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Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

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Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#71

Post by kerkeslager »

balderdash wrote: post #66
kerkeslager wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another good thing about Aldi is that they let their cashiers sit down. It's unethical that other grocery chains don't provide chairs for their cashiers.

I had a job where i had to stand in one place all day - definitely hard the first couple of weeks - you adapt (+find comfy shoes), I would have never characterized it as unethical, and its probably a lot healthier...

> I had a job where i had to stand in one place all day - definitely hard the first couple of weeks - you adapt (+find comfy shoes)

How old were you? Keep in mind that younger people are able to adapt to physical stresses.

> its probably a lot healthier...

That's not in evidence.

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#72

Post by darth_avocado »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #35
darth_avocado wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The misconception about dollar stores is that they sell cheaper products. However it’d be cheaper to buy almost anything per unit at Costco. Dollar stores provide a service when they sell the same products but smaller sizes, which makes it easier for people who don’t have enough cash to buy stuff.

1. Don't have enough cash to buy stuff 2. Don't have enough capacity to eat stuff quickly (single people, small families) 3. Don't have ability to preserve stuff (don't have a full kitchen, maybe not even a refrigerator, maybe live in their car, etc) 4. Don't have the ability to get anywhere else 5. Not everyone "poor" is stupid - some people just want to buy Velveeta Cheese and pay a lot for it, for whatever reason,…

Literally no one said poor people are dumb, just pointing out how dollar stores work because they provide a service.

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#73

Post by kerkeslager »

bombcar wrote: post #70
mc32 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t sitting less healthy than standing? Though, I agree, there should be stools. I see fatigued old timers at the registers who look like they could use a respit.

Sitting also provides a very clear indicator to the customer that the cashier is NOT going to walk around the corner and bag their items for them. Everywhere else with standing cashiers that I know of (besides banks, which more and more have stooled or sitting tellers) have a mat to stand on and will bag.

> Sitting also provides a very clear indicator to the customer that the cashier is NOT going to walk around the corner and bag their items for them.

The cashiers at the Aldi near me bag the items from a seated position. There's a "lazy Susan"-style rotating platform with 3 bag dispensers on it. They place the items in the bag and facing the chair they're in, and when the bag is full, rotate the platform to face the full bag toward the customer.

There's also usually someone else on the floor to help if a customer needs help placing the bags in their cart.

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#74

Post by dan_quixote »

eugenekolo wrote: post #14
pers0n wrote: post #5

I hope Aldi gets 1,000 stores soon. Ideally I'd like to see 5,000+ Aldis in the US.

The love for Aldi must be very regional or personal. Because I walk into them and just see knock off snacks such as chips/poptarts, an aisle of rice and pasta, and an aisle of canned food items, and pretty much nothing else in them.

> I walk into them and just see knock off snacks such as chips/poptarts, an aisle of rice and pasta, and an aisle of canned food items, and pretty much nothing else in them

That's the entire point! They have the basics with few options for each type of product. It's not luxurious but it's low stress and inexpensive...exactly what many people want/need.

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#76

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

duxup wrote: post #23
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #20

How is this even remotely Hacker News?

I believe the general rule is that if it is interesting... there ya go. HN may often be technology focused, but it isn't a requirement.

I think it should be stricter, focused on startups, technology, and related topics. General business news? Whats next - general political news?

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#77

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

darth_avocado wrote: post #72
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Don't have enough cash to buy stuff 2. Don't have enough capacity to eat stuff quickly (single people, small families) 3. Don't have ability to preserve stuff (don't have a full kitchen, maybe not even a refrigerator, maybe live in their car, etc) 4. Don't have the ability to get anywhere else 5. Not everyone "poor" is stupid - some people just want to buy Velveeta Cheese and pay a lot for it, for whatever reason,…

Literally no one said poor people are dumb, just pointing out how dollar stores work because they provide a service.

Literally the top comment:

> The thing I don't like about these stores is IMO they take advantage of poor people who think they are getting cheaper products, but in many cases, especially for food items, they're paying more. A gallon of milk was $3.50 last time I went to one, whereas it was $1.89 at Meijer. Of course, Meijer does the same thing: if you buy milk at their gas station store, it's also well over $3, but inside the store it's under $2.

It's stating that poor people are being taken advantage of - not that they have different circumstances and these stores actually serve them - otherwise, they wouldn't exist.

It's implying that all of us on HN are too smart to be taken advantage of and shop at better stores.

> They have one kind and the price is usually reasonable, whereas the large grocery stores play all kinds of games intended to cause people in a hurry or with limited time or ability to compare products, to choose the wrong thing and pay more.

Just because you shop at Dollar Family doesn't mean you're dumb and being taken advantage of. Or that you're not smart enough to compare products. It means you (likely) have different preferences (for maybe unfortunate reasons).

Dollar Tree and Aldi are both trying to make as much money as possible off of their customers.

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#78

Post by faeriechangling »

bombcar wrote: post #67
faeriechangling wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costco has a higher income cachet, there’s a reason Charlie Munger adored it so. When you’re living in a 100sqft SRO and walking for your groceries the value of the dollar store is more obvious. Because it’s a STORE for the things you can’t fit at home that is near your home, which sells items in small quantities. The entire dollar store model is many locations and small footprint. It doesn’t make a lick of sense for…

All that is true, but the dollar stores (perhaps more correctly called convenience stores?) have issues, too. Ours is literally across the street from a Walmart, and many items are priced higher than Walmart for the exact same size. However, one of the best things you can do to save money is identify waste, which sometimes means buying a smaller more expensive (per unit) item than a larger and cheaper per unit one. T…

When I’ve been poor and seen this happen, I tended to shop at both stores because some items at the dollar store are actually cheaper. Just like many grocery stores have rotisserie chickens sold under cost, the dollar store has its own anchor items like the balloons.

The fact that some items are overpriced is part of the game they’re playing. It’s asking the customer “are you really going to wait in another lineup to save a buck?” It’s also taking advantage of the fact it’s cognitively difficult to memorize the price of each product in both stores, especially because the prices change and the size of products is often different, so it’s easy to get confused and overpay. Yet they aren’t really taking advantage of customers any more than Walmart is when they throw a sale and puts their best value items at the back corner of the store forcing their customers to walk past worse value items.

It’s also simply the case that Walmart simply has less overhead and can pass the savings on. Not to mention more negotiating power.

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#79

Post by bonyt »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #56
bonyt wrote: post #13

A couple of good videos about the business of dollar stores with similar takes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4QGOHahiVM (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQpUV--2Jao (Wendover Productions)

I'm sympathetic to this view, but ultimately I think it's likely they are providing some benefit (even if their practices aren't 100% ethical) or else consumers wouldn't prefer them so much. I don't like to assume that a huge % of the population is too stupid to make basic choices.

Honestly, I don't think that assumption is necessary, and I don't think either video suggests it in the slightest.

Re: Family Dollar to close almost 1,000 stores

#80

Post by bombcar »

faeriechangling wrote: post #78
bombcar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that is true, but the dollar stores (perhaps more correctly called convenience stores?) have issues, too. Ours is literally across the street from a Walmart, and many items are priced higher than Walmart for the exact same size. However, one of the best things you can do to save money is identify waste, which sometimes means buying a smaller more expensive (per unit) item than a larger and cheaper per unit one. T…

When I’ve been poor and seen this happen, I tended to shop at both stores because some items at the dollar store are actually cheaper. Just like many grocery stores have rotisserie chickens sold under cost, the dollar store has its own anchor items like the balloons. The fact that some items are overpriced is part of the game they’re playing. It’s asking the customer “are you really going to wait in another lineup to…

Yep - there's all sorts of trade offs, and just because one company doesn't do the ones you'd like in that case, doesn't necessarily make them evil.

Around here, the cheapest milk by far is a gas station - which is obviously doing it intentionally to anchor them as "the place to get milk on the way home". Other items are way higher priced than a grocery store, and their goal there is to "have it when you want it".

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