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Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

theguardian.com

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Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#11

Post by rebuilder »

I wonder if this is somehow a very USA-specific issue, and I wonder why that would be. I recently moved to the countryside in Finland, to a place that isn't even a town, just a road with houses and farms. There are a couple of rather crummy grocery stores within a few minutes driving distance, but mostly people shop at the stores in the nearest city, maybe half an hour away.

Where I live is kind of an extreme. There are a lot of places that do qualify as towns, and urbanization is definitely taking its toll on them. Local stores close down, and people have to shop further away. Still, this idea of a store that doesn't sell fresh produce seems completely alien - I haven't seen that pop up anywhere. Why does that work in the USA?

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#12

Post by sonofblah »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6
extralego wrote: post #4

These places are just awful. I went in one last summer and the girls working there were drenched in sweat. The management refused to set the thermostat below 80 degrees! And the cashiers had to stock shelves when there are no customers at the cash register so of course they were sweating. Usually when you go in one, the only employees will be somewhere deep in the store and you have to wait a long time until they che…

Meh. Those conditions are par for the course in jobs like that. IMO it beats working fast food any day of the week. Working at a franchised establishment (like Dollar General or Walmart or Wendy's) is usually pretty middle of the road because they use their scale figure out how to optimize for every last but of productivity and that usually means working employees as hard as they can reasonably work. However, at the…

>If you think getting minimum wage for doing retail work in an 80deg store is a particularly bad deal then you're probably living in a little bit of a bubble.

Is this a joke?

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#13

Post by js2 »

> For all that, while Alfers feels sympathy for Nech, he said the Dollar General is the future. “The Model-T put horses out of business. It’s hard to protect existing businesses,” he said. “I would still vote for Dollar General. If one state didn’t accept the Model-T it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. I think Buhler voted their sentiment. The question is, in five years will they have a Dollar General or something similar?”

How sad. One of these is a technology change. The other is local policy. We make choices about the communities we want to live in. This one was under his control, and his justification for a choice I think he regrets sounds like cognitive dissonance to me.

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#14

Post by pkaye »

Do dollar stores has aggressive pricing? I've found they are a bad deal for many common day goods. Usually the $/qty is pretty bad. One example that sticks to my mind is aluminum foil. Those rolls are pretty small for the price.

The main thing I find them good for is things like cleaning supplies, brooms, greeting cards, gift wraps which tend to be marked up elsewhere.

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#15

Post by soared »

rebuilder wrote: post #11

I wonder if this is somehow a very USA-specific issue, and I wonder why that would be. I recently moved to the countryside in Finland, to a place that isn't even a town, just a road with houses and farms. There are a couple of rather crummy grocery stores within a few minutes driving distance, but mostly people shop at the stores in the nearest city, maybe half an hour away. Where I live is kind of an extreme. There…

Dollar General is closer to a Target than it is a grocery store. 80% of the floor is not food, and the remaining 20% is boxed/canned/bottled. Its a decent middle point for low income households who only have time to make 1 stop and need a few grocery items and a few non-grocery items.

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#16

Post by dsfyu404ed »

sonofblah wrote: post #12
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh. Those conditions are par for the course in jobs like that. IMO it beats working fast food any day of the week. Working at a franchised establishment (like Dollar General or Walmart or Wendy's) is usually pretty middle of the road because they use their scale figure out how to optimize for every last but of productivity and that usually means working employees as hard as they can reasonably work. However, at the…

>If you think getting minimum wage for doing retail work in an 80deg store is a particularly bad deal then you're probably living in a little bit of a bubble. Is this a joke?

No. It's not a joke. There's tons of jobs out there that pay the same and involve more labor and/or a work environment with a less pleasant temperature. Pretty much any outdoor manual labor job and many food service jobs will meet those criteria.

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#17

Post by swebs »

rebuilder wrote: post #11

I wonder if this is somehow a very USA-specific issue, and I wonder why that would be. I recently moved to the countryside in Finland, to a place that isn't even a town, just a road with houses and farms. There are a couple of rather crummy grocery stores within a few minutes driving distance, but mostly people shop at the stores in the nearest city, maybe half an hour away. Where I live is kind of an extreme. There…

>Still, this idea of a store that doesn't sell fresh produce seems completely alien - I haven't seen that pop up anywhere

Yes you have. The Finnish equivalent is called Tokmanni. It's pretty much the exact same low quality crap. The only difference is that Tokmanni sells some stuff over €10.

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#18

Post by deadmetheny »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6
extralego wrote: post #4

These places are just awful. I went in one last summer and the girls working there were drenched in sweat. The management refused to set the thermostat below 80 degrees! And the cashiers had to stock shelves when there are no customers at the cash register so of course they were sweating. Usually when you go in one, the only employees will be somewhere deep in the store and you have to wait a long time until they che…

Meh. Those conditions are par for the course in jobs like that. IMO it beats working fast food any day of the week. Working at a franchised establishment (like Dollar General or Walmart or Wendy's) is usually pretty middle of the road because they use their scale figure out how to optimize for every last but of productivity and that usually means working employees as hard as they can reasonably work. However, at the…

>If you think getting minimum wage for doing retail work in an 80deg store is a particularly bad deal then you're probably living in a little bit of a bubble.

I can't even begin to elaborate on how fucking delusional this sentence is.

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#19

Post by rebuilder »

swebs wrote: post #17
rebuilder wrote: post #11

I wonder if this is somehow a very USA-specific issue, and I wonder why that would be. I recently moved to the countryside in Finland, to a place that isn't even a town, just a road with houses and farms. There are a couple of rather crummy grocery stores within a few minutes driving distance, but mostly people shop at the stores in the nearest city, maybe half an hour away. Where I live is kind of an extreme. There…

>Still, this idea of a store that doesn't sell fresh produce seems completely alien - I haven't seen that pop up anywhere Yes you have. The Finnish equivalent is called Tokmanni. It's pretty much the exact same low quality crap. The only difference is that Tokmanni sells some stuff over €10.

I hadn't thought about Tokmanni as a grocery store replacement, more a general goods store. Now that you mention it, they do have a crappy food section that consists of edibles in cardboard boxes. I always pass by that part since I don't go there for food, but maybe that explains my blind spot.

Re: Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

#20

Post by skybrian »

pkaye wrote: post #14

Do dollar stores has aggressive pricing? I've found they are a bad deal for many common day goods. Usually the $/qty is pretty bad. One example that sticks to my mind is aluminum foil. Those rolls are pretty small for the price. The main thing I find them good for is things like cleaning supplies, brooms, greeting cards, gift wraps which tend to be marked up elsewhere.

Maybe their customers care more about total price than unit price? That might matter for someone in a cash crunch.

It seems like for a lot of goods, companies will only lower the price so far before bumping up the quantity.

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