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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?
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:35PM
I can't speak to where they are in cities, but the dollar stores and Casey's convenience stores have been a definite improvement in many rural small towns like the one I live in.
You might have had a small IGA or other independent grocery, but often not. A gas station, but not a convenience store with pizza, donuts, and certainly not staying open nearly as late (11 pm or midnight for Casey's). With these, you have admittedly low budget items within walking distance that you would have had to drive in order to get to or wait till morning before. They also tend to have ATMs which are often not present in a isolated rural town of 300 or so.
They provide this to the surrounding farm areas too. So, it's a mile or three to get to rather than 10 to 20 miles to a larger town. In town, it's often the difference between having to spend scarce money on a car and being able to walk to a store for those on fixed incomes, unable to work etc. as there is rarely public transportation.
On the other hand, they do tend to create a monoculture as they have economies of scale that independents don't have. But, let's be honest, a lot of the small independent stores in rural areas were never up to the standard that their reputation was, and they generally paid low wages and had little benefits. When you're doing business off such a small (and often very lower middle class at best) clientele, there wasn't a whole lot of profit being made there.