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These places create food deserts, for the reason you mention. They are engineered to get poorer people to come there instead of a normal grocery store. The groc

These places create food deserts, for the reason you mention. They are engineered to get poorer people to come there instead of a normal grocery store. The grocery store in your neighborhood struggles and closes, now you have to drive twice as far to get fresh produce, or go to Family Dollar and buy a week's worth of frozen Banquet meals. That can't be healthy for any population. I avoid these stores on principle now, even for things where it makes sense to go to a dollar store.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
I would have thought a certain portion of the population becoming poor enough to want to shop at a cheaper store for lower quality products is what causes a store selling at higher quality products at higher prices to go out of business. Edit to reply to post below due to posting limit: The people choosing to shop at the cheaper store are also benefiting, otherwise, they would not have switched from shopping at the higher priced store.
- margalabargala 3y ago
  I live in the American West. Frequently these places open in very small towns, think sub-1000 people and 25 miles from anything else. Such towns only have the population to support one grocery store, usually a locally-owned store that's been there for a very long time. Then a dollar store moves in, takes advantage of the size of the parent company to take a loss for a few months/year until the local store is driven out of business, and then is able to sit on a monopoly for food for that town. Such stores destroy communities. The only people benefiting in the above scenario are the dollar store's shareholders.
- margalabargala 3y ago
  To address your edit: > The people choosing to shop at the cheaper store are also benefiting, otherwise, they would not have switched from shopping at the higher priced store. The strategy is as follows: - Move into small town that can only support one store. - Undercut existing store, using corporate resources to stay afloat while doing so. - When other store closes, raise prices. - Enjoy your monopoly position that's near-impossible to disrupt due to town not being able to support two stores. Yes, you are correct that some consumers briefly spend a couple of months benefiting from lower prices during step two. The raised prices in the years following make up for that, not to mention the decrease in quality and variety, and the destruction of the town's local businesses, speeding the demise of the town.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Once the new store raises prices, why can another cheaper store not come in and do the cycle over again? My contention is the cheaper store’s success is not the root cause, the cheaper store’s success is the symptom of a sufficient portion of the local populace losing purchasing power.
    - margalabargala 3y ago
      > Once the new store raises prices, why can another cheaper store not come in and do the cycle over again? Well, then the first dollar store can lower prices to prevent that. Doing this requires a large war chest. The store needs to take a loss for months to years until its competitor dies. A Dollar Tree or a Dollar General can do this easily against a locally owned store. But once a Dollar Tree has moved in, a Dollar General won't, because both companies have the resources to back an individual store indefinitely, and neither will make any profit. So there's no use. Having one corporate-owned dollar store in a small town is a very stable minimum. > My contention is the cheaper store’s success is not the root cause, the cheaper store’s success is the symptom of a sufficient portion of the local populace losing purchasing power. Completely disagree. The cheaper store's success is a symptom of abuse of the market by a larger company. In places without discount stores, people get along just fine, and in fact protest against the opening of such stores in their town. These stores don't open stores in places where "the local populace has already lost purchasing power" and are seeking somewhere new to buy things, they open stores in places where they can create and enjoy a monopoly position due to the relatively small size of the local population. This isn't something you'd see in an urban area. But there are countless examples of this happening across Eastern Oregon or Nevada.
    - babypuncher 3y ago
      It's hard to push into an existing market already controlled by a corporation worth billions. They have so much money in the bank that they can win any war of attrition. So nobody ever really tries.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

I would have thought a certain portion of the population becoming poor enough to want to shop at a cheaper store for lower quality products is what causes a store selling at higher quality products at higher prices to go out of business. Edit to reply to post below due to posting limit: The people choosing to shop at the cheaper store are also benefiting, otherwise, they would not have switched from shopping at the higher priced store.

margalabargala 3y ago
I live in the American West. Frequently these places open in very small towns, think sub-1000 people and 25 miles from anything else. Such towns only have the population to support one grocery store, usually a locally-owned store that's been there for a very long time. Then a dollar store moves in, takes advantage of the size of the parent company to take a loss for a few months/year until the local store is driven out of business, and then is able to sit on a monopoly for food for that town. Such stores destroy communities. The only people benefiting in the above scenario are the dollar store's shareholders.
margalabargala 3y ago
To address your edit: > The people choosing to shop at the cheaper store are also benefiting, otherwise, they would not have switched from shopping at the higher priced store. The strategy is as follows: - Move into small town that can only support one store. - Undercut existing store, using corporate resources to stay afloat while doing so. - When other store closes, raise prices. - Enjoy your monopoly position that's near-impossible to disrupt due to town not being able to support two stores. Yes, you are correct that some consumers briefly spend a couple of months benefiting from lower prices during step two. The raised prices in the years following make up for that, not to mention the decrease in quality and variety, and the destruction of the town's local businesses, speeding the demise of the town.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Once the new store raises prices, why can another cheaper store not come in and do the cycle over again? My contention is the cheaper store’s success is not the root cause, the cheaper store’s success is the symptom of a sufficient portion of the local populace losing purchasing power.
  - margalabargala 3y ago
    > Once the new store raises prices, why can another cheaper store not come in and do the cycle over again? Well, then the first dollar store can lower prices to prevent that. Doing this requires a large war chest. The store needs to take a loss for months to years until its competitor dies. A Dollar Tree or a Dollar General can do this easily against a locally owned store. But once a Dollar Tree has moved in, a Dollar General won't, because both companies have the resources to back an individual store indefinitely, and neither will make any profit. So there's no use. Having one corporate-owned dollar store in a small town is a very stable minimum. > My contention is the cheaper store’s success is not the root cause, the cheaper store’s success is the symptom of a sufficient portion of the local populace losing purchasing power. Completely disagree. The cheaper store's success is a symptom of abuse of the market by a larger company. In places without discount stores, people get along just fine, and in fact protest against the opening of such stores in their town. These stores don't open stores in places where "the local populace has already lost purchasing power" and are seeking somewhere new to buy things, they open stores in places where they can create and enjoy a monopoly position due to the relatively small size of the local population. This isn't something you'd see in an urban area. But there are countless examples of this happening across Eastern Oregon or Nevada.
  - babypuncher 3y ago
    It's hard to push into an existing market already controlled by a corporation worth billions. They have so much money in the bank that they can win any war of attrition. So nobody ever really tries.