6 ms·
The article sort of conflates two different models. Dollar Tree is actual "everything in the store is a dollar" while Dollar General and Family General are most
by Noos 5y ago
The article sort of conflates two different models. Dollar Tree is actual "everything in the store is a dollar" while Dollar General and Family General are mostly small retail stores that sell things at a variety of prices. They round prices to the dollar, but otherwise are traditional retail that just locates in unusual locations.
Five Below is another "dollar store" in that blend, focusing mostly on goods for young adults and teens. Originally everything was below $5, up to and including some video games and electronics like computer accessories or even drones.
It isn't too new of a niche, closeout retailers have often existed and its not uncommon with small businesses; ocean state job lot in the NE kind of exists with this model. I think what is unique is the small retail store model; dollar generals are as big as a walgreens or CVS, but stock a pretty full assortment of goods for the size. They are pretty impressive for being micro-super walmarts in a sense.
Dollar tree's are interesting because you can actually find books and dvd/blu-ray there. It's sort of a commentary on how tough it must be to be a creative when I can buy remnant books from A list authors sometimes; I've seen Jonathan Franzen, John Scalzi, Bill Mckibben, And Rod Dreher books end up in the dollar bin. There's also a staggering amount of generic animated dvds in the pixar/disney mode.
- bradleyjg 5y agoPaperback books that don’t sell are discarded so as not to compete with long tail purchases but hard cover books are expensive enough in terms of production and distribution that the end up getting discounted instead.
- b3morales 5y agoCan you expand on this? Do you mean a paperback copy of a book somehow competes with a later sale of the same book?
- echelon 5y agoSupply and demand. If you decrease the supply, the small existing demand will pay more.
- Robotbeat 5y agoWhen suppliers destroy supply, it makes a good argument for piracy
- runj__ 5y agoI somewhat agree with you but I really do like some kind of curation, even if that curation is done by the market. There's nothing inherently good with a surplus of bad goods. I'd prefer a copy of "The Library of Babel" vs. all of the books inside of it.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y agoYes - they don't want to flood the used book market with paperbacks, which would compete with future sales of the same title. If you're a bookstore and a hardcover doesn't sell, you have to return the whole book to the publisher. If a paperback doesn't sell, you just have to rip off the front cover and return that to the publisher. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book
- laurencerowe 5y agoThat's definitely not true for all paperback books. I often buy remaindered paperbacks at Dog Eared and Alley Cat bookshops in San Francisco. You can tell they're remaindered because they're marked with felt tip. When I lived in the UK, Fopp was a great source for them (along with discount films and music.)
- bradleyjg 5y agoMy knowledge of the subject goes back to a high school job in a bookstore. Things may well have changed since then. Back then we ripped the covers off mass market paperback and sent them back to the publisher for a credit. The books were supposed to be discarded but you did from time to time come across a paperback book with no cover at a thrift store or similar, so clearly that didn’t always happen.
- Retric 5y agoI’ve had plenty of paperback books lose their covers fairly quickly, seeing used books without covers doesn’t mean they had their covers intentionally ripped off.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- laurencerowe 5y agoThe remaindered paperbacks I bought may have been higher quality trade paperback versions rather than the regular mass market ones which get pulped.
- cafard 5y agoRight. Many years ago, I worked for a department store or two that carried books. Some of those missing the front cover ended up where employees could take them. I suppose that this was not supposed to happen, but it did.
- canadianfella 5y agoWhy didn’t you make “dvd/blu-ray” plural?
- adventured 5y ago> It isn't too new of a niche Definitely an old retail segment. Walmart's origins derive from Sam Walton operating a Ben Franklin five-and-dime variety store (a wholesaler dating to the 19th century), which was that era's equivalent of a Dollar General store (including having spread itself to 2500 locations all over the place). With him later opening Walton's five-and-dime store. Interesting representative story on the recent conclusion to that chain: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/20/ben-franklin https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/20/ben-franklin
- mherdeg 5y agoOcean State Job Lot is fun. Also in New England I love the Marden's business model. As far as I can tell from the advertising it really is a family business that's hit its scaling limits at about 15 stores -- when you walk in you see whatever remnant stuff a member of the Marden family thought people would like to buy when they went shopping for remnant inventory. Like they list the names of people who buy this stuff on their web site: https://www.mardens.com/sell-to-us/ https://www.mardens.com/sell-to-us/ They even have a special type of store dedicated to flooring and I feel like this reflects the family structure somehow (like a niece or nephew is really into flooring or something). It's just such interesting retail.
- jsz0 5y agoOne thing I really like about Ocean State Job Lot is they have a couple isles of really cheap fun timeless kids toys that I remember playing with as a kid. I think for a lot of lower income families it's probably one of the only times a kid gets the thrill of walking into a store and selecting new toys to buy.
- jhallenworld 5y agoI like their ultra-cheap scientific calculators (their markup is 100% from the Alibaba high volume price, but still cheap) and art supplies. I bought a metal ruler from them once, only to find that it had a misprint on the scale.
- tshaddox 5y agoI remember Dollar General carrying cheap/generic brands growing up, but when I went to one last year it seemed indistinguishable in selection and pricing to a Walmart or similar large chain grocery store.
- RandomThrow321 5y agoThe article calls out the difference between Dollar Tree (everything is a dollar) and Dollar General (low prices but not necessarily a dollar) in one of the images.
- wyldfire 5y ago> It's sort of a commentary on how tough it must be to be a creative when I can buy remnant books from A list authors sometimes; I've seen Jonathan Franzen, John Scalzi, Bill Mckibben, And Rod Dreher books end up in the dollar bin. Talented authors who drove retail bookstores to stock their inventory. But when some of it didn't sell, the dollar stores snapped it up for nearly nothing. IMO that's not a slight to the authors. It's to their credit that the bookstores saw their promise based on existing sales at the time.