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A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

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Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#151

Post by peteretep »

Noos wrote: post #129
peteretep wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’ve taken the right-wing bait a little too to heart here. In the US, most young people, most women, and most ethnic minorities are Democratic-Learning, and I’m speculating those are also the groups most affected by poverty.

He's talking about how the rich young twitteratti of the knowledge class have no idea what poverty is, and yes, most of them are politically leftist. The people affected by poverty aren't writing articles bewailing dollar stores, it's the rich people in the process of gentrifying small towns who hate them.

I would agree that most young people are leftist, and most people in the knowledge class are leftist. I'm not going to agree that most rich people are leftist or most people on Twitter are leftist. I am willing to go along with most people matching all of {rich, young, knowledge class, on Twitter} are leftist, although I've no idea if it's true.

However, extrapolating that to the OP's point of:

> the average leftist/Democrat in the United States has no idea what it's like to be poor and reliant on many public services

really doesn't follow at all. The numbers are clear that really poor people heavily skew Democrat. In summary:

Less than $30k: 20%R to 43%D

$30-50k: Equal split

$75-150k: 33%R to 30%D

$150+: Equal split

It feels impossible to go from these numbers to the Op's conclusion, although I would accept the modification of it to "the average person in the United States, of either party affiliation, has no idea what it's like to be poor and reliant on many public services". Suggesting that's more true of Democrats is simply not factual, the numbers suggest though.

More detail at: http://www.people-press.org/2016/09/13/2016-party-identifica...

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#152

Post by peteretep »

icelancer wrote: post #119
peteretep wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain why that's true of leftist/Democrats and not true generally of all people?

I mean these articles in general. They aren't written by Republicans; they're written by leftists who feel they should do better and this and that. Most of the time they've never experienced poverty and why poor people make the decisions that they do, like shop at Dollar General, for example.

> I mean these articles in general. They aren't written by Republicans

Sorry to pile on here, but also: don't think you'll find any shortage of articles from the Right that also completely misunderstand what it's like to be broke.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#153

Post by aiisjustanif »

briandh wrote: post #126
WildGreenLeave wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a Dollar store in the US comparable to a 7-eleven from Asia? I don't live anywhere where they have either a Dollar store or a 7-eleven, I've only learned about the 7-eleven concept on my last trip to Bangkok.

Dollar General has a much larger selection than an Asian 7-Eleven. It has "real groceries" (albeit a small selection) and many non-food goods like detergent, toys, shampoo, even cell phones and a small variety of clothing. It's kind of like they got a list of the top 10% best-selling items at Wal-Mart and made a store out of it. Dollar Tree (and Family Dollar IIRC) are a bit different because unlike Dollar General ea…

> Dollar General has a much larger selection than an Asian 7-Eleven.

That is surely because a 7-11 in say Japan, Korea, or China are part of vertical, dense infrastructure. You don't have miles of space in between things.

And I would be curious if Dollar General has that much more of a selection compared to some of the big 7-11 I've visited in Seoul.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#154

Post by aiisjustanif »

pascalxus wrote: post #3

You really have to differentiate between the food that's offered at a dollar store and everything else. I shop at the dollar store for things like shampoo, deodrant, toothpaste and it's superb deal, not in any way making me poorer. on the contrary it saves me money. for groceries, you should shop somewhere else, unless your looking for dog food. the reason there aren't more grocery stores selling good food is because…

> You really have to differentiate between the food that's offered at a dollar store and everything else.

Wouldn't you also need to differentiate between your ability to get to everything else vs getting to the dollar store compared to the population around you?

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#155

Post by rjsw »

nasredin wrote: post #148
ams6110 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to watch out for counterfeit products in those dollar stores. I found one selling "Colgate" toothpaste that was not the real thing.

At the local dollar store, a lot of packaged goods are from China and or are full of crap (even garlic is from China) So one has to read the labels dillegently. Examples: "Othet origin tea, packed in Sri Lanka". Chocolate hazelnut spread from Turkey that's mostly oil. Etc.

Sri Lanka is a major tea producer, why do you think that this would be a poor quality product ?

Your other examples may be valid as stuff to avoid.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#156

Post by aiisjustanif »

anilshanbhag wrote: post #10

It's fairly obvious that grocery stores would not want to be in poor neighborhoods. This article paints it all as segregation / race issue which is inaccurate where it is really an issue of purchasing power of the community. While many poor neighborhoods are communities of color - dollar stores have their origin and largest footprint in rural America which is predominantly white.

> This article paints it all as segregation / race issue which is inaccurate where it is really an issue of purchasing power of the community

The purchasing power of the community, especially in the US, does reflect that it very well indeed could be a segregation / race issue still lingering.

You have to remember that especially in the South, segregation was not that long ago for the tail end of baby boomers (1960-70's in Louisiana and 1980-90's in Mississippi). Coming from a small town in the South you can see many local and state policies still are evolving from housing & hiring policies, geographical issues, and educational issues before the civil right era.

> dollar stores have their origin and largest footprint in rural America which is predominantly white.

Based on the maps shown in the article were Dollar General has a higher density of stores [1] vs a racial map of the US [2] that does not seem to be true. It seems that Dollar General has a higher ratio (in terms of their presence) where black people live.

[1] https://twitter.com/jerry_shannon/status/1075743979151466496

[2] https://demographics.virginia.edu/DotMap/

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#157

Post by war1025 »

brad0 wrote: post #22
war1025 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in rural Iowa, Dollar General also has claimed the niche of "less stuff, but also nearby". You can either drive 5 minutes into town and go to the Dollar General for most of your basic needs, or you can drive a half hour to the nearest city with a Walmart / Target / etc. I really quite like stopping by to grab a quick thing or two. Around here, there tends to be a local grocery chain in the same vicinity, so gene…

I’m curious, what do you do for work in Iowa?

Also potentially of interest to the HN crowd, my hometown has municipal broadband [1]. Where I live, I actually have municipal broadband as well, though it looks like perhaps OMU beats us on speed [2]. My mom lives out in the country and gets her internet from an antenna pointed at the water tower, which seems to work pretty well [3].

[1] https://osage.net/telecom/internet-services/high-speed-inter... [2] http://centraliowabroadband.org/ [3] https://osage.net/telecom/internet-services/rural-wireless/

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#158

Post by mawburn »

vraylle wrote: post #9

I don't know about other areas, but here in the middle of Oklahoma the Dollar Generals have been a real positive. There's a lot of rural areas where a Walmart came in, then folded later. It left a 1-2 hour drive to get buy any kind of "real" food. The DG stores here have been expanding to include an actual grocery section, including fresh produce and (limited) fresh meat. More is available frozen. They have excellent…

I have a lot of family in rural Arkansas and Dollar General has been a life changer for them. It's only about 30minutes to Walmart or a grocery store, but that can huge hassle for small things or late night medicine.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#159

Post by mawburn »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #127
vraylle wrote: post #9

I don't know about other areas, but here in the middle of Oklahoma the Dollar Generals have been a real positive. There's a lot of rural areas where a Walmart came in, then folded later. It left a 1-2 hour drive to get buy any kind of "real" food. The DG stores here have been expanding to include an actual grocery section, including fresh produce and (limited) fresh meat. More is available frozen. They have excellent…

Aren't there any local (small) stores? I can't believe everything has to be a big "chain". Here in Europe, there are a lot of SMB's that fill in the gap of "fresh food". Although they are a little bit more expensive, they are always good enough to fill this requirement.

Small stores in rural areas are overpriced, understocked, regularly have expired products, and often close around 6pm. I've literally ran into store owners in Walmart who buy things there and just mark them up 2-3x. But to be fair, they really have no other options unless they drive a couple hundred miles.

DG pops up in extremely rural areas that no real store wants to go, not even gas stations. I know several in towns of 100-200 people that are 40-50 miles from anything resembling a town.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#160

Post by spditner »

scythe wrote: post #28
pascalxus wrote: post #3

You really have to differentiate between the food that's offered at a dollar store and everything else. I shop at the dollar store for things like shampoo, deodrant, toothpaste and it's superb deal, not in any way making me poorer. on the contrary it saves me money. for groceries, you should shop somewhere else, unless your looking for dog food. the reason there aren't more grocery stores selling good food is because…

I love oatmeal and eat loads of it, but we really need to avoid telling poorly-informed people that the path to cheap nutrition is to eat bland goo. You might think about it as a rhetorical example, but you need to remember that people won't remember what you say, only how you make them feel. The salient imagery in your post is living on unflavored oatmeal, and that's not appealing to anyone.

I put it uncooked into the blender and use it as a flour replacement. Works well as a 1:1 replacement. You need to reduce fluids about 20%. It makes great pancakes -- it does stick more and is less binding, so be prepared if you put it in a waffle iron. Probably need to use PAM to avoid a "bad time".
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