Is There a Way to Check Dollar General Inventory at Other Stores? Yes, 25 Stores in One API Call

Yes, you can check a product's stock at other Dollar General stores without calling them. Scavio's Dollar General API takes a ZIP code and the product's UPC at POST /api/v1/dollargeneral/stores and returns up to 25 nearby stores, nearest first, each with the units on hand, address, distance and opening hours. One call costs 1 credit, about $0.002 on the Growth plan billed yearly, and needs no Dollar General account.

The question has been on r/DollarGeneral for years, and that thread still ranks near the top of Google for "dollar general store inventory check". The top reply said there was no way "other than calling other stores", and the other agreed. A newer thread on the same subreddit, Inventory is confusing, drew 38 comments on the follow-up question: why the number online so often does not match the shelf. Both have answers.

Step 1: Get the product's UPC

Every Dollar General product has a UPC, and it is the last segment of its dollargeneral.com URL. To find it by name, search at any store:

curl -s https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/dollargeneral/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCAVIO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "pokemon", "store_id": "12629"}'

At store 12629 in Dallas on October 31, 2026 this returned 22 items, each with its upc, price and units on hand there. The 8-inch Pikachu plush was UPC 191726481539, $12, with 0 on hand at that store.

Step 2: Ask for that UPC around a ZIP

curl -s https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/dollargeneral/stores \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCAVIO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"zip": "75203", "upc": "191726481539"}'

The response lists the 25 stores nearest the ZIP, from 0.8 to 10.6 miles away here, and gives each one its count of that product. The nearest store and the nearest one with stock, as captured (hours, phone and coordinates trimmed):

[
  {
    "store_id": "12629",
    "address": "2919 Cedar Crest Blvd",
    "city": "Dallas",
    "distance_miles": 0.8,
    "quantity": 0,
    "in_stock": false,
    "inventory_status": 1
  },
  {
    "store_id": "16913",
    "address": "4807 Sunnyvale St",
    "city": "Dallas",
    "distance_miles": 3.6,
    "quantity": 2,
    "in_stock": true,
    "inventory_status": 2
  }
]

Across the 25 stores, the plush was on hand at 7, with 19 units in all and no more than 4 at any one store. The two closest stores had none. That is the whole answer to "which Dollar General near me has it", in one call and 2.1 seconds.

To keep just the useful rows:

import requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/dollargeneral/stores",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer sk_live_your_key"},
    json={"zip": "75203", "upc": "191726481539"},
)
for s in r.json()["data"]["stores"]:
    if s["in_stock"]:
        print(s["distance_miles"], s["address"], s["city"], s["quantity"])

Step 3: Read the number the way store staff would

The count is Dollar General's own system number for that store, the same one its website and app work from, not a shelf scan. In the 38-comment thread, employees explain why it drifts: theft, warehouse mistakes, cases delivered to the wrong store, and some items whose counts they cannot correct. So:

• Prefer stores with several units. A store showing 3 or 4 is a better bet than one showing 1. In our calls inventory_status was 1 at 0 units, 2 at 1 or 2 units and 3 at 3 or more, a useful low-stock flag.
• Distrust a number that never changes. Doritos Nacho Cheese read exactly 5 at all 25 stores near 75203, and 47 of 48 Doritos and Lay's search results at two stores read 5 as well. That is a placeholder, not a count.
• Compare against a product that does vary. Bounty Select-A-Size 6 Double Plus Rolls, checked the same way, showed 0 to 13 units and was in stock at 21 of the 25 stores, so the counts do move for most items.
• Call before a long drive. For a scarce item, the API tells you which store to call; it cannot tell you what is in the back room.

What it costs and where it stops

Every stores call is 1 credit, with or without a UPC. Watching 20 products around one ZIP once a day is 600 credits a month, about $1.20 at the Growth-yearly rate of $2 per 1,000 credits; the 50 free credits at signup cover 50 checks. One call covers 25 stores, so a wider area means calls from more ZIPs or points (latitude and longitude work too, and radius goes to 100 miles). Coverage is US stores. There is no built-in alert: schedule the call and compare each result with the last one to catch a restock.

The same API also prices search results at a store, lists its sale and clearance items and pages the digital coupons; how to get Dollar General product data covers each call, and the best Dollar General product data APIs compares the other ways to get it. For the same question at Walmart, see Walmart store prices and inventory.

Try the Dollar General API free, 50 credits, no card, or run a stock check in the playground.

Reference: Dollar General API overview · stores docs · search docs · product docs