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The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

nytimes.com

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Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#11

Post by stonemetal »

noahc wrote: post #8
stonemetal wrote: post #7

Wow, is it the fact checking department's day off? I mean they actually interviewed the president of Dollar General and yet they haven't figured out the fact that Dollar General is not a dollar store. Guess what Family Dollar is not a Dollar Store either.

I'm not sure what part of the country you are from, but I think this is a regional difference. Here in the midwest it is common to say, "I"m headed to the dollar store" and mean either Family Dollar or Dollar General.

Must be, around here(South Texas) dollar store implies a place where things cost a dollar.

Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#14

Post by athom »

Goladus wrote: post #9
stonemetal wrote: post #7

Wow, is it the fact checking department's day off? I mean they actually interviewed the president of Dollar General and yet they haven't figured out the fact that Dollar General is not a dollar store. Guess what Family Dollar is not a Dollar Store either.

I'm not sure there are any true "dollar stores" any more in the sense that "Everything is one dollar." However the stores evolved from the original gimmick are still called dollar stores even if the strict definition no longer applies.

I remember when you'd still hear people refer to dime stores, though I'm pretty sure the term was obsolete well before my time.

Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#15

Post by Stwerner »

aninteger wrote: post #3

People saving money are using coupons (I mean old fashioned coupons in newspapers like P&G Brandsaver). For example, lets say you need bleach, and you have a coupon for 50 cents off. You'll wait til Target/Walmart has bleach on sale for 50% off, then purchase it with the coupon as well. You can sometimes get bottles of bleach for 25c or sometimes free. My family does this, so don't tell me it doesn't work :) Most of…

My sister has actually been telling me about this. She has gotten in to "extreme couponing", and there are big groups online sharing information on where to get things from local grocery stores for free or less with promotions like double coupon weekends.

Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#16

Post by noahc »

Goladus wrote: post #9
stonemetal wrote: post #7

Wow, is it the fact checking department's day off? I mean they actually interviewed the president of Dollar General and yet they haven't figured out the fact that Dollar General is not a dollar store. Guess what Family Dollar is not a Dollar Store either.

I'm not sure there are any true "dollar stores" any more in the sense that "Everything is one dollar." However the stores evolved from the original gimmick are still called dollar stores even if the strict definition no longer applies.

I'm not sure of the name but there is a true dollar store. I think it is called, "The Dollar Tree" and everything in them is a dollar. You find them throughout malls in the midwest.

Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#17

Post by stonemetal »

Goladus wrote: post #9
stonemetal wrote: post #7

Wow, is it the fact checking department's day off? I mean they actually interviewed the president of Dollar General and yet they haven't figured out the fact that Dollar General is not a dollar store. Guess what Family Dollar is not a Dollar Store either.

I'm not sure there are any true "dollar stores" any more in the sense that "Everything is one dollar." However the stores evolved from the original gimmick are still called dollar stores even if the strict definition no longer applies.

Dollar Tree the place the author visits in the article is a actual everything is a buck store.

Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#18

Post by matdwyer »

stonemetal wrote: post #7

Wow, is it the fact checking department's day off? I mean they actually interviewed the president of Dollar General and yet they haven't figured out the fact that Dollar General is not a dollar store. Guess what Family Dollar is not a Dollar Store either.

In Canada Dollarama is the market leader, and they've recently added $1.25, $1.50 and $2.00 items.

I honestly think you could grocery shop there - they have things like pasta sauce which is made specifically for them (same kind I buy in the grocery store, but at dollarama it has the label printed with dollarama price tag). There are tons of fantastic buys and I go there all the time, despite probably not needing to. I buy a ton of office stuff there too (even DVD sleeves, which I run through like you wouldn't imagine).

They even have iPhone cases, chargers, USB cables, etc. I don't know what I'd do without them...

Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#19

Post by ericabiz »

aninteger wrote: post #3

People saving money are using coupons (I mean old fashioned coupons in newspapers like P&G Brandsaver). For example, lets say you need bleach, and you have a coupon for 50 cents off. You'll wait til Target/Walmart has bleach on sale for 50% off, then purchase it with the coupon as well. You can sometimes get bottles of bleach for 25c or sometimes free. My family does this, so don't tell me it doesn't work :) Most of…

My mom is an extreme couponer. And while true that you can get great deals (she once saved over $600 in a single trip), you have to balance that out vs. how much your time is worth. For most of us who are entrepreneurs, an hour would be far better spent working on our businesses.

But for a typical salaried employee who's not motivated to start a business and who just wants something fun to do on the weekends, sure, it works great.

Re: The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business

#20

Post by 3am »

aninteger wrote: post #3

People saving money are using coupons (I mean old fashioned coupons in newspapers like P&G Brandsaver). For example, lets say you need bleach, and you have a coupon for 50 cents off. You'll wait til Target/Walmart has bleach on sale for 50% off, then purchase it with the coupon as well. You can sometimes get bottles of bleach for 25c or sometimes free. My family does this, so don't tell me it doesn't work :) Most of…

As another commenter said, this is a pretty poor story to post here... most people here have a $/time utility that strongly favors time. But for people that invest the time in couponing (friending companies on facebook and getting high value coupons, finding grocery store member weekly discounts, tracking super-double/triple sales, getting multiple newspaper subscriptions, etc) they routinely save 75-90% off their orders. The problem is that this takes some degree of thinking, so the 'low-information' shoppers in Dollar General, Dollar Tree, etc end up paying more than they would otherwise.

My wife coupons, and I don't remember the last time we paid over $.25 for a gallon of bleach, either...

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