The economics of dollar stores
thehustle.co
The economics of dollar stores
1–10 of 226 posts
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#2I absolutely love dollar stores. I recently needed to buy a set of crayons for my son and the options were $5 on Amazon, $4 at Target or $1 at the local Dollar Tree (and the pack had 36 crayons, vs 24 from the other sources!).
They're not the right place for everything, but for kids' art supplies, cleaning products, party paraphernalia, seasonal decor, etc, they can't be beat. They seem to have a pretty strong stigma for some reason (seems like most professionals wouldn't be caught dead in one) but they shouldn't. Great place to shop!
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#3I think Dollar General is a little different because it’s not really a $1-price store. As the name implies, it’s a general store, with lower prices than a CVS or similar. You can get beer and stuff there, I don’t think that tends to be the case in a Dollar Tree but i could be wrong
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#4Ah, I see, so they make quite a bit of their profit by selling smaller quantities of lower quality goods at higher per unit prices through framing the value proposition carefully and managing expectations to their benefit. Makes sense, given the markets they target, that they're exploiting the effects of the 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness and quite successfully too.
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#5I absolutely love dollar stores. I recently needed to buy a set of crayons for my son and the options were $5 on Amazon, $4 at Target or $1 at the local Dollar Tree (and the pack had 36 crayons, vs 24 from the other sources!). They're not the right place for everything, but for kids' art supplies, cleaning products, party paraphernalia, seasonal decor, etc, they can't be beat. They seem to have a pretty strong stigma…
The article claims that Dollar Stores are more expensive. They often sell smaller amounts to meet the price, but unit cost is more
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#6I absolutely love dollar stores. I recently needed to buy a set of crayons for my son and the options were $5 on Amazon, $4 at Target or $1 at the local Dollar Tree (and the pack had 36 crayons, vs 24 from the other sources!). They're not the right place for everything, but for kids' art supplies, cleaning products, party paraphernalia, seasonal decor, etc, they can't be beat. They seem to have a pretty strong stigma…
I like them too, but the article notes that their prices per unit are usually a bit higher than at other stores.
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#7I absolutely love dollar stores. I recently needed to buy a set of crayons for my son and the options were $5 on Amazon, $4 at Target or $1 at the local Dollar Tree (and the pack had 36 crayons, vs 24 from the other sources!). They're not the right place for everything, but for kids' art supplies, cleaning products, party paraphernalia, seasonal decor, etc, they can't be beat. They seem to have a pretty strong stigma…
The article claims that Dollar Stores are more expensive. They often sell smaller amounts to meet the price, but unit cost is more
Could be that they lure people in with lower unit costs on some key, easily comparable items, and then the customer ends up buying a bunch of higher margin items too. That happens to me often - go in for something I know is way cheaper than at Walmart and directly comparable, and end up picking up a few other things that may not be a killer deal but saves a second stop at another store.
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#8It's fascinating how the coverage map is so drastically different from the typical US population map. In particular, they completely cover the east half of the US, but not the west.
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#9I absolutely love dollar stores. I recently needed to buy a set of crayons for my son and the options were $5 on Amazon, $4 at Target or $1 at the local Dollar Tree (and the pack had 36 crayons, vs 24 from the other sources!). They're not the right place for everything, but for kids' art supplies, cleaning products, party paraphernalia, seasonal decor, etc, they can't be beat. They seem to have a pretty strong stigma…
I like them too, but the article notes that their prices per unit are usually a bit higher than at other stores.
I guess (we don't really have them here) that while they might never be the cheapest option they will most often be a cheap option.
And where every other store is cheap on some stuff and absolutely ripping you off on others it is kind of nice to know with greater confidence that you are not being ripped off.
Also, if a 10x pack costs 90% of a 24x pack at the regular store a dollar store might be decently priced for a 8x pack. Which is fantastic if you only need and want ~5.
Re: The economics of dollar stores
#10It's fascinating how the coverage map is so drastically different from the typical US population map. In particular, they completely cover the east half of the US, but not the west.
Drastically different? It looks almost identical to a map of the U.S. where each dot represents a town: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapping-population-density-...