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A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

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Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#91

Post by newnewpdro »

This has been an ongoing issue near me @ Joshua Tree, CA [1] [2].

I don't know all the details, just what I've heard some people involved share about it on various local podcasts like Desert Lady Diaries [3]. It sounds like a major objection is the presence of a Dollar General casts an area as impoverished, making it less attractive to potential transplants/investors/tourists. Joshua Tree residents and business owners are trying like hell to distinguish the area from its surroundings as a classy enclave full of artists, and want to do their best to attract the preferred kind of investment and residents, raising the bar - not lowering it.

It is quite visible when driving through the surrounding towns. The Dollar General stores, definitely leave a crappy impression. I visited one once just to see what they sold, and the sliced bread loaves on the shelves were moldy, some had insects visible inside. NOPE.

[1] https://www.facebook.com/groups/nodollargeneraljoshuatree/

[2] https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2014/12/25/dollar-gener...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmGyfvro5aierNkIuSNVDOg/vid...

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#92

Post by craz8 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #39
war1025 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in rural Iowa, Dollar General also has claimed the niche of "less stuff, but also nearby". You can either drive 5 minutes into town and go to the Dollar General for most of your basic needs, or you can drive a half hour to the nearest city with a Walmart / Target / etc. I really quite like stopping by to grab a quick thing or two. Around here, there tends to be a local grocery chain in the same vicinity, so gene…

> You can either drive 5 minutes into town and go to the Dollar General for most of your basic needs, or you can drive a half hour to the nearest city with a Walmart / Target / etc. I'm intrigued by these time estimates. Living in a suburb of Santa Cruz (just south of the Bay Area), the choices are similar. Completely inadequate corner store (much worse than DG) locally, or drive to a location with real stores. That…

To be fair, if I even think of Santa Cruz, I end up in a 15 minute traffic backup

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#93

Post by dorchadas »

jeswin wrote: post #80
ravenstine wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I assume the folks who are struggling are not stupid .. and have looked at every conceivable way of stretching their dollar One might assume. Possibly the biggest trouble of dollar stores is that a lot of the "deals" are the result of simply selling things in smaller quantities. The next time you visit a Dollar Tree, compare the actual amount that you get for something like flour, oatmeal, detergent... really anyth…

> The next time you visit a Dollar Tree, compare the actual amount that you get for something like flour, oatmeal, detergent... really anything, to the sizes sold at normal stores. Many financially constrained people have a cash flow problem - they often end up spending more as you said. However, buying larger quantities is still not an option because the money is simply not there. Being able to plan out a month is a…

Exactly. It's one of the biggest issues in trying to help people out of poverty. As Sam Vimes's "Boot Theory" sums it up:

>The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

>Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

>But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

>This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

It's essentially true. Poorer people have to buy the smaller quantities/cheaper materials because it's all they can afford. And because of that, they end up having to buy it more often, often spending more in the long run. I'm actively trying to change my wardrobe now that I've realized that, and buy clothes that will last longer as opposed to cheaper ones that I have to replace more often. Thankfully, I have the money to do so, but many do not.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#94

Post by ComputerGuru »

jeswin wrote: post #80
ravenstine wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I assume the folks who are struggling are not stupid .. and have looked at every conceivable way of stretching their dollar One might assume. Possibly the biggest trouble of dollar stores is that a lot of the "deals" are the result of simply selling things in smaller quantities. The next time you visit a Dollar Tree, compare the actual amount that you get for something like flour, oatmeal, detergent... really anyth…

> The next time you visit a Dollar Tree, compare the actual amount that you get for something like flour, oatmeal, detergent... really anything, to the sizes sold at normal stores. Many financially constrained people have a cash flow problem - they often end up spending more as you said. However, buying larger quantities is still not an option because the money is simply not there. Being able to plan out a month is a…

Patently not true, although not obviously so: https://www.mail-archive.com/kragen-tol@canonical.org/msg003...

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#95

Post by webmaven »

0db532a0 wrote: post #86
Izkata wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the seal means you know it hasn't been handled by other customers. Who knows how dirty the unpackaged "fresh" food has gotten.

I don’t remember the last time I died from eating loose fresh fruit and veg.

These things do in fact happen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_States_listeriosis...

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#96

Post by da_chicken »

nate_meurer wrote: post #42

I normally like CityLab, but the tone of this article really grates on me. Calling dollar stores parasites? The article casually notes that without these stores many poor or minority communities would be true retail deserts, but it offers no workable alternatives. Only invective. Every Dollar General I've ever been in has dairy, eggs, a competent selection of canned and dry goods (pasta, beans, etc), baking goods, an…

Yeah, this does kind of feel like condemning people for having the gall to not shop at Trader Joe's.

Realistically, what's the difference between Dollar General and Woolworth's 5¢ & 10¢ stores? What's the difference between Amazon and the Sears Roebuck Mail Order Catalog? The names have changed, but merchandise really hasn't.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#98

Post by fencepost »

war1025 wrote: post #18
vraylle wrote: post #9

I don't know about other areas, but here in the middle of Oklahoma the Dollar Generals have been a real positive. There's a lot of rural areas where a Walmart came in, then folded later. It left a 1-2 hour drive to get buy any kind of "real" food. The DG stores here have been expanding to include an actual grocery section, including fresh produce and (limited) fresh meat. More is available frozen. They have excellent…

Here in rural Iowa, Dollar General also has claimed the niche of "less stuff, but also nearby". You can either drive 5 minutes into town and go to the Dollar General for most of your basic needs, or you can drive a half hour to the nearest city with a Walmart / Target / etc. I really quite like stopping by to grab a quick thing or two. Around here, there tends to be a local grocery chain in the same vicinity, so gene…

This also covers a case that I don't see discussed much, the cost of going shopping. Even ignoring wear and tear, if you have a truck or an older car that gets maybe 20 mpg, a 10 mile 20 mile round trip costs you a gallon of gas or $2-4 right now and sometimes more. That's not much as part of a weekly shopping trip, but if you just need a gallon of milk it's a low-visibility jacking up of the price.

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#99

Post by webmaven »

cameldrv wrote: post #33

The reason that there are places where the only grocery stores are dollar stores is because the people who live in those places are overwhelmingly poor. If you want these people to buy fresh produce and live like middle class people, you need to figure out a way to bring them out of poverty.

There is actually another option - subsidize growing fresh fruit and vegetables the way we do corn & soy:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/farm-bill-why-...

Re: A Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

#100

Post by fencepost »

austincheney wrote: post #68
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can either drive 5 minutes into town and go to the Dollar General for most of your basic needs, or you can drive a half hour to the nearest city with a Walmart / Target / etc. I'm intrigued by these time estimates. Living in a suburb of Santa Cruz (just south of the Bay Area), the choices are similar. Completely inadequate corner store (much worse than DG) locally, or drive to a location with real stores. That…

Suburban Texas must be an odd phenomenon then. Kroger has found the key to dominating a vicinity away from Walmart. They build giant grocery stores about 3 miles away from each other where the Walmarts are more like 8 miles apart from each other. Then are various other competing stores in the mix as well. * https://www.google.com/maps/search/kroger/@32.8956425,-97.18... * https://www.google.com/maps/search/walmart/@3…

There's a location in the town where I grew up with two Jewel (Albertson's) locations less than a mile apart on the same road. One is a much older store (early 80s), the other is much newer and was acquired when Dominick's (Safeway) shut down in the Chicago area.

By keeping both stores they have all the good grocery locations at that end of town tied up. There's a Mariano's (Kroger) on the opposite side of town and a Walmart with some groceries a couple miles in another direction, but most people go to what's right there.

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