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Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

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Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#221

Post by heartbreak »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #209
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

A 50lb bag of white rice can be had on Amazon for $88, which translates into roughly 1k calories/$1 delivered to your doorstep for free in two-three days. You can get similar calorie/$ value with pasta, peanut butter, oatmeal. No one who has $40/week to spend on food in America needs to go anywhere close to hungry if they don't waste their money and time driving to dollar stores to buy overpriced non-bulk groceries.…

> A 50lb bag of white rice can be had on Amazon for $88

There's an obvious problem with cost per unit tricks like this. You have to be able to front the money to buy the big bag of rice. If your food budget is $40/wk, how are you going to spend $88 on a bag of rice? With your non-existent savings account? By eating plain rice and literally nothing else for > two weeks?

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#222

Post by stolenmerch »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #209
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

A 50lb bag of white rice can be had on Amazon for $88, which translates into roughly 1k calories/$1 delivered to your doorstep for free in two-three days. You can get similar calorie/$ value with pasta, peanut butter, oatmeal. No one who has $40/week to spend on food in America needs to go anywhere close to hungry if they don't waste their money and time driving to dollar stores to buy overpriced non-bulk groceries.…

As pointed out elsewhere, when you are dirt poor it's not about unit price. It's about cash flow. Very often it's impossible to drop $90 at once on anything, not to mention the luxury of having Amazon Prime.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#223

Post by MrFoof »

dragonwriter wrote: post #144
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

> They do it because it’s literally all they can afford anything else. Dollar stores very often aren’t cheaper than other sources for similar products especially for grocery items (which they tend to have very limited selections of.) People that shop for groceries at dollar stores do it because: 1. They shop for other things at dollar stores (either for price, or for reason #2, or because its the only place close by…

>Dollar stores very often aren’t cheaper than other sources for similar products especially for grocery items (which they tend to have very limited selections of.)

Yep. They're usually not competitive on unit price. In areas that aren't shopping deserts, they cater to folks who can't afford to fill their car's gas tank on a whim -- they need X, they need it today, so they'll get what they can today. "It's expensive to be poor."

What I've found them good for is stuff I use super sparingly, and odd items. For example, envelopes. A box of 20 for $1 isn't great per unit, but it takes me FIVE YEARS to go through that box that takes up less space than a larger one, so still a win. Toothbrush for $1 is hard to argue. Gift bags and greeting cards are a fraction of where you easily find them elsewhere. If I'm out and really need a drink, if it's the closest option I may get a diet soda or a bottle of water.

I rarely go to one, but I'll go through one periodically to observe what's there and make a mental note of the few things that are the obvious deal given my situation.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#224

Post by [deleted] »

jodrellblank wrote: post #151
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

His Chrysler 300? This thing Wikipedia describes as a V8 powered “full-size luxury car”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_300

[deleted]

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#225

Post by HWR_14 »

javagram wrote: post #207
Digory wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People that shop for groceries at dollar stores do it because: 4. They only have a dollar. Yes, it's cheaper by the fluid ounce to buy a barrel of Pine-sol at Costco. But if you have $100 for groceries and household expenses this week, you'll pay more per ounce to minimize the cash-flow problem. Their cash-flow constraints and cost of credit both prevent them from economizing. That is how most Americans shop.

$100 is plenty to afford groceries at a grocery store. If they only had $4 or something your point would make more sense. You can take $30 to a grocery store and walk out with a decent quantity of rice and beans, at good prices per ounce.

I'm not sure where "poor people should subsist on only rice and beans" became a valid idea. Sure, I mean, it's a cheap meal. But it's also boring and soulcrushing to have everyday.

You're also aside the fact that rice and beans takes a good amount of time to prepare, which is a problem if you're working 16 hours a day - making rice takes 30 minutes and that is coming out of your sleep.

But most importantly, only having $4 at a time is how a lot of poor people have to shop. They have $4 today. Maybe they have $4 every work day as a day laborer. But they don't necessarily have $100 at the start of the week to plan everything out.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#226

Post by fortran77 »

Jach wrote: post #197
selimthegrim wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that the motor oil that's not rated for cars after the mid-80s or something?

It was probably thrown in to give a sense of the variety available, but just about every grocery store or even gas station has cheap motor oil available. It's not like you need very much of it very often. It's just a bad article with bad quotes. I'm sure a huge number of people on HN remember weeks as a poor student and having to hack $10 to last a week or more. $40 a week, that's a luxury!

> It's not like you need very much of it very often

You never drove an old hooptie, like I did in my early years!

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#227

Post by throwaway946513 »

xapata wrote: post #176
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

> afford Afford is an elusive concept. Dollar stores are often more expensive per-unit, but cheaper per-package. If the shoppers had better access to financing, some might choose to take a longer trip to, say, Costco, and buy things at a cheaper per-unit price in a more expensive package.

Pretty sure the idea of financing groceries, or common daily/weekly expendables isn't a very good one.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#228

Post by healsdata »

Digory wrote: post #199
dragonwriter wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They do it because it’s literally all they can afford anything else. Dollar stores very often aren’t cheaper than other sources for similar products especially for grocery items (which they tend to have very limited selections of.) People that shop for groceries at dollar stores do it because: 1. They shop for other things at dollar stores (either for price, or for reason #2, or because its the only place close by…

> People that shop for groceries at dollar stores do it because: 4. They only have a dollar. Yes, it's cheaper by the fluid ounce to buy a barrel of Pine-sol at Costco. But if you have $100 for groceries and household expenses this week, you'll pay more per ounce to minimize the cash-flow problem. Their cash-flow constraints and cost of credit both prevent them from economizing. That is how most Americans shop.

They may not have the space for a barrel of Pine-sol either.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#229

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

javagram wrote: post #207
Digory wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People that shop for groceries at dollar stores do it because: 4. They only have a dollar. Yes, it's cheaper by the fluid ounce to buy a barrel of Pine-sol at Costco. But if you have $100 for groceries and household expenses this week, you'll pay more per ounce to minimize the cash-flow problem. Their cash-flow constraints and cost of credit both prevent them from economizing. That is how most Americans shop.

$100 is plenty to afford groceries at a grocery store. If they only had $4 or something your point would make more sense. You can take $30 to a grocery store and walk out with a decent quantity of rice and beans, at good prices per ounce.

There's also the time cost and, in the case of Costco, membership cost. Plus the general lack of knowledge of all of the above.

With $100 perhaps I could walk into Costco and get huge quantities of maybe 1/4 of what I need in a given week, and because I bought it at Costco instead of Dollar Tree those items will last me two months instead of a week. But now I have to go to Dollar Tree anyway and that's hard because I work 6 days a week and Costco is really far away because I live in a rural town where even a Walmart is at least 20 minutes away.

It's of course smarter to take the 20 minute drive to Walmart and save even there, but if I'm rural and uneducated I probably don't know that and assume that the per unit price at Dollar Tree is roughly the same as Walmart.

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