Pages


Monday, November 06, 2023

How Dollar Stores Quietly Consumed America

VIDEO HERE  (19:47 minutes)

I posted a video about Dollar General stores where I mentioned that we had 3 close by. We've got about the same amount of Dollar stores (Dollar Tree, 99 Cent, etc) here in town too.
And they're adding another one, too. The Rite Aid at the intersection of Highways 52 &10 closed down a couple years ago and they've renovated that to turn it into a Dollar Tree. It's just about done, so it should open within a couple weeks.

I don't shop them. I'd rather pay 10 bucks for something and have it last for a while than buy it from the Dollar Store and have to replace it after every use.
Lisa will have me take her every once in a while, but that's usually to buy seasonal decorations that's going to be thrown out later anyways.

18 comments:

  1. The white construction board is cheap and cuts to hold the Splatter targets. That and cheap junk for some school kid who invited your GrandWhatever to their party..

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are a good source of greeting cards at better prices than anywhere else I know of.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I understand why everybody complains about them or they don’t like them. I grew up with neighborhood grocery stores. These no longer exist. Where I live it’s a job desert. People don’t have a lot of cash here to go to spending gas money to run 45 miles to the closest grocery store of value. If they spend their money on things they don’t need I don’t care. But I do know it serves a purpose here in this area. It provides a need. When you can get the big chain stores (Walmart) to make smaller stores in more desolate areas well then that could be an answer. Until then we will take what we can get.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree Dennis. DGs have their place. We live in a rural area with only five grocery store in the entire county (libs talk about nutritional deserts, fffff). There is only one WalMart in the county too, and it is a 45 minute drive from my house.

      Delete
  4. they are a good source of cheap survival items. candles, OTC meds, and canned foods.
    usually a lot cheaper than the wally world. walk through and check em out, you don't have to buy anything, but check em out. we bought several boxes of bullion cubes this weekend for less than half of what it would have cost in the big box store, we cleaned them out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. They fit a need, sadly. Having done IAQ work for Leon Levine (Family Dollar) at his residence, I've lots of respect for him. In the rural, poor areas of the South, dollar stores are all you have. Anson County, NC has 25K residents and is only 45-50 miles from Charlotte. The Super WalMart there closed. All they have is a Food Lion & an IGA (both in the county seat), plus dollar stores in outlying areas.

    ReplyDelete
  6. They sure serve a purpose with gas being higher than ever. At least you can find survival items and their housewares are cheaper than WM. I wouldn't call these stores "greedy" or suffering poor, I look at it more like they're serving a largely un-serviced market.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The small packaging is the best. If you don't need a lot of something, why pay for all the excess?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Usually a good price on sodas. Best price on beef jerkey. Jack Links is almost half what you pay elsewhere; that's where they got me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I thought their strategy was to surround wally world with dollar stores. Get wally's customers before they get to wally world.

    ReplyDelete
  10. They're useful for topping up my first aid kits, and canning supplies.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Most small towns in my area had a mom and pop grocery store just barely hanging on. It's a tough business. Then the dollar stores swooped in, and they're all gone but one. The town council in that one case denied the dollar store a permit, because of what happened to the other stores, or that one would be gone too. Some of you don't remember what happened to small town hardware stores, shoe stores and clothing stores when WalMart built in any general area. Same thing.

    Our friends and neighbors ran those places and now the quality from the replacements isn't as good. Doesn't look like progress to me, so I'm with WC on this one. Just sayin'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen Walmart destroy small businesses in other towns but here in Lafayette, there's still a couple hardware stores, several small grocery stores, pharmacies and clothing stores that are still open and doing a good business, all within a couple miles of Walmart. We have one small grocery store that would be within sight of Walmart if the post office and Walgreens wasn't in the way, and their little parking lot is almost always full.
      Why? Small town loyalty. People are supporting their friends and neighbors rather than a big corporation.

      Delete
    2. met a guy who used to work for Walmart. he told me one of the things they look for before putting a new store is how many EBT cards in the area. that shocked me.
      then he told me that Walmart does almost 5 billion in EBT sales per year.
      and that was in 2014-5 or so. might be higher now.
      so when I moved here, I wanted to be at least 30 miles from the nearest one.
      and you right about them killing smaller stores off too. happens all the time
      last time I was in a Walmart was at least 10 years ago. dave in pa.

      Delete
  12. I took the time to do price comparisons based on what you get for what you spend. Say a box of 8 crayons is $1.00 at the 'dollar store' but a box of 16 crayons is $1.50 at Wally World. Which is the better value for your money? I did this over and over again. I don't shop 'dollar stores'.

    ReplyDelete
  13. when we first moved here, there wasn't one. some local stores that charged a arm and leg for
    everything as they where the only shops around. really, had to drive to the next biggest town/city to go shopping. like 27 miles. I needed some duct tape when we first got here.
    closest store wanted 10 bucks a roll that was 4 bucks anywhere else. as I needed it and didn't know where else to go. I paid it. never went into that store again. after the dollar store opened up their prices have come down from what I hear. dave in pa.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dollar has built two of the largest warehouses in Ohio at the intersection of I-71 and SR 161 about 30 miles north of Columbus. These warehouses are stupefyingly huge, maybe 500 ft by 500 ft (or more) and 30 ft high. They can service dozens of semi trailers at once.

    Dollar stores litter the landscape, often in small rural villages.

    Whatever they are doing, it is a roaring success.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I travel all over the country for contract work ranging from 1 month to 3 years at a site with most being 3 - 6 months in a hotel. I "love" the Dollar Tree stores because when I leave I don't mind leaving $1.25 (now) items behind for the staff and I have found some items for $1 that cost $5+ at Walmart.

    ReplyDelete

All comments are moderated due to spam, drunks and trolls.
Keep 'em civil, coherent, short, and on topic.