Posted on 12/29/2018 6:41:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
It has become an increasingly common story: A dollar store opens up in an economically depressed area with scarce healthy and affordable food options, sometimes with the help of local tax incentives. It advertises hard-to-beat low prices but it offers little in terms of fresh produce and nutritious items—further trapping residents in a cycle of poverty and ill-health.
A recent research brief by the Institute of Local Self Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit supporting local economies, sheds light on the massive growth of this budget enterprise. Since 2001, outlets of Dollar General and Dollar Tree (which bought Family Dollar in 2015) have grown from 20,000 to 30,000 in number. Though these “small-box” retailers carry only a limited stock of prepared foods, they’re now feeding more people than grocery chains like Whole Foods, which has around 400-plus outlets in the country.
In fact, the number of dollar-store outlets nationwide exceeds that of Walmart and McDonalds put together — and they’re still growing at a breakneck pace. That, ILSR says, is bad news.
“While dollar stores sometimes fill a need in cash-strapped communities, growing evidence suggests these stores are not merely a byproduct of economic distress,” the authors of the brief write. “They’re a cause of it.”
Dollar stores have succeeded in part by capitalizing on a series of powerful economic and social forces — white flight, the recent recession, the so-called “retail apocalypse” — all of which have opened up gaping holes in food access. But while dollar store might not be causing these inequalities per se, they appear to be perpetuating them. The savings they claim to offer shoppers in the communities they move to makes them, in some ways, a little poorer.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Major cities are most of what they are talking about here, and any such city has a robust bus (and/or subway) system by which residents can get to stores with what they want.
Even though public transportation can take you to supermarkets, there's a limit to how much you can carry or roll back with you.
If you're shopping for more than one person that can mean a lot of back and forth if you don't have a car.
I'm not saying that "food deserts" are a problem that the federal government needs to get involved in, though.
little in terms of fresh produce and nutritious items—further trapping residents in a cycle of poverty and ill-health.
http://www.lerctr.org/~transit/healy/crap.wav
Those were the neighborhood stores. There was an article that compared Dollar General’s expansion strategy to Walmart’s dating back to Sam taking helicopter rides and looking for growth patterns. Walmart needs to emulate Dollar General or just buy it. They could use their logistics and buying power to lower costs and make the ex-Dollar General outlets more profitable. I think Walmart should look at well run convenience store chains like Wawa, Go-Mart and Sheetz as possible vehicles for market expansions. Imagine ordering from the Walmart website and picking up the item at your local Walmart owned convenience store.
With a simple cart and/or backpack, you can carry quite a bit. And staples generally are available closer.
A single mother with a baby and a toddler will be more challenged—but ought to be able to find another of the same demographic to exchange kid-watching with.
Really, unless you’re loading up on soda, a single trip ought to be able to cover all that’s needed in a week. If you’re working, you can afford a Lyft there and back. If you’re not working, you’ve got plenty of time.
“... There’s a lot of folks who entered middle age who have never been in shape, ever. That brings its own physical problems, especially as they get older …”
And as my Dr son-in-law says sadly, “They then come in and expect you ‘fix’ a life time of poor health choices”!
Dollar General should save these shoppers more than enough to pay for a semi-regular trip to a more deluxe supermarket.
I didn’t have a car for a time. Bad on the knees hauling stuff back in a backpack. A cart would have been better, but some older folks have trouble with that as well.
I don’t shop at Dollar Tree for perishable foods. I shop there mostly for things with no expiration date that cost twice as much in the supermarket - things like soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, kitchen cleansers, seasonal gift-giving/wrapping items and toys for children so young they’d rather play with the box the gift came in and have no concept of cost.
But if you are inclined, there is a frozen food section as well as cookie/crackers and snacks. I don’t see it as a grocery store. It’s a common necessities store for people without much budget room to buy marked-up stuff.
Actually, there was. Michelle Obammy and other people seemed to be trying to figure out a solution to the alleged problem.
“they’re now feeding more people than grocery chains like Whole Foods, which has around 400-plus outlets in the country.”
I call BS. We hit the local DG about twice a month. They have 1 cooler and 1 freezer for dairy and frozen items. Foodstuffs cover 2 aisles. The rest of the store is jammed with cut rate clothing, paper goods, diapers, baby wipes, personal care items, and the like.
For really cheap food it’s the local Aldis.
L
Food deserts, boo freakin’ hoo. I have to drive 4 towns over to grocery shop. In my personal car because there’s no public transportation out here in the country. If those inner city cretins wouldn’t steal everything not nailed down, maybe they could still ride the bus to their own neighborhood grocery store to buy fresh produce instead of cigs, booze and cheetos.
They can’t keep a supermarket in one of our local minority communities. It’s been attributed to lack of customers, theft and other reasons.
We live in a small town with one overpriced grocery store, a dollar store, and a Family Dollar. Though the Dollar General and Family Dollar sell a lot of junk, they also sell milk, eggs, cheese, sandwich meats, and other food foods, they also carry a large variety of canned and staple foods. Plus they have frozen food sections, which, although they DO sell convenience foods, they also stock some frozen meats and fish, and a few frozen vegetables. I don’t see anything wrong with shopping there, if I can save some money. The bigger town a few miles away, has a dollar Tree, as well. Their staples and frozen foods are of a much inferior quality, for the most part. Most of their sales are in plastic ware.
We have a bunch of them around here but I haven’t set foot in one the past 8 years. They’re no cheaper than the regular grocery store and I don’t trust their off brands. Many times the regular grocery store has better prices from what I see in their newspaper ads. A dollar per item at a dollar store may be 79 cents at the regular store.
There are lots of older folks who need help, one way or another, getting their shopping done. Those in the country who can’t drive anymore are among the most challenged.
You can probably tell I’ve lived in the country and the city (and in-between). NYC is the biggest metropolis I’ve lived in, and it is a simple bus and/or subway ride to cheap, fresh markets in pretty much any of the boroughs — if you are willing to ride up to, say, 25 minutes each way.
You are correct, and it is consumer preferences which drive what stores stock, not the silly liberal ideas which suggest business owners intentionally sell only some products in poor neighborhoods.
Around here the corner markets in Latin areas have a wide variety of fresh produce, including fruits and vegetables that you can't buy in the typical supermarket. Neighborhoods in Boston with poor Haitian or Jamaican residents have a variety of foods you can't buy in, for example, Whole Foods.
The idea that a "food desert" exists if the latest fad food of the leftist elite isn't present is just another example of the self centered, elitist thinking of the left. Has it ever occurred to them that certain segments of society really would rather eat a hot dog with Doritos and Pepsi than a kale and tofu burger on a gluten free roll?
It is a racist idea to suggest that local businesses in neighborhoods with large populations of African Americans somehow lack the knowledge or ability to provide the goods that their customers want. They know what their customers want, and they provide it.
You sound like Lisa Page and Peter Strzok sniffing their noses at smelly Walmart shoppers.
You’d probably get along well with the Deep State crowd. You have the same contempt for people you consider to be beneath you.
Exactly. Incredibly patronizing.
Your messages were not only shorter, but friendlier on DU.
Walmart does have neighborhood markets. There’s one not far from me.
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