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posted by takyon on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the nothing-in-that-store-costs-1$-anyway dept.

In a Washington Post story picked up by the S. Louis Post-Dispatch, reporter Rachel Siegel asks the question "Are dollar stores a response to poverty - or a cause?"

The fundamental premise of the story is

fear the stores deter other business, especially in neighborhoods without grocers or options for healthy food. Dollar stores rarely sell fresh produce or meats, but they undercut grocery stores on prices of everyday items, often pushing them out of business.

this creates what is referred to by one patron as a 'food desert'

their unstoppable rise...keeps grocers from opening.

implications are made

With fewer options for fresh food and health care, people in a North Tulsa ZIP code have an average life expectancy of 11 years less than those in South Tulsa, according to a 2015 city report.

"It creates an overall sense of the neighborhood being run-down," said Stacy Mitchell, [of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance]. "It's a recipe for locking in poverty rather than alleviating it."

Contrariwise, these stores

are a vital source of cheap staples

The last Dollar General to open is across the street from a senior citizens home. That store, Henderson said, is a lifeline to residents.

the council thinks it's appropriate for city government to pick winners and losers in the economy.

and while not typical, some do indeed sell fruits and vegetables

grapes, apples, avocados, potatoes sandwiched between bags of fried pork skins and cases of Michelob Ultra.

It's Walmart all over again in a way.

Grocery stores run on thin profit margins - usually between 1 and 3 percent. And they employ more workers than dollar stores to keep perishable food stocked.

"It's no longer the big-box grocery store" that threatens local businesses, said David Procter, a Kansas State University professor who studies rural grocery stores. "But it's the discount retailer that's coming to town and setting up shop right across the street."

Some localities have added restrictions on the stores, for example

Mesquite, Texas, a Dallas suburb, approved changes to its zoning code last year that will limit the number of dollar stores. The guidelines prevent them from opening within 5,000 feet of each other. And stores must dedicate 10 percent of floor space to fresh food.

Tulsa is working to solve the 'food desert' problem they attribute to the stores

This month, a deal was reached with ECO Farms, a local company that focuses on indoor vertical farming to solve food deserts. Two company executives, Jim Bloom and Adam James, said that while this is their first try at a grocery store, they're intent on making healthy food a reality in District 1 - not a luxury.

"We're attending to this as a human right, not a geographic privilege," James said.

However, as the article notes - "grocery stores have struggled here before"

The nearest dollar store to me is about four-five miles (15 minutes or so) on busy backroads. My experiences with them are lack of selection and significant product gaps. Very hit or miss and you just have to go shop somewhere like Kroger or Publix afterwards anyway to finish out your list, so I don't bother as I don't have the time to spend on the extra commute and double shopping.

If everyone was like me dollar stores might not be experiencing the success they very obviously are.
So how about some other perspectives? Do Soylentils love them or hate them? Is this a first world problem?


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  • (Score: 2) by number11 on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:37PM (1 child)

    by number11 (1170) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:37PM (#802597)

    So one of the issues is, the supermarket can't compete with the dollar store on some goods, because the supermarket uses a higher profit margin on those goods to subsidize fresh goods. Is there something preventing the supermarket lowering prices on those staples and raising prices on fresh stuff to cover their costs? Yeah, I wish produce was cheaper, but it's innately expensive to handle due to spoilage.

    I dunno. near where I live, there's a 2 block area that has a Dollar Tree, Target, Aldi's, and a regional grocery superstore chain. In the summer, farmer's markets (fresh, but the farmers track the supermarket's prices). Aldi just moved in, and we're hoping that the competition will drive their neighbor's prices down. My food shopping is mostly at Aldi's, though produce is fresher across the street, and I'll occasionally drive 10mi to a liquidator supermarket. Their "regular" prices are so-so small supermarket, but the prices can be great on stuff that didn't catch on in the market, is mfgr overstock, or is near/past its expiration date (most things except Nutrasweet and produce are just fine for months past). Pickled okra, chips, tubs of potato/egg/ham salad from a local packer, food service packs of deli ham, eggs, etc. Our dollar stores don't sell produce (and as a consequence of local ordinance, can't take food stamps), but occasionally have good special purchases. Some of the dollar store food is cheap, some overpriced.

    But for poor people, access is more important than price, a dollar store on the next block trumps a supermarket that's 15 blocks (and 2 bus rides, or a taxi) away. Not everybody has a car.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:54PM (#802603)

    Grocery stores are always a bad place to buy 'other goods'. They do not have the volume to make up for it. For example you are better off buying a spatula at a home goods store than a grocery store for the same name brand item. Almost always. Grocery have always been charging for convenience on those items. This goes back as far as I can remember.

    Most of them do not even own the goods on the shelves. Take a super walmart. Do you think walmart owns pretty much anything on those shelves? No, walmart is a large company that rents out shelf space and dictates what can be on those shelves. The companies own those items. If it does not sell walmart does not take any loss. They just ship it back and the company that makes the item eats it.

    Almost all grocery stores run on this model. Pepsi stocks the pepsi shelves, coke stocks the coke shelves. Hostess stocks their shelves, etc, etc.

    If they have items they can not compete on they need to talk to their vendors. They are the ones who mostly control the price. The stores have a bit of give and take. But the margin for them is pretty thin. Walmart can say 'we want xyz at price Y on our shelves or shove off' and get away with it because of how big they are (they are bullies in the market). But other stores not as much.

    Now some stuff they do take care of themselves. Usually fresh produce. But even that is dictated by their vendors.

    My exp in dollar stores is there are some bargains and some bit where it was higher. Not much though. Most of it was pretty much 1:1 per oz/item cost as all of the local stores.