retailer

When you add up the total bill before taxes, we spent a $1.13 cents less at the big discount store than we did at the dollar store.      

When it comes to who has the better bargains, like the professor said, “it all depends”.