They operate as thinly as possible and squeeze every dime until it screams. Their aisles are narrow and packed with as many brands as possible, but as a regular shopper, I’m certain their prices on “most” things are right there with WalMart. In my case, WalMart is 30 minutes away and Family Dollar is 5 minutes away. In my F-150 super cab, that’s about 4 gallons of gas versus a half gallon, and an hour of travel versus 10 minutes.
So I save about 12 bucks in gas before I even start, and am home and done in an hour less time.
Family Dollar seems to have the same sized packages as does Wal-Mart for the most part. You lose on variety, of course, but the prices are similar. So, with a Sav-a-lot also nearby, we can put off a trip to one of the larger stores now. It’s more like once every other week when it used to be once a week or more.
I understand what you’re saying, but in my area Wal-Mart is definitely cheaper. Dollar General is 5 minutes away, Wal-Mart is 10; I’ll go to Dollar General if I only need ONE thing. Otherwise, they aren’t competitive; in fact, they aren’t even competitive with Shop-Rite (7 minutes away). I see people describing the pricing Wal-Mart uses in different areas (depending on the competition), and that might explain the difference in our experiences.
I bought a pair of shorts at Dollar General in which the pockets quickly wore out; the same may have happened if I bought them at Wal-Mart, but I would have paid several dollars less for the lesson.