New research claims the discount retail chains known as “dollar stores” are not having a positive impact on the communities where they are sprouting like weeds.
A report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance claims Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, often choose disenfranchised areas to set up shop, and may not offer the savings customers assume they’re getting. Last year, the chain operated 34,000 stores across the nation, and hopes to grow to 51,000 locations.
Kennedy Smith, senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said in Indiana, the chains are meeting resistance as Hoosiers wise up to what is being called the “dollar store invasion.”
“And from communities in particular that are opposing proposed dollar stores, I’ve heard from Crawfordsville, Elkhart, Kokomo, Marion Township, Monroe County, Princeton,” Smith outlined. “All of these places are either in the process of fighting, or have successfully fought off, a proposed dollar store.”
The report found the rapid expansion creates a widening economic hardship, especially in areas such as Black and Latino neighborhoods, squeezing out local businesses and not offering enough healthy food choices to customers.
The report showed the stores are prime targets for crime because they are understaffed, and a lack of manpower leads to aisles cluttered with unboxed merchandise which can create unnecessary hazards for customers and employees. Smith argued it is time for local governments and Congress to take some action.
“One thing that people who are upset about dollar stores coming into their communities in Indiana can do is pick up their phones and call their members of Congress, and ask for them to look into this,” Smith urged. “There are some members of Congress from other states that have begun to look at dollar-store practices. So, I think we’re going to see this beginning to pick up a bit.”
Dollar General disagreed with the report findings. The company said its customers depend on the chain to stretch budgets, especially during times of high inflation.
3 comments
This is the most absurd complaint I believe I have ever heard of.
#1. For a country that’s supposed to be based on the free market, there’s sure does seem to be an awful lot of bitching and crying when a private business handles their business in a way people, such as the dim bulb who wrote his article, don’t agree with. Don’t like it? Start your own dollar store. Literally no one is standing in your way.
#2. A lot of those stores existed before the areas they’re in became “disenfranchised.” It’s real funny the Dollar General’s in more income challenged areas are always pointed out in crybaby rants like this article but the ones in affluent areas (and they do exist, in droves) are simply ignored because they don’t suit the argument. What a joke.
#3. A lot of people in those disenfranchised areas enjoy shopping at those stores and are employed by those stores.
Where were the complaints about these stores twenty years ago? No one complained then. No one complained fifteen or ten years ago. And yet here we are, the stores business models are essentially the same as they’ve always been minus a few minor changes. Guess what isn’t the same though….adulthood. Apparently some of you have yet to grasp that concept.
You don’t get to praise a free market in one breath a cry like a pussified bitch in the next because you didn’t get the same price you would have gotten at Kroger.
No one cares you didn’t plan your grocery list better, Karen.
Also, Federated Media can fuck off. You people do business with transphobic and racist assholes. And yeah, you do, because you do business with a company I worked for with that mentality. So until you can get your shit in order you have no business crying about what other companies do.
Have a wonderful day.
I was literally cheering you on until your penultimate paragraph. Aside from the buzzwords, you still get a solid “9/10, would read again” for your post. Well done!
Now that we’re all using Biden Bucks, dollar stores are the best that many people can hope for. Many communities should be happy that ANY store is moving into their area in this economy. It is foolish to complain when they don’t offer enough “healthy food choices” that their customers don’t care about anyway.