Those stores are like roaches.
From what I can see, it’s not restricted to poor neighborhoods - those damn things are everywhere. Down the mountain, we have three of them within a couple miles of each other. When my daughter and I went on vacation through the south, it became a running joke to point the things out every five minutes - because in many cases that’s the ONLY store you would see for miles.
I agree with you !
These stores bring the “bad neighborhoods” with them, inside the very store !
I grew up in the Northeast US. Something that not many people talk about when talking about the NEUS is that it’s DIRTY and disgusting.
The stores are filthy. The public areas are post apocalyptic. It is nasty to the very core. When I walk into a Dollar General they are all like that.
Remember how the countryside used to be dotted with Waffle Houses ? Most of them were utterly trashed. It becomes the norm. Waffle houses are now gross to me. The Dollar General will be the same. Just reminds me of the NEUS where everything is utter sh**.
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.
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.
“Those stores are like roaches... that’s the ONLY store you would see for miles.”
I never considered these store from the perspective of this article. I’ve seen them as convenient little stores where there may not be other options. Mom does minimal shopping at Dollar General instead of driving a half hour to a regular store.
I travel twice a week to and from a nearby town over a back road, and I pass a DG. If I need a quick bottle of milk, some aspirin, greeting card, or such I make a quick stop instead of adding 15 more minutes to my trip. I don’t see minorities or low income people there as a rule.
I guess there are different perspectives on many things. Let people shop where they want to, and where it’s convenient. If merchants have found a way to make a profit in a capitalist society, let ‘em. It’s not crack cocaine.
Dollar Stores around here have an ambition to erect one every 20 miles. My good contractor buddy is full up on jobs for the 2019 year. And his employees. MAGA!!!