Dollar General

[storewanderer]

One thing I have noticed in these very rural areas that literally have no other shopping options is these Dollar General units are very helpful for elderly customers. It may be difficult for them to drive 20 miles to the larger town but the Dollar General is right there, parking is right in front of the door, store is small and easy to get through... I really think these stores serve a purpose.

I do wonder how many unprofitable stores they have though. I am not sure how some of these stores can possibly make a profit. I guess land/pre fab buildings/rent is really cheap in these places and with how cheaply they operate them...

But Dollar General units generally have steady traffic. Family Dollar is the chain that obviously has some serious issues, many very dead stores, and also a tract record of hundreds of closures or conversions to Dollar Tree.

[Brian Lutz]

While I was house hunting in North and South Carolina recently I saw that there are a lot of these rural Dollar Generals there, many of them a fair distance from anything else. For example, there's a Dollar General about a mile from the house we will soon be moving into, and aside from a gas station or two there's basically nothing else nearby. The two nearest shopping centers with grocery stores are both about five miles away, and both of those centers have Dollar Generals within a block or so. The nearest Walmart is about 10 miles away in Greensboro proper.

Something I've observed about small towns in NC is that most of them will have a Food Lion and a Bojangles even if they don't have much else beyond that. If they're too small for that they'll probably have at least a Dollar General. If they're too small for even those that's when you know you're really out in the sticks (but there's a good chance you'll still have at least a Baptist church somewhere.)

[storewanderer]

I didn't realize Bojangles was present in so many rural spots. That sounds sort of like how Sonic is placed in OK/KS.

Bojangles is trying to expand west and I will be interested to see how that goes. That may be the final kiss of death to KFC.

Those Dollar General units pop up like mushrooms and you will wonder how there are even enough people around to support half of them. I suggest using their app for prices/coupons, it is very easy to use. I also really like their Cart Calculator feature. Their scan accuracy is terrible and Cart Calculator will expose if an item is coming up higher than the posted price.

[Brian Lutz]

At this point I'd think Popeye's would be a bigger threat to KFC since they cover more of the country than Bojangles, but I don't see KFC going anywhere any time soon. Even in NC and SC there seems to be enough room for all of them. When I was there recently I saw that on Cherry Road in Rock Hill SC there's one spot where there's a Bojangles, a Chick-Fil-A and a Popeye's all in the same shopping center parking lot (along with a Wendy's, which also sells plenty of chicken sandwiches.) On top of all this there's a KFC about 1/4 mile away and a Wingstop on the opposite side of the street. Something tells me fried chicken does pretty well there...

This is probably a tangent better suited to the restaurants board, but another comparison I might make to Bojangles in NC is Dairy Queen in Texas. Every little town on the map seems to have one, and it seems like a lot of them act as the de facto social center of their respective towns.

[Brian Lutz]

And in other Dollar General news, Supermarket News is citing an article on The Messenger stating that the company currently has over $21 million in unpaid OSHA fines for safety violations:

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... tion-fines

[veteran+]

And the beat goes on............................

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... ave-report

[veteran+]

And Now This:

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... settlement

[storewanderer]

And Now This:

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... settlement

At least they actually are paying something...

Unlike the OSHA joke fine.