The war on the dollar stores
This article is a few months old, but it just recently came to my attention and I read it because I love dollar stores, although the article is a typical anti-capitalist attack on them as somehow harming minorities in poor communities who don’t have easy access to other grocery stores.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it, except to say that it’s typical of so many articles today that ignore economic realities such as, for example, the need to make a profit, and act as though the decisions of corporations are capricious and bigoted rather than motivated by those economic realities.
I also wonder whether the author has actually like, you know, stepped into a Dollar Tree and looked around. Dollar Trees are not grocery stores and were never meant to me. The do carry some food, but the bulk of their real estate is not devoted to food, and the food items they do carry are not easily perishable and therefore can be shelved for a long time. The author wants them to be what they are not and never intended to be: a sort of fantasy healthful and somehow magically cheap Whole Foods that coaxes poor people into making the food choices the author thinks they should be making.
By the way, I speak as a fan of Dollar Trees. Yes, I confess. And I live in a solidly middle class neighborhood, and yet it’s dotted with Dollar Trees, and sometimes I frequent them. I go because I can save a ton of money on things like kitchen supplies. Just the other day I was looking for these little metal scrubby things they used to carry in all groceries and no longer do; very useful for certain cleaning tasks. Couldn’t find them anywhere. They’re being sold on Amazon—of course—for 12.95 a pop plus shipping, but in an online search I noticed they also happen to be at the Dollar Tree. Three for a buck. Not bad, eh? I stocked up.
[NOTE: The comments at the article are uniformly critical.]
You could tell from the first three sentences that the article was inane. I cannot help but think the motivator for articles such as this is simple aggression.
I’m encouraged that so many woke stories get big pushback in the comments section, even of liberal websites. And not necessarily from conservatives — just ordinary folks who know crazy when they see it.
That is, if comments are allowed.
So, it’s corporate America’s fault for not making sure that dollar stores are organic fruit markets? LOL
Don’t get me started or I’ll be God-damning progressive snowflake social engineer wannabe writers and their vainglorious conceits more than I normally and incessantly do, already.
Although I have grudgingly admitted attending an urban Jesuit University, I probably never mentioned that I worked during my high-school and most college years … largely by choice, partly through obstinacy: ‘ i.e., the right to say “I paid for my college education on my own, and government underwriting does not apply, f**k you very much, my dear liberal cousin.”
In any event, it was in a supermarket no less. For years. “Choices?”
Whether in middle class or upscale areas, some of the stupid-class would inevitably show up. And if there were potato chips and cookies and pastries available, no matter how many aisles of fruit and vegetables and dairy and dried beans and rice they had to walk past in order to get to it, know for certain that Count Chocula, and cookies, and ice cream, and other crap like that would make up fully half or more of what these waddling shoppers would buy.
Steaks, and even hams, often enough to be remarkable, went down their pants or up their skirts or under their shirts or into huge purses storied in the baby seat of the shopping cart.
I feel bad saying all this, but even years later , the entitled, invincible, unapologetically proud idiocy, of many of the people who behaved that way, still rankles me. In case you hadn’t noticed.
Now for dollar stores. Though I might only go there occasionally to grab cheap dish soap for hosing/washing a car in the driveway, I have noticed how expansive and large some of the food sections have become.
And I have seen enough of these places … I get those large hard foam coffee cups with lids there too – to know that they are not all the same and don’t all sell for a dollar. But while I cannot recall which company is which or is the best, I can say that in some I have noticed not only inexpensive foods that are wholesome if dried or canned, but are packed in the US, and even represent mainstream brands. And having the youth work-experience background that I had, I’ve spent some time deliberately looking at the labels
So, although they may sell mushrooms packed in China (yikes), I have seen major brands such as Libby, and Van Camps, and some well-known regional packing house product brands from the South, on their shelves as well.
Oh, by the way, those copper wire scrubbers you are probably referring to, are sometimes hard to get because druggies buy them up.
I have no idea what they use them for, though.
My wife loves “99 cents” stores, which are common here. I also see “Dollar Tree” stores, which seem to cater to Mexican Americans.
I did scan the article and may have missed any reference to the rampant shoplifting that drives so many markets out of poor and especially black, neighborhoods.
Mike K:
Where I live, Dollar Trees are head and shoulders above the rest for the quality and scope of their merchandise, as well as their actual dollar prices.
NOTE: The comments at the article are uniformly critical.
I noticed that, and it made my day. Because that article was a solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist.
The dollar store closest to me is next door to a grocery store, as is the one my mother used to frequent. No, neither grocery store is a Whole Foods. They’re too snobby to be in such an ordinary shopping center.
Dollar Tree is the Nordstrom’s of dollar stores. Great place. I love it. So sad they’re in bankruptcy now.
Heh. I can still remember Dime Stores.
KRB
Dollar stores, and all the other discount shops, provide value to their customers with their inexpensive goods, and to their suppliers by allowing for the offloading of excess inventory (overstocks!). Were it not for discount stores taking this excess inventory, the original manufacturer and first line retailers would have to charge a higher price in order to absorb the cost of producing the excess goods. Or they would simply make fewer items, making them less readily available.
Just another article written by a clueless “journalist”.
I’m unfamiliar with CityLab, but it appears to address questions of urban planning. I would be surprised if readers tend right instead of left. Whoever they are, they were not impressed with Tanvi Misra’s sociological treatise of the failings of Dollar General. I was not impressed either: even though I don’t shop often at Dollar General, Misra’s criticisms were not supported by my personal observations or experience. They struck me as largely based on a political agenda.
My sister in law loved the many 1 pound stores in England when she was there, so she tried starting a one-Euro store here in Bratislava. Not very successful — the few high foot traffic areas were quite expensive. She’s relocated a few times. Is now close to our castle, a big tourist place, and mostly sells 1 Euro souvenirs, but now doing OK.
Low cost retail is a very tough business.
” Having an affordable option for buying food in the vicinity—even if it’s not ideal—may be seen by residents as better than nothing. “As someone on a fixed income, I see [dollar stores] as saving the poor,” one Twitter user said, responding to the ILSR brief. “I can stock up on staples there a whole lot cheaper than at regular grocery stores.”
The small amount of sense in the article.
The big supermarkets don’t go there. The stores that do go there, sell what people buy that can be sold at a profit.
The stupid authors almost certainly think that socialism would be better for America. Why don’t they try opening a store in some area and selling what they think should be sold? Because they want to control the Work of Other People, as well as Other People’s Money.
Probably not yet over 40, meaning not yet certainly without brains. Tho likely to prove to be so in a few years.
Tanvi Misra’s work also appears in The Atlantic, NPR, and BBC. That should give you a clue where she is coming from.
Oh, by the way, those copper wire scrubbers you are probably referring to, are sometimes hard to get because druggies buy them up.
I have no idea what they use them for, though.
Tom Grey: My guess was something to do with meth cooking, but instead it’s for smoking crack.
Steel Wool, Faucet Aerators and Chore Boy: When someone does use a traditional pipe (or stem), they require a filter to keep the crack in place. Placing steel wool or copper Chore Boy, both scrubbing materials, inside the pipe is the most common method to do so. Faucet aerators are the screens obtained by screwing off the end of older faucets. These are also commonly used as screens for smoking crack.
https://www.projectknow.com/tools-of-the-trade-how-to-spot-crack-paraphernalia/
DNW; huxley:
I use the stainless steel scrubbers, not the copper ones.
Neo, thank you for clearing that up. We were all dreadfully, dreadfully worried.
😆
I’m glad we caught DNW on a day when he was being irascible. That was a treat.
“Though these “small-box” retailers carry only a limited stock of prepared foods, they’re now feeding more people than grocery chains like Whole Foods, …”
Assuming that these are middle class or lower middle class neighborhoods, I would hope that statement was true. Some wag on TV used to routinely refer to Whole Foods as Whole Paycheck.
It used to be the case that when media blowhards were pushing some propaganda, they would at least provide one anecdotal example.
Who cares what they advertise? Go to the Kroger and shop. Yes, the wealthier folks like their Mediterranean foods, and her neighbors maybe don’t. So what? This is their one explicit example? Oh, there might some places somewhere that have lost their major supermarket. (Though they’ve yet to find it.) Oh dear.
Thanks for this post. One has to be selective in what one buys at any store to get the best bargains. The Dollar Tree stores in our area have many great bargains in food as well as other items. Hunt’s Ketchup, black olives, green olives, various kinds of dried beans for cooking, and even jars of mushrooms. On canned vegetables, Aldies is better, though, 49 cts vs $1. You pay $1 for the Sunday paper that sells for $3 in other stores. Plastic storage bags and containers (at least up 3 containers, sometimes,in a package), can be bought there. Yes, there are high sugar food items but many healthy buys, also. If you drink soda you can get 1/2 L or 20 oz for a buck. A local food chain market even tries to duplicate with a half an aisle dedicated to $ items (not food items, though). Many kinds of basic paper goods, also, along with seasonal sale’s items. Why pay more when you pay at least 1/3 to 1/2 less. My money goes father. They even have a refrigerated food section.
When I was young, grandchildren, there were stores called “five and dimes.” There wasn’t much you could buy for a nickel or a dime, aside from candy, but a dollar would go a long way.
I remember sweating bullets over purchasing a 79 cent PaperMate pen at Woolworth’s. I decided it was worth it. I was moving up in the world.
Back in a previous administration, there was a piece on Lever Brothers beginning to sell in Europe as they do in the developing world. There, for example, few people can front the money for two months’ shampoo. They buy single use packages. These are, cumulatively, more expensive for obvious reasons, but are all that the locals can afford.
The Dollar Store genre may or may not require you to, cumulatively, pay more than you would at WalMart for the giant economy size. But they do offer quite small packages of, say, salad dressing. That will last until the next paycheck clears.
I like Aldi’s, too.
I didn’t read the article. I love Dollar Tree, and Dollar General.
Dollar General is not an everything’s a dollar type store, but it is a very good place to get some of the household items also. I usually by the laundry detergent at Dollar General as well as the bathroom cleaners. There is always something unexpected to find there. I just scored 4 patio chairs for $36. I’m pretty sure Lowe’s was selling them for much, much more.
Dollar General is also much closer, I have to drive 10 miles to get to the Dollar Tree and it is not on my regular route.
Dollar Tree recently bought up Dollar General and the other Dollars. They took quite the debt to do so, but have finally begun making a profit until Trum crashed the markets with trade war fears… hah.
Dollar Tree is specially vulnerable to China trade war tariffs, because their value is generally imported from China.
There was a jazz pianist named Dollar Brand a friend turned me on to. Brand was from South Africa. Love the name. Dollar Brand.
Sadly he converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdullah Ibrahim, but he still played good music. One improv session he led became an anthem for the anti-apartheid movement. I’m not sure why. The music didn’t sound political, but I guess at that time and place… I still enjoy it.
I think of Dollar Brand whenever I drive by a Dollar store.
Abdullah Ibrahim – Mannenberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Get3oF_ibuo
Art Deco on May 22, 2019 at 1:54 pm at 1:54 pm said:
… I cannot help but think the motivator for articles such as this is simple aggression.
* * *
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1130807313500188674.html
One would think that “democratic socialists” would applaud the Dollar store phenomenon of providing inexpensive necessities as well as luxuries to the down-trodden masses, but that sort of appeasement of the proletariat just delays the onset of the Revolution.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/chicago-dem-candidate-says-socialism-should-control-every-facet-of-our-life/
I shop my local (multiple) Dollar Trees every week.
They are often out of my favorite items.
Best place ever to take grandkids who just earned their first couple of bucks helping with the yard or house work.
One would think that “democratic socialists” would applaud the Dollar store phenomenon of providing inexpensive necessities as well as luxuries to the down-trodden masses, but that sort of appeasement of the proletariat just delays the onset of the Revolution.
AesopFan: One would think. However, the contempt progressives have for WalMart and its “deplorable” customers is no secret. For millions of Americans WalMart makes an important difference for their budgets. They don’t have the money (or time) to shop at boutique stores for organic, sustainable, fair-trade, etc. products.
A well-written article on the dollar store industry from an investment perspective:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4229976-recession-proof-play-dollar-stores
I live near a small town – anything that I can’t get at the grocery is either a dollar store purchase or it’s in to the Big City for me. Most recent dollar store purchases – a laundry basket, a wallet, reading glasses and some of those cheapo tools that they sell that I can keep in the car. Our town used to have a Ben Franklin store, which actually billed itself as a five and dime. After its sad demise, it was the dollar stores for us.
Dollar Tree stores have good greeting cards (simple designs made by Hallmark), gift bags and tissue, party supplies, seasonal decorations, hair and makeup accessories (such as brushes) and cleaning supplies such as soap and buckets. I recently found a long plastic “drain snake” at the dollar store. Worked like a charm and saved me an expensive house call from a plumber. We recently had a wedding in the family and we saved a ton of money by shopping Dollar Tree for wine carafes, flower vases, ribbon, silver and gold frames (for signage), battery-operated candles and votive light holders. I’m a fan.
Reminds of the “living wage” argument, or the raising of the minimum wage for the likes of fast food/Starbucks/Walmart.