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 ...
Trader Joes and Aldi FTW!
Absolute truth...look at the demographics in the very few markets where Walmart has opened and then was forced to close.
Baloney. City buses for the poor are very cheap, and either they are making money or they have plenty of time. Plenty of groceries can be taken on a bus.
Have you actually ever lived in a major city and taken a city bus?
The few at the top have taken a disproportionate share of the gains. Despite *vast* increases in productivity, the average working-age male’s salary is, adjusted for inflation, about where it was in 1973.
“They are also the most entertained poor people ever and the least physically active. It’s like a sci-fi dystopian story. It’s hard to imagine any sort of civil unrest while these conditions exist.”
All by design, Comrade. All. By. Design. ;)
Youz winz teh threddz!
At one point- not so long ago—Wal-Mart was putting up small convenience stores to catch the ‘bread & milk’ shopper between bigger trips to the grocery store.
Didn’t see any in N Nevada. I don’t know where they are, but I think they still exist.
THey shut down Walmart Express stores in 2016. THey are still trying tho - this time with Sam’s Club! https://www.forbes.com/sites/barbarathau/2018/06/19/after-its-own-mini-format-flopped-walmart-gives-small-stores-another-try-via-new-sams-club-concept/#1656bdd053c8
I was shopping in a Dollar Tree not two hours ago. There isn't one in my small town, so I did it on the way home from elsewhere.
Our 99c stores here sell fresh produce, eggs, milk, bread, etc. you can actually grocery shop at them. My white friend was recently broke, on the bones of her azz, and we went to the 99c store to do her grocery shopping. It’s obvious thes journalists have never been in one and are just relying on what they’ve heard.
I like the dollar stores. I buy certain things there. Not everything, just things like aluminum pans, party favors, birthday balloons. I don’t see the fuss.
Yes. In school I didn’t have a car, so it was either walk or take the bus.
Cheap is relative to income. $1.50/day twice a day during the week is $66/month.
The other issue among tgecworking poor is time: they are hourly, so don’t get PTO. Scheduling medical care, any kind of dealing with bureaucracy, etc., takes forever.
There is a kind of chasm between the haves and have nots, which is easy to figure out how to cross from above, not so much from below.
Actually, I am surprised that the Dollar stores can make a go of it. From the article
In her research, she traces the decline of the supermarket in communities of color—specifically black communities—to the late-1960s, when unrest broke out in several major cities following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. As white flight to the suburbs accelerated, urban supermarkets closed, citing security and financial reasons.
No store is under any obligation to serve customers in an area where those customers routinely rob it, shoplift, fight with other shoppers, or make the store unprofitable. If the vermin ruining the area want more retail choices, maybe they should treat the merchants there better.
A couple of local DOLLAR GENERAL stores near here have a good fresh food and fresh meat isle. They are three times as big as the regular Dollar Stores.
The Dollar General mailer add tells what stores have more items.
Perhaps stores in the ghetto areas need to go back to being like the old stores in the 1800s.
Like a modern bank, you go in, hand the “teller” your list, he goes back and gets it for you from his shelves. You don’t have to do a thing, and you have no choice on what he brings.
A plaza with heavily armed security might work in a “economically depressed area”
I suspect that even the law abiding poor, in some areas, would appreciate it.
I’ve in a semi-rural area and the dollar store is a lot more convenient for small hardware needs than driving 20 miles to Lowes or Walmart. That’s what capitalism is all about, providing a service that others are willing to pay for.
My sis lives in a little town in MI where the local grocery closed some years back. Every time they needed something. they had to drive at least 1/2 hour. Then the Dollar General opened. It really was a godsend for those people. Stuff they need at pries they can afford.
Walmart tried it with small stores a few years ago. Big hit for small towns! Then one day the small stores suddenly closed.
Dollar Gen bought one and turned it into a store with a good grocery line, other stores bought the others and have done the same. Our local small Walmart did well till it suddenly closed, now it is an ACE HARDWARE store.
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