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 ...
Looking at the weekly ads to compare Dollar General with our local grocery store -
12 pk soft drinks - Dollar General 3/$10 vs. HEB 4/$9
7-8 oz bags of chips - Dollar General 2/$5 vs. HEB $1.29 for the 10-14 oz bags plus free dip
Choc Chip cookies - Dollar General $2.75 vs. HEB $2.50
Febreeze - Dollar General 2/$5 vs. HEB 2/$4.94
Ahh, the EBT cards are the real problem!
Remember when Tide detergent was the big thing to steal? Never understood that. How do you hide a big jug of detergent in your pants?
We live in a rural area like you describe.Dollar General built a store 2 miles from us.They stock enough of a variety of foods that I could live with shopping there only.But then I’m not a picky eater.
But then again, you had no choice in products.
“I don’t want FOP, I’m a DAPPER DAN Man!”
I saw an article about a “food desert” in a city near me.
It was bunk. The article included a map showing the “desert” part of the city.
There is a good-sized supermarket right in the middle of the “desert.” I haven’t been in that particular store but it’s part of a chain. I am quite sure that it probably doesn’t sell a lot of high-priced “gourmet” foods but it does sell a decent variety of basics, including fruits, vegetables, and meats.
There’s also a Wal-Mart not that far away, and the “food desert” is served by public transportation, which gives residents access to any type of shopping they need or want.
There are a couple of dollar stores in the area. I don’t think they are going to put the supermarket out of business.
One thing I have noticed: if the local food bank is giving away food, most people find a way of getting there.
You are absolutely correct about the actual location of food deserts. I live in a small rural town which has managed to maintain a local grocery store. Two other small towns in my area no longer have grocery stores. One of them had a small grocery store which closed after being robbed blind by its own employees, or so I was told. One town has a gas station/convenience store; the other has that plus a dollar store. When the grocery store closed, the dollar store started selling a limited amount of perishable foods.
Not having a grocery store in a town isn’t ideal but so far, not a single person has starved to death, either.
You don’t have to be “low income” to appreciate having a dollar store nearby. Prior to the one in my small town opening, the nearest stores selling anything besides basic food items was 15 miles away. I don’t depend on either the dollar store or the local grocery store, but I purposely support both to help them stay in business.
Make those 15 kids carry some grocery bags.
Thanks, making a note of it.
I’ve never understood Sam’s Club or Costco. Why should I pay them for the privilege of me shopping there? Dump the membership cards, raise the price of everything a penny and they’d have more customers.
Groceries on the Shelf--Bessie Jackson (1933)
My name is Piggly Wiggly, and I swear you can help yourself.
And you have to have your greenback because we don’t take nothin’ else.
There’s Piggly Wiggly stores here, Piggly Wigglys everywhere.
If you don’t find one here, you will find one over there.
You can go to your shop, you can go to your ten-cent store,
But if you come to Piggly Wiggly, you won’t go there no more.
Now my friends all hate me, ‘cause I’ve got a Piggly Wiggly store.
I have groceries on the shelf and groceries laying on the floor.
Now, my mama told me and my papa told me, too,
That the Piggly Wiggly store is going to be the ruin of you
The character I’m referring to doesn’t come in until around page 100 but the entire book was an engrossing read. The overall theme of the book was how two men were brought low and how they dealt with it.
If there is no demand they won't exist in the first place. If the marketplace won't support them, they will go away. If there were a demand for Whole Foods type stores, they would appear and flourish.
The simple fact of the retail world is that if there is a market, for example for fresh vegetables, an entrepreneur will appear to fill that need. But no one is going to invest money in fresh inventory only to throw it in the dumpster when it rots in the store because the locals don't want what you are selling.
A small town near me lost its grocery store a while back. Their Dollar General started carrying a limited amount of fresh items.
The grocery store closed when the owner decided to retire and couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take the store over. I don’t think running a grocery store in a small town is an avenue to wealth.
When we first moved to this town (Pop 500) back in 1956, there were FIVE small grocery stores and eight gas stations.
Today the town is POP 2000 and two gas station-convenience stores and ONE grocery store, with a vegetarian-gas station just outside of town.
There’s a Neighborhood Market in a nearby city where I work on a regular basis. If I’m near there and have the time I will go there to do some shopping. It’s much easier to get in and out of than a Supercenter. It has a good selection of groceries, pet foods, and personal items; it has a pharmacy, which I don’t use, and a small bakery/deli. It also has a gas station which usually has the lowest gas prices in town. I’ve been impressed with the staff there too, usually very friendly and helpful.
I used to live in a food desert. 30 min in any direction to get to a big store grocery. The only place around here to buy “food” was at a gas station/convenience store where the prices were jacked sky high because they had a monopoly on sales.
Then Dollar General built a store here. Prices at the gas station went down immediately. The parking lot at DG is pretty full every time I drive by there. I’ve shopped at the DG from time to time when I didn’t feel like driving 30 min to the big grocery.
For folks living in this very rural area, DG has been a blessing. Food desert no more :)
Yep, people at all income levels will slip into a dollar store now and then.
In my neighborhood, there was a rash of ATM smash-and-grabs over the past few years, including Dollar Stores, gas stations, and drug stores.
Thieves would steal a pickup truck, ram it through the front of the store, tie a chain to the ATM, and haul it out into the parking lot. Then they'd break it open and steal the cash box.
Some of these stores have been hit twice, after they replaced the ATM. Now they have removed the ATMs from their stores to make them less of a target. I think the ATMs are privately owned, but the stores have to pay for rebuilding the storefronts.
-PJ
When I was a small child we lived on a farm. We went “to town” once a week, on Saturday. There were five or six grocery stores there. We shopped at a tiny store that I think had three or four aisles and maybe four employees. When that store closed we went to a slightly larger family owned and operated store.
A lot of small town stores were supported not just by the town’s residents but those who lived in the nearby countryside.
A lot of things have changed since then, including most people’s lifestyles.
Here’s another whopper from the article:
“...in the poorest of small rural towns, where environmental changes or globalization have wiped out economic activity”.
Globalization, yes. Environmental changes? Not so much.
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