I been noticing Dollar Generals has been popping up everywhere.

[XamotCGC]

I don't know how long this been going on or if it's occurring in other areas, but I've noticed here in Kentucky Dollar General have really expanded with new stores, especially in really small communities.   I just find it odd to see since I'm use to seeing Dollar General as a store you find in strip malls.

[KCRoadFan]

I'm sure HB Elkins would know. He knows many things Kentucky.

[Bruce]

Dollar stores in general have been growing much faster than other retailers due to their lower overhead, smaller footprints, and relative popularity. But they're also helping fuel food deserts (as most don't have fresh produce or even healthy packaged options), drive more inequality, and are generally a blight on neighborhoods.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-20/when-the-closest-grocery-store-is-a-dollar-store

Been noticing Dollar General in particular marching closer and closer to the Seattle area, having first appeared in rural Washington a few years ago. Would much rather have more conventional grocers out in the countryside.

(Also, in terms of dollar stores I'd much rather have something more fun like Daiso)

[Ted$8roadFan]

Dollar stores are controversial in New England (no surprise there). That doesn't mean they're unpopular, esp. in an age of rising costs and inflation.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiMp8qF7s_4AhVvkYkEHapfBTc4ChAWegQIBBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.consumerreports.org%2Fdollar-stores%2Fthe-truth-about-those-dollar-stores%2F&usg=AOvVaw1H_z3qrYyTYmFVcEJUdh75

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-dollar-stores-became-magnets-for-crime-and-killing

[Mapmikey]

Dollar General has been expanding into very rural areas throughout the South for about a decade now.

[Flint1979]

Same thing in Michigan. There are over 600 DG's in the state and they keep popping up everywhere in very remote areas in an area where you'd otherwise not expect to find one. It seems like every small town has one.

[formulanone]

https://youtu.be/DIqC5y1zm-4

To be fair, a lot of them seem to pop up where there was no local competition, other than a gas station. The stores are chaoticly organized but sometimes you can find some decent deals.

[JayhawkCO]

Lots in small towns in Colorado too. Stopped at one in Meeker earlier this year and it was busy for such a small town.

[jlam]

Absolutely. Just got one in Severance. Now we have two convenience stores.

[Max Rockatansky]

They tend to pop up in more rural communities that aren't large enough to support a big box retailer.

[kphoger]

They tend to pop up in more rural communities that aren't large enough to support a big box retailer.

Nor even a junior box retailer.

[roadman65]

Some even have gas pumps.

[Life in Paradise]

I don't know how long this been going on or if it's occurring in other areas, but I've noticed here in Kentucky Dollar General have really expanded with new stores, especially in really small communities.   I just find it odd to see since I'm use to seeing Dollar General as a store you find in strip malls.

They are doing that in Southern Indiana as well.

[hbelkins]

Dollar General is expanding at a faster pace than Family Dollar. They have been appearing in rural communities that are crossroads hamlets, near "major" (relatively speaking) traffic generators, or as supplemental locations to places that already have one.

Estill County now has five. There has always been one just west of the Irvine city limits, dating back to the chain's infancy. In recent years new locations have been built in the city of Ravenna, near the intersection of KY 82 and KY 89 at Hargett (locally known as Harg) in the northwestern part of the county, on KY 52 west near KY 1353/KY 3325, and most recently, a grocery store that closed down was repurposed as a Dollar General Marketplace (offering fresh produce).

In Perry County, one was built near the Coalfields Industrial Park off KY 15 in the northern part of the county. It captures workers at the businesses located in the industrial park. One in Wolfe County was built not far from a Lion Apparel factory. Makes it easy for someone headed home to run in and grab something.

If you use their digital coupons and selectively shop, you can find better values than Walmart sometimes.

Family Dollar has not been expanding quite as aggressively, but they too are extending their reach outside incorporated areas/county seats and building locations in rural communities.

Being used to seeing a plethora of Dollar General locations in rural communities, and with most incorporated towns having both a DG and a FD, I was really surprised at how few there were out west when I went last year. Finding a Family Dollar in Dillon, Mont., was a blessing. A community that size in Kentucky, with a college, would have a number of chain stores and probably even a Walmart.

Dollar General was founded in Kentucky but is now headquartered in Tennessee.

[bwana39]

Yes to the point, they are finding it hard to get ANY employees in some locations.  They are closing some stores simply because  they cannot staff them MINIMALLY (1 person per shift.)

They closed the store in my TINY hometown (population 500) and the community came up and helped the new hires re-organize the store. IE for free. They fired the previous store lead because she kept the store open and incurred overtime.

[triplemultiplex]

Are they the ones with the giant distribution center at an old air base turned industrial park in Oklahoma?  It was one of those dollar chains, I remember seeing.

[kphoger]

Or is it 'Dollars General'...   

[Flint1979]

I think I had it figured out that the average for a Michigan county is 7 Dollar General's per county. There is only 1 Dollar General in Keweenaw County which is the least populated county in the state in a very remote area and it's near the county line, after that there is one in Calumet and one in Lake Linden.

I was trying to figure out if there was a county in Michigan without a Dollar General but Michigan counties are big enough in area that I don't think that there is one.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Dollar General planned to build two stores on Lake Superior's North Shore, in Silver Bay and in Grand Marais. The Grand Marais plan was extremely controversial and eventually chased out by the city attempting to protect the touristy, kitschy feel, although turning DG away was not entirely without controversy as some of the permanent residents expressed it may have been good for the locals. The Silver Bay store never came to fruition either, although their economy depends less on tourism and the town's political views are not nearly as far to the left as Grand Marais's are, so I'm not sure why that one didn't happen.

[thenetwork]

Yes to the point, they are finding it hard to get ANY employees in some locations.  They are closing some stores simply because  they cannot staff them MINIMALLY (1 person per shift.)

They closed the store in my TINY hometown (population 500) and the community came up and helped the new hires re-organize the store. IE for free. They fired the previous store lead because she kept the store open and incurred overtime.

I had filled in for a couple of days for my job in the Salt Lake City area earlier this year.  There was one DG in particular which was located halfway between Downtown and the SLC Airport and next to an elementary school.   

They had 2-3 employees working there when I came by at 230PM to service the store, yet they had a big sign on the door saying their store closed daily at *3PM* until further notice.  I finished my tasks and high-tailed out of there just as they locked up at 3pm.

3PM??  Next to an elementary school???  In a large town???

[Great Lakes Roads]

La Porte (where I live) has FOUR Dollar Generals in a town of ~20k population.

[jp the roadgeek]

In the past 10 years, 3 Dollar Generals have popped up within 10 minutes of me, including 2 in my town.  Those are in addition to the two Dollar Trees in town, but we do have a Walmart and Target. Dollar General was pretty much nonexistent northeast of PA in 2010.

[wxfree]

That started in my area (outer DFW) years ago.  They built stores in small towns and on busier roads miles outside of bigger towns or between towns.  The stores aren't very big and seem intended to draw customers from a small area.  Near me, a larger town has two Dollar Generals and two Family Dollars, in addition to larger supermarkets, and a town 15 miles away has a Dollar General and one of those small-time higher-priced grocery stores, and they put a Dollar General on a rural road in between the two towns.  The land is probably cheaper there.  They're hoping the people who live in that area will go to the nearby store instead of driving several miles farther to go to Walmart or another low-price supermarket.  I've seen them on the edge of a small town (sub-500 population), in a town that's so small it doesn't really have a middle or edge, and on a rural road between a small town and a very small town.  The strategy seems to be to use a smaller footprint and higher density to gain a semi-captive market.  You can't do all your shopping there, but it's a good place to make supplementary purchases near home.

This inspired several jokes.  One tells us that when you see a small hill or pile of dirt while driving through the country, that's a Dollar General egg getting ready to hatch.

[bwana39]

Dollar General planned to build two stores on Lake Superior's North Shore, in Silver Bay and in Grand Marais. The Grand Marais plan was extremely controversial and eventually chased out by the city attempting to protect the touristy, kitschy feel, although turning DG away was not entirely without controversy as some of the permanent residents expressed it may have been good for the locals. The Silver Bay store never came to fruition either, although their economy depends less on tourism and the town's political views are not nearly as far to the left as Grand Marais's are, so I'm not sure why that one didn't happen.

In Texas and Oklahoma. The Dollar Generals have enhanced the marketability of AirBnB's and VRBO's. It seems to help the tourist market more than hinder it due to them being downscale. The point being there are places to buy supplies. It used to be you might to drive 30 miles to get a forgotten or used up item,

[SectorZ]

Dollar General has added a ton of stores in more rural parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire over the past decade. Even in some not-rural areas (like the west end of Dracut, MA) that aren't served by similar retail. To this day, I've never been in one, not for any bad reason just never felt or had the need to check one out.