August 8 is National Dollar Day, as declared by whomever is in charge of making modern life ridiculous. Supposedly it marks the 1786 establishment of the U.S. monetary system - and is there a more pursely American way to honor that achievement than to set out on a quest to see how many funky items we could buy for a buck each? No, there is not. So we fanned out across the valley, and returned with these cut-rate treasures.
Two of the biggest dollar stores are merging. Family Dollar shareholders agreed to an $8.7 billion takeover Thursday, choosing not to accept a bigger offer from Dollar General due to antitrust fears.