veteran+ wrote: ↑December 11th, 2023, 9:16 am
I can fully empathize with that situation and can fully understand. I am quite sensitive to the needs of others........to a fault.
I am just saying it stinks that these folks have to be grateful for these types of nasty retail.
Look at some of the Dollar General locations near me- there is just nothing in these places that resembles retail. Dollar General despite its faults really does pack in a good merchandise mix into its stores. It may be messy and you may have to dig around and you definitely want to check expiration dates... but... if it is that or drive 30 minutes to Wal Mart... The Dollar General drug/HBA area is pretty close to a drugstore, they are solid for paper/cleaning products, food skews toward convenience type food but they do have a lot of canned foods/boxed foods/cereals and later remodels have produce (way overpriced) and larger dairy/frozen.
If I lived out in one of these places and had an unexpected small home issue and needed a hammer or tool, got sick and needed medicine, ran out of some simple cooking ingredient like a baking soda or something, middle of summer and my hose was leaking/broke and I needed a new hose quick, unexpectedly ran out of window wash fluid for the car in the winter, whatever, I would be very thankful this store existed and I was able to get my product close to home and at a semi-reasonable price. People living in rural locations are conditioned to planning ahead and anticipating their needs but when Dollar General shows up and brings these items closer to them it gives them an easy back up for the times when emergency needs arise or they fail to plan ahead.
For instance - Dollar General Doyle, CA - Doyle has never had any store. There was a gas station with a c-store that had some groceries (super high prices).
Dollar General Portola, CA - this store is very busy (open until 11 PM) and the independent there Leonard's (owned by some group out of WA- has highway robbery pricing) has definitely been hurt by them.
Dollar General Washoe Valley, NV and Silver Springs, NV - just nothing in these towns ever until Dollar General arrived.
Dollar General Janesville, CA - again just nothing here until Dollar General put a store up.
Dollar General Westwood, CA - not long after this opened a very long time independent grocer in that town, Young's, closed.
Dollar General Greenville, CA - this is the town that largely burnt down but they did save the Dollar General and it did reopen. The independent grocer in this town changed ownership after Dollar General opened no longer local owner.
Dollar General Loma Rica, CA - this store- can't believe it is here. The gas station across the road has a larger than average grocery mix and I am sure has been hurt.
Dollar General Brownsville, CA - again this store - not sure what it is doing there but it is there..
I can't fully figure out their location strategy. I think they may look for post offices and decide if it is viable to build a store nearby.
Spending time in their stores they do fill a need. The general mood/attitude in these stores is positive. The other thing is there are not a whole lot of employment opportunities in these areas because there are so few businesses and in some cases there are a few people around who want a job part time close to home so this store provides for that too but they pay too little and aren't staffed well so seem to have no shortage of employee turnover.