I live near a Dollar General, and shopping there is horrible. It seems they’ll leave one register open until there are fifteen people lined up, then another of the cashier/stockboy/janitors comes over and opens another. They run on a skeleton crew, and the prices don’t seem better than a regular supermarket - lower prices just buy smaller packages of goods.
Very bodega-like, IMHO - and geared towards the same clientele. The pictures online of Wal-Mart shoppers could just as easily have been taken at the nearby DG.
I was at a Dollar General with a hand basket of staples, the kid behind the counter was pricing some things in a rack. I stood there for a while. Realized he knew I was there. Cleared my throat, finally said, “You’re getting paid. I’m paying. Check me out or I’m asking for your manager.”
We’re getting like Soylent Green.
The "dollar" stores used to have very good buys. But that was when they first started and were stocked with regular- and large-sized closeout items purchased from wholesale and retail grocers who were going out of business. For example, one could get a large bottle of expensive Kalamata Olives for a dollar. They had different items all the time, depending what their buyers could find in closeouts. Now suppliers are packing items in special, small packages and bottles designed to be sold only in dollar stores, resulting in the not very good buys you referenced.And the items available rarely change.