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The economics of dollar stores

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Re: The economics of dollar stores

#171

Post by wyldfire »

Noos wrote: post #81

The article sort of conflates two different models. Dollar Tree is actual "everything in the store is a dollar" while Dollar General and Family General are mostly small retail stores that sell things at a variety of prices. They round prices to the dollar, but otherwise are traditional retail that just locates in unusual locations. Five Below is another "dollar store" in that blend, focusing mostly on goods for young…

> It's sort of a commentary on how tough it must be to be a creative when I can buy remnant books from A list authors sometimes; I've seen Jonathan Franzen, John Scalzi, Bill Mckibben, And Rod Dreher books end up in the dollar bin.

Talented authors who drove retail bookstores to stock their inventory. But when some of it didn't sell, the dollar stores snapped it up for nearly nothing. IMO that's not a slight to the authors. It's to their credit that the bookstores saw their promise based on existing sales at the time.

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#172

Post by myself248 »

krm01 wrote: post #104
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #101

So if I can summarize the article, the economics of dollar stores are "sell things for more than it cost to buy them". I mean, it seemed like the article wanted to have some nefarious take, but offering smaller quantities of items so people can afford them, even if the per-unit cost is higher, doesn't seem like some unexpected malicious intent. I mean, I certainly expect to pay more per gram if I'm buying a travel si…

I too was under the impression that there was some kind of clever way these shops operate, based on the title. But the economics are exactly like any other shop.

I haven't RTFA, but it's always struck me as funny that some of the items at the dollar store are 49¢ at the big box. Stuff like hose clamps comes to mind. You can get quite ripped off if you let yourself think "dollar = cheaper than everywhere else".

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#173

Post by spicyramen »

I do use Dollar store to buy stuff that is just pretty much disposable such as Balloons, birthday decorations among others. I can say that food is pretty bad and not healthy. Very similar to Iceland supermarkets here in UK

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#174

Post by gotorazor »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #156

The different purchasing power of US$ and CAD$ killed the "everything in the store is a dollar" model in Canada at least a decade ago. But Dollarama, which is so successful that it has pretty much squeezed out the other dollar store chains, has really just established themeselves as the "everything store" below the Walmart tier without any particular price - just low in general. Metal foil cookware, kids' party suppl…

Dollarama is everything for $4 CAD or under. They don't advertise this fact, but you won't find an item over $4.

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#175

Post by k2enemy »

LambdaComplex wrote: post #154
grae_QED wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> If they thought they were being taken advantage of or manipulated then poor people wouldn't buy anything from dollar stores I've seen people (whether they be college students or just people living paycheck to paycheck) talking about how they only have e.g. $5 USD to spend on groceries for the next two weeks (because that's how much they have in their bank account, and that's when payday is). If your choices are "so…

The article kind of contradicts itself by bringing up this point, then later saying that people make a lot of impulse purchases and the average trip costs $16. I don't doubt that your anecdote is true, but it seems to not be the typical case.

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#176

Post by klyrs »

grae_QED wrote: post #148
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #101

So if I can summarize the article, the economics of dollar stores are "sell things for more than it cost to buy them". I mean, it seemed like the article wanted to have some nefarious take, but offering smaller quantities of items so people can afford them, even if the per-unit cost is higher, doesn't seem like some unexpected malicious intent. I mean, I certainly expect to pay more per gram if I'm buying a travel si…

[flagged]

> But in reality, dollar stores are what poor people want.

No, they really don't. They want high quality goods just like everybody else. Poor people also want food with good nutrition. But they aren't able to afford those things because the modern interpretation of capitalism is "exploit the poor to the maximum possible extent." You can be against this without being anticapitalist.

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#177

Post by myself248 »

dopidopHN wrote: post #11
kcorbitt wrote: post #2

I 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…

Your whole country is exotic to me, and I formed my opinion on things as a old adult. For me dollars store are the reliable place to buy toxic stuff, cleaning supplies and in general non-food item. I like that it’s small and to the point. The food there make me sad, though. It’s almost exclusively crap.

> cleaning supplies

Yikes! Cleaning supplies and medical stuff are things I will _never_ buy from a dollar store. Most of the cleaning chemicals have more fragrance than active ingredients, they never work well but the place smells like you cleaned like mad. I have to assume the medical stuff is just as poor quality, but I have no way of assessing it.

It also bothers me that a lot of the cleaning products are packed in bottles shaped like drink bottles; an illiterate or merely distracted person could be in for a nasty surprise.

We agree on the food, for sure. It never _says_ it's expired, but it tastes ten years old.

One thing I always get at the dollar store is lint traps. The big box charges 3x the price for an absolutely equivalent product. Lint traps and office supplies. I don't think I've ever bought envelopes or binder clips anywhere else.

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#178

Post by supernova87a »

In the world where every store is trying to work you for whatever profit can be made, at least a Dollar Store is relatively transparent about what they're selling, and straightforward about it. And offering basics that people can afford.

I tried to find a plastic water spray bottle in Target, Walmart, etc. for spraying water on plants or like while ironing. Every option was a fancy-fied designer spruced up version for $8 looking like it was aimed at the "Real Simple" market. I could've bought a spray bottle full of sink cleaner for $3 and emptied it out for the bottle, and saved money.

At least you can go to the $1 store and find this and not get ripped off under the guise of "style and design for the busy mom" at 10x what it should cost.

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#179

Post by baby »

supernova87a wrote: post #178

In the world where every store is trying to work you for whatever profit can be made, at least a Dollar Store is relatively transparent about what they're selling, and straightforward about it. And offering basics that people can afford. I tried to find a plastic water spray bottle in Target, Walmart, etc. for spraying water on plants or like while ironing. Every option was a fancy-fied designer spruced up version fo…

Same for a plunger. Target only sold fancy ones.

Re: The economics of dollar stores

#180

Post by baobabKoodaa »

k2enemy wrote: post #175
LambdaComplex wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they thought they were being taken advantage of or manipulated then poor people wouldn't buy anything from dollar stores I've seen people (whether they be college students or just people living paycheck to paycheck) talking about how they only have e.g. $5 USD to spend on groceries for the next two weeks (because that's how much they have in their bank account, and that's when payday is). If your choices are "so…

The article kind of contradicts itself by bringing up this point, then later saying that people make a lot of impulse purchases and the average trip costs $16. I don't doubt that your anecdote is true, but it seems to not be the typical case.

That's not a contradiction. A store can have more than one type of customer.
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