4 ms·

Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

14 points by devy 8y ago

sj4nz 8y ago
Just walked through a Dollar General store today while waiting for lunch. They make Big Lots stores feel like Nordstrom. If you are struggling I can see the appeal of the "low prices" but the value of what you can get there isn't so great.
- Fjolsvith 8y ago
  True, also the packaging is slightly smaller than in regular stores. E.g.: 7 oz cans instead of 8 oz cans. But the price is just enough less than the 8 oz size price to make the consumer feel they are getting a good deal.
Waterluvian 8y ago
Is rural America declining, or simply not improving the way the rest of America is in the last 100 or so years?
- sj4nz 8y ago
  America is developing in exactly the way the systems we like to use dictate they should grow. Here it is a transportation issue--in the opposite way you might think. Older towns in the mid-west are spaced apart roughly 6-miles because you would only be able to travel by horse about 20-miles in a day. Naturally, you would want to be able to do "things" in the next town so you don't travel the entire day just to turn around and go back home. So, towns spread out about 6-miles and slowly grow. Bigger towns grew faster and smaller towns stayed the way they are. Bring in interstates and railroads and suddenly some towns, if they had nothing "going for them" never grow again or shrink--they're completely bypassed. People leave town for the opportunities, so opportunities have little need for these towns except for the occasional externality: e.g. a massive chicken processing or pet-food rendering plant no one wants to live near. Dollar General has found a dirt-easy strategy and picks up this easy money because this is essentially a structural problem with people who have tied themselves too closely to the land and governments that can't solve their problems.
  - Fjolsvith 8y ago
    Its only a problem for the low income to welfare range of folk. People who have a better income usually have transportation and use it to shop in bigger cities where the savings pays for the trip. Also, the trip doubles as a social outing, where the folk eat out, go to a movie, etc.
- nikdaheratik 8y ago
  It is declining. Much of it has to do with the way agriculture works in that it takes far fewer people to run than ever before and the pay hasn't ever been good. The ones close enough to a major city to be competitive in terms of housing and schooling can stay afloat for while. But if there are fewer jobs, the weather isn't that great, and you have to travel for an hour or more to get your needs met, it becomes much harder to keep a town running.

14 points by devy 8y ago

Just walked through a Dollar General store today while waiting for lunch. They make Big Lots stores feel like Nordstrom. If you are struggling I can see the appeal of the "low prices" but the value of what you can get there isn't so great.

Fjolsvith 8y ago
True, also the packaging is slightly smaller than in regular stores. E.g.: 7 oz cans instead of 8 oz cans. But the price is just enough less than the 8 oz size price to make the consumer feel they are getting a good deal.

Waterluvian 8y ago

Is rural America declining, or simply not improving the way the rest of America is in the last 100 or so years?

sj4nz 8y ago
America is developing in exactly the way the systems we like to use dictate they should grow. Here it is a transportation issue--in the opposite way you might think. Older towns in the mid-west are spaced apart roughly 6-miles because you would only be able to travel by horse about 20-miles in a day. Naturally, you would want to be able to do "things" in the next town so you don't travel the entire day just to turn around and go back home. So, towns spread out about 6-miles and slowly grow. Bigger towns grew faster and smaller towns stayed the way they are. Bring in interstates and railroads and suddenly some towns, if they had nothing "going for them" never grow again or shrink--they're completely bypassed. People leave town for the opportunities, so opportunities have little need for these towns except for the occasional externality: e.g. a massive chicken processing or pet-food rendering plant no one wants to live near. Dollar General has found a dirt-easy strategy and picks up this easy money because this is essentially a structural problem with people who have tied themselves too closely to the land and governments that can't solve their problems.
- Fjolsvith 8y ago
  Its only a problem for the low income to welfare range of folk. People who have a better income usually have transportation and use it to shop in bigger cities where the savings pays for the trip. Also, the trip doubles as a social outing, where the folk eat out, go to a movie, etc.
nikdaheratik 8y ago
It is declining. Much of it has to do with the way agriculture works in that it takes far fewer people to run than ever before and the pay hasn't ever been good. The ones close enough to a major city to be competitive in terms of housing and schooling can stay afloat for while. But if there are fewer jobs, the weather isn't that great, and you have to travel for an hour or more to get your needs met, it becomes much harder to keep a town running.