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Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

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Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#241

Post by throwaway984393 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #232
emodendroket wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I generally agree but if the grocers offered fresh produce and the dollar store doesn't the picture is murkier.

Poor people don't eat much fresh produce unless they grow it themselves. Frozen vegetables are preferred because they are cheaper and often higher quality because they weren't sitting around for days and weeks. I grew up quite poor in a few different regions of the US, it works like this everywhere. In more rural areas, there are a lot personal gardens and barter. You aren't going to convince a poor person to spend m…

Back in the day we used to have a butcher, a baker, maybe a local fisherman, and fresh eggs & vegetables in a farmer's market. All of that was supplanted by supermarkets & grocery stores. With those options gone, an array of services will be unavailable to poor people, and they'll grow up on canned food and candy. That leads to poor decisions about food, which leads to poor health, which leads to all sorts of problems. And then of course there's the death of human culture. It's not uncommon today for poor households to not even know how to boil rice. It's not all the Dollar Store's fault, but at some point we do need to push back on the slow decline of our civilization.

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#242

Post by MisterSandman »

tshaddox wrote: post #31
jcims wrote: post #16

It's not clear to me what the problem is that the article is outlining. The Dollar General near me has the exact same brands as you would find in any larger retail establishment, they just have found a way to stock the 80% that folks typically need. They are filling a niche between the gas station convenience store and traditional grocery/big box retail. They don't have a produce section, just a bit of fruit. Is that…

It's always odd to me to throw Dollar General into the same category as Dollar Tree. Dollar Tree is an actual "dollar store" where literally every item costs $1. Dollar Tree's items are generally no-name discount brands that wouldn't be found in big grocery store chains, or familiar brands in unique very small packages. Dollar General, at least in the two parts of the US I've seen them in (areas of California and the…

Same in Canada, except Dollar Tree is Dollar Tree (everything costs $1.25, LOL) and Dollar General is Dollarama (prices range from 0.82c to like $10)

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#243

Post by jandrewrogers »

throwaway984393 wrote: post #241
jandrewrogers wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor people don't eat much fresh produce unless they grow it themselves. Frozen vegetables are preferred because they are cheaper and often higher quality because they weren't sitting around for days and weeks. I grew up quite poor in a few different regions of the US, it works like this everywhere. In more rural areas, there are a lot personal gardens and barter. You aren't going to convince a poor person to spend m…

Back in the day we used to have a butcher, a baker, maybe a local fisherman, and fresh eggs & vegetables in a farmer's market. All of that was supplanted by supermarkets & grocery stores. With those options gone, an array of services will be unavailable to poor people, and they'll grow up on canned food and candy. That leads to poor decisions about food, which leads to poor health, which leads to all sorts of problem…

That is a rather extreme and inaccurate caricature of the food situation for poor people. You can choose to believe it but it doesn't make it true. Sure, there are some poor people that nothing but junk food but that doesn't reflect on the food that is typically available to them.

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#244

Post by MisterSandman »

paulpauper wrote: post #17
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #4

Good article and discussion about the economics of these "Leeches of the poor": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27650477 TLDR: The products in Dollar Stores aren't 'cheap' in the sense that they cost less than other stores per unit - its just that they're (mostly) packaged into smaller units that people living paycheck to paycheck can afford.

It's a bad deal, marketed to ppl who either cannot do math or afford larger quantities

Not really. I use dollar stores for junk stuff. I'll finish a bag of Oreos in a day, regardless of how much stuff is in it. If it's cheaper and smaller proportionally, whatever.

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#245

Post by refurb »

jcims wrote: post #146
analyte123 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amusing. My personal experience is that DG is awesome. Before DG in the town I'm familiar with if you wanted to buy basic office or school supplies, basic OTC medical supplies that were not a gas-station 2-pack of aspirin, essentially any cookware, or a better variety of packaged goods than the local mediocre grocery store (like detergent, snacks, juice, sauces) you had to drive over 20 miles. The produce that DG doe…

If there are two underrepresented groups in HN comments its poor folks and people that live in rural communities. This article is just scapegoating 'dollar stores' for scenarios where their growth intersects with environments suffering from incompetent leadership and shitty education as if a) it's the only place these stores exist and b) they are the root cause for the problems being outlined.

Yup, most of the comments here are by people who wouldn’t be caught dead shopping at dollar store since it’s “for poor people” yet they are happy to extol the ills of such a business and demand it go away to protect “poor people”.

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#246

Post by lostlogin »

jcims wrote: post #146
analyte123 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amusing. My personal experience is that DG is awesome. Before DG in the town I'm familiar with if you wanted to buy basic office or school supplies, basic OTC medical supplies that were not a gas-station 2-pack of aspirin, essentially any cookware, or a better variety of packaged goods than the local mediocre grocery store (like detergent, snacks, juice, sauces) you had to drive over 20 miles. The produce that DG doe…

If there are two underrepresented groups in HN comments its poor folks and people that live in rural communities. This article is just scapegoating 'dollar stores' for scenarios where their growth intersects with environments suffering from incompetent leadership and shitty education as if a) it's the only place these stores exist and b) they are the root cause for the problems being outlined.

There are regular excellent comments and discussions here on homelessness and poverty prompted by @DoreenMichele. A notable outlier here, and one I suggest checking out.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=DoreenMichele

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#247

Post by jstummbillig »

nicoburns wrote: post #86
jstummbillig wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Do you know if Dollar General is cheaper per calorie when talking actual ready made meals? The linked article talks about worse price per ounce, which might mean something very different.

Per calorie probably isn't a great measure. Lots of high-calorie but nutrient-poor foods will score highly by that measure.

I think it's an excellent measure, if you are poor and trying to get by.

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#249

Post by netizen-936824 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #243
throwaway984393 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the day we used to have a butcher, a baker, maybe a local fisherman, and fresh eggs & vegetables in a farmer's market. All of that was supplanted by supermarkets & grocery stores. With those options gone, an array of services will be unavailable to poor people, and they'll grow up on canned food and candy. That leads to poor decisions about food, which leads to poor health, which leads to all sorts of problem…

That is a rather extreme and inaccurate caricature of the food situation for poor people. You can choose to believe it but it doesn't make it true. Sure, there are some poor people that nothing but junk food but that doesn't reflect on the food that is typically available to them.

The concept of "food deserts" is a real and worrying phenomenon, especially when people have limited means to travel around a city.

Re: Dollar stores make up nearly half of all new store openings in the U.S.

#250

Post by dcolkitt »

rurp wrote: post #189
dcolkitt wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that private equity firm is largely made up of capital from pension funds, charitable endowments, and university endowments. Dollars leaving the community is a good thing. Those dollars don’t just go into a black hole. They go to other towns. And some of those towns’ dollars come to our town. That allows all of us to diversity our risk across geographic areas. I’d much rather own a small slice of grocery stores i…

I suspect the correlation between shopping at dollar stores and having significant investment fund exposure is a lot lower than you're implying.

And I'm sure those same dollar store shoppers collectively held approximately 0% of the equity in the locally owned business that was displaced.

But as price-sensitive consumers they do benefit from the substantially higher economies of scale, the productivity efficiencies of management best practices, and the lower cost of capital that comes with a professionally managed multinational corporation.

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