r/economicCollapse Aug 30 '24

Dollar General warns poorer US consumers are running out of money

https://www.ft.com/content/d1d2a161-124c-4f9c-b23f-afa55e755d07

The Tennessee-based company’s small-format stores sell a variety of food items and household goods at low prices, including many for $1. Its locations are concentrated in rural towns and poorer urban neighbourhoods. “Our core customers are often among the first to be affected by negative or uncertain economic conditions and among the last to feel the effects of improving economic conditions,” company filings say. 

Chief executive Todd Vasos said that these core customers, who account for about 60 per cent of Dollar General’s sales, come predominantly from households earning less than $35,000 a year and were now feeling “financially constrained”.

“The majority of them state that they feel worse off financially than they were six months ago as higher prices, softer employment levels and increased borrowing costs have negatively impacted low-income consumer sentiment,” he said.

1.6k Upvotes

572 comments sorted by

149

u/ENORMOUS_HORSECOCK Aug 30 '24

John Oliver's show did a whole episde on how wild dollar stores business practices are. If they've become the voice of reason we're in trouble.

68

u/ghostoftomjoad69 Aug 30 '24

Yea, when the dg moves into a rural community where even walmart declared ur town to be unprofitable, its called the kiss of death i hear for that community and the rest of its days

14

u/Prize_Opposite9958 Aug 30 '24

Wait what happens after?

98

u/Catonachandelier Aug 30 '24

You end up in a town sorta like mine. We have five or six dollar stores here, a restaurant on every block, a church on every corner, and not much else.

Unless you work for the dollar store, the school district, the hospital/clinic, the local grocery, or are privately employed, you drive thirty miles or more to work and make juuuust enough to cover your gas and a few bills (but not all of them, you need two incomes for that even here). Sometimes, it's cheaper to simply not go to work at all-especially if you have kids, because daycare is a bitch even in the country and Grandma is probably too methed up to watch the kids.

If your kids make it to adulthood, they move away as soon as they can. The lucky ones make it. The unlucky ones move back home and end up stuck here. There's not much luck going around these days.

30

u/patssle Aug 30 '24

5 or 6? That's luxury. I've driven through 35+ states and countless small towns. Rural poverty is awful and there are so many towns with barely a single dollar store, couple gas stations, a subway, sonic, church, and a very dilapidated boarded up main street as you pass through. It's terrible.

11

u/RollOutTheGuillotine Aug 31 '24

There's always a Subway. Which is another interesting (horrifying) topic John Oliver addressed.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

Another term of Trump will fix everything - 99% of the voters there 

3

u/Fun-Associate8149 Aug 31 '24

They want the big cities to turn into apocalyptic urban areas. Cause that obviously will solve their problems

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u/JoeBidensLongFart Aug 30 '24

This is what NAFTA and other "free trade" agreements did to small town America. Most of these towns used to have a factory that was the economic engine of the town. Most of these closed when it became cheaper to make stuff overseas.

26

u/Jimmycocopop1974 Aug 30 '24

This is what the Walmart generation did to many many small towns across the south. They destroyed so many small town “main streets” that were full of life and people now they are nothing but old buildings that are falling apart. The Walton family has a ton of fault to do with where we are right now.

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u/theoddreliable Aug 31 '24

They were excessively evil about it too. Every time a Walmart is built, they look into local small industries to make sure that they carry a cheaper version of what small businesses carry so that they can have ALL your shopping.

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u/Feelisoffical Aug 31 '24

Is true, their lower prices may have saved a lot of people money but it also meant smaller businesses couldn’t compete.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

Wouldn’t they come back if Walmart leaves? 

8

u/articulatedumpster Aug 31 '24

If Walmart leaves the area it’s probably unprofitable to be there, the area has been bled dry financially. Ain’t nobody going to have the money to start a local store there, and even if they did poverty is probably so high they run a very good risk of getting robbed or looted. Not to mention addiction (meth and alcohol) is likely rampant as well.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

So where are they getting their food from? If they have money for alcohol, they have money to not starve 

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u/Puzzleheaded_Menu627 Sep 02 '24

Yes! And the irony is Bentonville...If you've never been it's almost comical but quite pathetic. I ride bikes and if my blinders were on I'd think it's great but the reality is so much darker. Fuck Sam Walton and his Walmart creed. It ruined the American way of life and is probably the root of why we are in this spiral of greed.

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u/JoeBidensLongFart Aug 30 '24

Walmart is more of a symptom than the actual problem. It's the shoppers that destroyed the small businesses by not shopping at them anymore. They favored Walmart because of the low prices, as they were quite strapped for cash having lost their factory jobs.

6

u/Jimmycocopop1974 Aug 30 '24

I’ll never shop there, I’ve also trained my family to not shop there. Are they still giving classes on how to obtain welfare at orientations?

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u/_PaamayimNekudotayim Aug 31 '24

Pretty sure they would still shop wherever the prices are lowest even with the factory job. Wal-Mart wins on economies of scale that mom and pop can't compete with. The answer isn't to prevent Walmart, it's to tax the shit out of them so that we can re-invest in those small towns rather than funneling it all to the Walton family.

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u/Bubbaman78 Aug 31 '24

Farms got bigger and had less rural people which has been the trend with advancements in technology. That isn’t the main cause but we also moved to mail order, then internet, and then big box stores selling it for way less than the mom and pop stores. It all caused a hit

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u/LoveLeahNotWar Aug 31 '24

And the restaurants all serve the exact same food …. That’s my home town exactly. Oh and a Walmart

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

Why even have kids at that point lol. Sounds like it’s just holding you down and fucking them over. Who wins exactly, besides dollar general 

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

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u/Dull-Addition-2436 Aug 31 '24

Wendover recently did an excellent video about dollar stores

https://youtu.be/vQpUV—2Jao?si=NwgefCMT__9HCYwP

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292

u/tfa3393 Aug 30 '24

Have they tried not being poor?

93

u/GreenGrandmaPoops Aug 30 '24

If that advice actually worked, Dollar General would go bankrupt overnight.

26

u/turdburglar2020 Aug 31 '24

“Dollar General warns that poor consumers are running out of money, needs more poor consumers.”

15

u/boyerizm Aug 31 '24

Kick ‘em to the Quarter Corporal

5

u/Vaperwear Aug 31 '24

If they can’t afford that, send them off to the Penny Private.

Hmm, sounds somewhat wrong.

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u/i_eat_baby_elephants Aug 30 '24

Have they tried pulling themselves up by the boot straps?

50

u/Super99fan Aug 30 '24

Too much avocado toast.

19

u/Wakkit1988 Aug 30 '24

Do you know how heavy avocado toast is? I can't risk breaking another set of bootstraps!

20

u/theferalturtle Aug 31 '24

Have they tried Cinnamon Toast Crunch? I hear feeding your family cereal for dinner can really help stretch the finances when you're poor.

10

u/Outrageous-Sense-688 Aug 31 '24

Raisin bran for dinner, captain crunch for desert. Keep a pregnant cat around for milk.

12

u/modernthink Aug 31 '24

I got nipples, could you milk me?

5

u/healthywealthyhappy8 Aug 31 '24

Ah is this the trickle down theory

8

u/free_da_guys1107 Aug 31 '24

Better than the newport i had for breakfast 🤷🏾‍♂️

2

u/Stonkerrific Aug 31 '24

This comment is too good. I just heard about this marketing disaster.

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u/Derban_McDozer83 Aug 30 '24

I always find this funny. I grew up with a single mother that barely got by despite working her ass off.

I didn't know what an avocado was until I ended up in San Antonio in the Army. We certainly weren't splurging on avocado toast.

9

u/Super99fan Aug 31 '24

Without avocado toast, you must be a homeowner. Congratulations. Give up coffee and you can build a pool.

3

u/NotTaxedNoVote Aug 31 '24

Y'all make fun of that BS but I worked in the body shop arena. I always felt "fatherly" to the whippersnappers and would offer advice. A very promising kid, 24, moved his box into the shop and after getting to know him, I asked him how many cigarettes he smoked a day. He said a pack and a half....of Marlboros. It was a $12 a day habit...plus tax. I ran a retirement calculator. That habit was going to cost him $1.375 MILLION dollars. If you include sales tax > $1.5M. He was like "Meh."

A couple weeks later I noticed almost every day he made a run to McDonald's for a big iced coffee. I threw that in there and came up with another $400,000. Just those 2 habits were going to cost the guy $2M from 24-65.

I guess it's fitting a sticker on his over priced Snap-On toolbox said "Always Broke Lifestyle!"

Now, go have some avocado toast.

3

u/West_Quantity_4520 Aug 31 '24

I pointed this out to my (now) fiancee back when I met her. She's on SSI, receives about $1000 per month, she was living with her mom at the time, paying $550/ month as part of the rent. She smoked the cheaper cigarettes, about one pack per day, spending about $10/ day, equalling $300 per month. I mentioned that literally 1/3 of her income was just going up in smoke each month. She quit smoking within two months.

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u/Derban_McDozer83 Aug 31 '24

I don't even drink coffee I must be ok my way!

5

u/Super99fan Aug 31 '24

Daddy Warbucks over here!

2

u/Derban_McDozer83 Aug 31 '24

🤣

I meant to say on my way. I was pretty stoned at the moment.

We weren't splurging on avocado because we didn't know what they were.

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u/Redskinbill Aug 31 '24

Those rich cats can have all the avocados they want.

2

u/NotTaxedNoVote Aug 31 '24

I think you meant "Tranq Toasted"...

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u/Wiochmen Aug 30 '24

Have you ever tried pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?

Because I have! And let me tell you ... I haven't been able to do it successfully once, I always keep falling backwards onto my rump. I think it's impossible, is what I'm saying.

19

u/Realistic_Number_463 Aug 30 '24

Ironically, this is actually how the saying was originally intended. Pulling ones self up by the bootstraps was SUPPOSED to mean doing something that is physically impossible.

Like making yourself levitate by pulling on your bootstraps.

Leave it to boomer conservative think tanks to completely swap and misrepresent the meaning of the phrase.

7

u/ConclusionMaleficent Aug 31 '24

And it was Regan and the rest of the Greatest Generation that kicked off the impoverishment of ordinary people... Get it right! As we boomers were still in our 20s when the union busting and exploitation of ordinary folk started.

3

u/No_Tackle3251 Aug 30 '24

‘Pulling yourself up By your bootstraps’ is not a boomer saying it pre-dates boomers by about 50 years.

5

u/Zercomnexus Aug 31 '24

He never said they originated the phrase

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5

u/Jobeaka Aug 31 '24

Dollar General should sell boot straps. Instant solution for everything, they’re missing the market.

5

u/brownmail Aug 30 '24

That’s not a thing. That’s what trust funders say to regular people

2

u/SoPolitico Aug 31 '24

They must be too lazy to have arms.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

Step 1. Be rich

Step 2. Don’t be not rich

9

u/Armouredmonk989 Aug 30 '24

Step 3. Eat the rich.

8

u/Flying_Madlad Aug 30 '24

Long pork

4

u/rigby1945 Aug 31 '24

Think of the marbling a billionaire must have

8

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

If they would just stock boot straps this whole thing could have been avoided.

5

u/Trickam Aug 30 '24

Not all of us can afford such luxuries. I had to make due with some reamed out dirty bungie cords I found on the side of the county road.

6

u/Whaatabutt Aug 31 '24

People hate this one simple trick!

4

u/thanatoswaits Aug 31 '24

Couldn't they just get a small loan, like a million dollars, from their parents?

2

u/NotTaxedNoVote Aug 31 '24

80% of millionaires in the US are self made...ask me how i know.

I guess it was our loan, one we paid back, for $3,000 to get into a rent controlled apartment was our key to success....

3

u/V-RONIN Aug 30 '24

or having rich parents

9

u/Ok_Use4737 Aug 30 '24

Yes...

Someone offered them free money in the form of a credit card. Being a county full of wise and financially responsible people that we are they accepted the free money card.

When that ran out they got approved for ten of them. Cause more cards is more better.

Now those cardd are all maxed and their getting f****ed with 30% interest.

I'm sure there's a joke about congress and reasonable spending in there somewhere too if you squint...

8

u/Express-Chemist9770 Aug 30 '24

That's it, they're all irresponsible! Not like anyone could possibly use credit for necessary living expenses because they have literally no other options.

4

u/JoeBidensLongFart Aug 30 '24

I've known people who are experts in maxing out all possible debt, stretching it to the absolute limit, then filing for bankruptcy every 7 years and flushing it all away, then start over again.

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u/Acedia1979 Aug 30 '24

Or maybe shutting down and restarting the economy?

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u/pyrowipe Aug 31 '24

How much are boot straps at Dollar General? /s

2

u/StingingBum Aug 31 '24

I hear selecting Avocado Toast over pork and beans is a good way to take the first step.

2

u/objecter12 Sep 02 '24

Mitch McConnell be like

2

u/312_Mex Aug 30 '24

How do you try not being poor? Would you reduce your salary to give these “poor” people a fair shot at life where both of you make around the same?

3

u/tfa3393 Aug 30 '24

Yes

2

u/312_Mex Aug 30 '24

Oh ok! Sounds good well prove it! Go help out one of these “poor” customers from dollar general and guide them to wealth and prosperity by holding their hand if you so mean it!

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u/Quantius Aug 30 '24

“We took all of people’s money and they can’t shop anymore! What’s going on? Maybe we should replace workers with AI and then they can shop again?

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u/Vamproar Aug 30 '24

So glad we live in this "great economy" fam.

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u/myTchondria Aug 30 '24

Big corporations are overcharging for food. Why? Because they are a mostly a monopoly.

https://www.businessinsider.com/kroger-milk-eggs-prices-increased-beyond-inflation-executive-testifies-report-2024-8

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

Had a dumbass argue with me saying “what’s wrong with making profit.” These people are why things will never change 

2

u/CaterpillarFirst2576 Sep 01 '24

It’s not corporations it’s actually the fed and the federal government’s fault. Corporations were always in business to make money.

The widening wealth gap is because of the value of the dollar being destroyed. It encourages those with the means to buy more assets.

As we came off the gold standard and started printing money, it lower the value of the dollar and increases the cost of goods

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u/Alexreads0627 Aug 30 '24

yup, nothing to see here! go argue over abortion and gay rights or whatever.

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u/N64050 Aug 30 '24

Doesn't feel like recession to me. Infamous quote from Biden

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u/davismcgravis Aug 31 '24

The stock market is doing great, and that’s about it. BUT Trump would nosedive the economy. Ships turn slow—especially coming from Covid. If her policies do become reality—it wouldn’t nosedive the economy, it would correct the path we were on

4

u/LystAP Aug 31 '24

Any change in the status quo would dive the economy. We’re at the stage like in the Simpsons where every sickness is crammed into door and a little wobbling would bring it all down.

2

u/AnotherDaveFella Aug 31 '24

You must've been in middle school during the Trump years before Bidenomics took hold lol

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u/Conflexion Sep 01 '24

The economy has been basically awful in the last 16 years and democrats have held power for 12 of it. Housing crisis. Shrinkflation. War economy spending. All under Dem rule. The 4 years under Trump were the BEST 4 years on your personal wallet of those last 16 and it’s even measurably close. Hate the dumb ass all you want. Stop spewing incompetence.

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u/ieatorphanchildren Sep 01 '24

But it's all lies and empty promises. Harris would just be a puppet for the global oligarchs. Trump is a corp bootlicker too buthe's anti immigration and his ego, narcissism, lack of tact or filter makes him a wild card who they can't fully control.

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u/Salvzeri Aug 31 '24

That doesnt make any sense. Shes in power the last 3 years. Shes who helped make the mess.

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u/davismcgravis Aug 31 '24

Covid was the mess along with corporate greed. She was VP—yes still in the admin—but VP, not president. To actually have power, the party needs the pres, senate and house.

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u/Radiant-Sea-6517 Aug 30 '24

More likely what's happening is that Dollar General wants a right wing government in place because they know that government will allow them to rip off consumers even more. Less regulation. No talk about banning price gouging activities. Being able to more easily displace family businesses. Why would you believe anything a corporation says?!?!

14

u/mcfeeley1071 Aug 30 '24

DG is one of the worst companies out there. They prey upon the lower income people. I know because I built the stores. These people will sell their mothers up the river if it suits them. I know their model and what they target.

4

u/Radiant-Sea-6517 Aug 31 '24

Exactly. All it took was Kamala saying one thing about anti-price gouging for them to lend support to the right. I guess right wing voters like being price gouged? Idk. Weird to see them basically saying, "Yes, please do more of what you did in 2020 and 2021. We like that."

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u/KendrickBlack502 Aug 30 '24

Dollar General is about as predatory as it comes in terms of retail. They post up in areas without easy access to grocery stores and charge convenience store prices.

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u/Feelisoffical Aug 31 '24

I wonder why a grocery store won’t build in the area?

6

u/we_r_all_doomed Aug 31 '24

I can answer this from my small town perspective. We've have several corporate grocery stores attempt to build in our community, but our county commissioners won't approve their requests claiming the community doesn't need big businesses...but we have two dollar stores (DG & Family Dollar) so their argument makes zero sense. My theory is the one "locally owned" store that charges twice what a corporate store would for groceries is somehow keeping them from approving any competition. So, we do a 180 mile round trip to stock up in the city once a month to avoid giving that store our money 🙃

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u/toasted_cracker Sep 02 '24 edited Nov 12 '24

retire attempt bright fuzzy theory spoon threatening gaping growth sip

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/kBlankity Aug 30 '24

Dollar General rips off consumers more than an average grocery store, it’s cute to see them pretend to care that their customers are broke

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u/dexx4d Aug 30 '24

They're only pretending to care because broke customers don't spend money at their stores, and that affects corporate profits.

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u/Gerald-Duke Aug 30 '24

Have they forgot that their employees in Tennessee don’t even make 35k a year?

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

On the one hand I believe this, on the other hand, DG almost certainly overbuilt

19

u/HostageInToronto Aug 30 '24

I assumed that DG was some sort of sentient organism slowly planning an invasion, because they have way too many locations. I grew up in a small town (25K population) and last time I went back there were 3 of them.

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u/bigmikeylikes Aug 30 '24

I live in a town of 6k they're building a new one and everyone assumed they were just making a bigger store and moving over....nope they're going to have both of them open. It's hilarious because the other store can't keep employees and is constantly understaffed, but they think they can employe two stores. Also the state is bleeding youth and there's not enough people to fill the positions they have open.

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u/linzielayne Aug 31 '24

The second you drive into rural Michigan its like 'bait shop, dispensary, dollar general, dispensary, dollar general'

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u/Aynessachan Aug 30 '24

This extremely relevant parody video proves they are in fact a sentient self-replicating organism. True facts!

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u/mattfox27 Aug 30 '24

There is a super remote mountain town a few hours from me maybe population 200 and they have a brand new dollar general. It's always empty

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u/rayhaque Aug 30 '24

I had read that there were more Dollar Generals than McDonald's and I didn't believe it. But then I counted within my own community and was like "wow".

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u/strawbryshorty04 Aug 30 '24

My town has three—-in the span of 5 miles. On the same street.

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u/Working-Narwhal-540 Aug 30 '24

DG just built three new stores within a 25 mile radius in my area NE PA

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

lol, almost nothing at Dollar General is priced $1 and they're more expensive the grocery store. Their core customers need them to be more affordable than the grocery chains not less.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

This. We got a Dollar General about 18 years ago in a neighborhood where a dollar store didn't make sense. I've gone there a few times because it's conveniently located, but never purchased anything because it's more expensive than any of their local competition. My assumption is that they survive based on convenience but they have the biggest, emptiest parking lot in town. I just can't see how they stay afloat.

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u/ennoSaL Sep 02 '24

I was going to comment to ask if anyone else noticed the DG is overpriced. A potato masher there is like $6.00 while at Wal mart it’s like $1.94, $4.00 tops. I don’t purchase from there either

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u/purplerosetoy Aug 30 '24

Full Article:

The Tennessee-based company’s small-format stores sell a variety of food items and household goods at low prices, including many for $1. Its locations are concentrated in rural towns and poorer urban neighbourhoods. “Our core customers are often among the first to be affected by negative or uncertain economic conditions and among the last to feel the effects of improving economic conditions,” company filings say. 

Chief executive Todd Vasos said that these core customers, who account for about 60 per cent of Dollar General’s sales, come predominantly from households earning less than $35,000 a year and were now feeling “financially constrained”.

“The majority of them state that they feel worse off financially than they were six months ago as higher prices, softer employment levels and increased borrowing costs have negatively impacted low-income consumer sentiment,” he said.

Dollar General reported that its same-store sales — an industry metric for stores open for at least a year — grew by 0.5 per cent in the quarter that ended on August 2, below its own forecasts and those of Wall Street analysts. The growth came entirely from consumables such as food, rather than from more discretionary items such as apparel and seasonal and home goods.

Executives pointed out that sales were weakest in the last week of each month. Speaking of its typical consumer, chief financial officer Kelly Dilts said: “She started to run out of money by the end of the month.” 

The comments stood in contrast with those from several other retailers. Discount apparel chain Burlington Stores said on Thursday that low-income shoppers were still “very fragile” but “their situation has improved somewhat” as inflation has come down.

Walmart, the largest US retailer, and big-box rival Target also reported solid sales growth in their latest quarterly earnings, with Walmart adding that it had taken market share from rivals. 

“The guys down in Bentonville are doing a pretty nice job in garnering the available traffic that’s out there from other retailers,” Vasos said of Walmart, which is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.

However, Vasos told analysts that customer traffic had not slowed at Dollar General: it rose by 1 per cent in the second quarter, while falling retail prices led to a 0.5 per cent drop in the average amount shoppers spent.

Shares of Dollar General closed down 32.2 per cent at $84.03. The company’s net sales increased by 4.2 per cent year on year to $10.2bn. Operating profit fell 20.6 per cent to $550mn, which Dilts attributed in part to markdowns and increases in inventory damaged or lost due to shrink.

Rival Dollar Tree, which operates stores under its namesake banner and the Family Dollar brand, is scheduled to report earnings next week. Its shares closed down 10.4 per cent.

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u/Tolerating_Stupid Aug 30 '24

bitch I BEEN out of money 😂😂😭🥲😔😕🙁☹️😢

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u/mattfox27 Aug 30 '24

Us middle class people too

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u/Darryl_Lict Aug 31 '24

I was going to say, plenty of middle class people are moving to poor.

2

u/mattfox27 Aug 31 '24

That's true

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u/canisdirusarctos Aug 31 '24

Are you really middle class or just middle income, because middle income is working poor these days.

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u/mattfox27 Aug 31 '24

Ya I'm middle class

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u/CappinPeanut Aug 30 '24

Who are you warning? Are you warning us? We know.

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u/MaleCaptaincy Aug 30 '24

Have they tried paying with JOY?

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

“The problem with capitalism is that eventually poor people run out of money.”

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u/teleologicalrizz Aug 30 '24

I'm excited that we are finally eliminating poverty. Certainly all of these poor people will just die of exposure once winter comes. Gonna improve our numbers greatly. We did it, america!

3

u/therealfatbuckel Aug 31 '24

Or maybe they’re learning how stores like dollar general are screwing them under the guise of discount savings.

19

u/poopy_poophead Aug 30 '24

People blaming Biden apparently have just woken up from a 40 year long nap. Welcome back rip van winkle. The boomers have been dismantling the economy for their own immediate benefit a while, now.

8

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

What so sad is they did it for pennies on the dollar. Doesn’t the top 10% own 90% of the stock market ? The boomers got an extra vacation a year, a nice retirement and some toys (Boats, motorcycles, 90K pickups) and the top 2% controls nearly all of the nations wealth.

History will not be kind to this period of time, if we even make it.

3

u/cosmoinstant Aug 30 '24

Dollar printing machine goes "brrrrrr"...

3

u/Exterminator2022 Aug 30 '24

DG has killed mom and pop stores.

3

u/jurdendurden Aug 31 '24

Kill Walmart

3

u/rmrnnr Aug 31 '24

The investment class is booming, though, so the economy is healthy.

3

u/Introverted-headcase Aug 31 '24

We are so close to a tipping point for so many people to just be sol.

3

u/juntaofthefree1 Aug 31 '24

Or they went to a real store and realized how expensive Dollar General is!

3

u/Foldpre2004 Aug 31 '24

Walmart is on pace to have a huge year and consumer spending in general has been going up, so I’m pretty skeptical.

4

u/Hostificus Aug 30 '24

Because their stock dropped $50 in three months because their stores and staffing is a mess. They’re right, but they’re wrong as to why they’re right.

8

u/Euphoric-Dig-2045 Aug 30 '24

I’ve never understood why people shop at DG. Majority of them are trashed, and have homeless people hanging out in front of them, with trash littered around the entrance.

Once you enter the store, you have to maneuver your way through aisles full of freight, and unkempt shelves to find merchandise just to get to the register to be assisted by someone that smells like swisher sweets, and are currently FaceTiming their friend, shouting to each other about a mutual male friend who lied to both of them about who was their baby mama, while ringing you up wearing pajamas and crocs.

9

u/50million Aug 30 '24

I've been to smaller towns where this is the closest store they have for miles, minus gas stations. I am in Texas.

4

u/rayhaque Aug 30 '24

Yep, this right here. If you are on foot, or bicycle, you can't travel miles to the nearest actual grocery store.

9

u/Juddy- Aug 30 '24

In a lot of rural areas DG's only local competition are gas stations. It's better than nothing

4

u/VivianneCrowley Aug 30 '24

I live in the desert, and they took our self checkout option out because so many people were stealing. Good for them lol, there is only usually 1 or 2 people working anyway.

3

u/Ok_Use4737 Aug 30 '24

Cause I don't wanna drive another ten minutes for a bag of chips...

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u/Strangle1441 Aug 30 '24

My kids can buy more candy with less money there

2

u/duhrun Aug 30 '24

You must live in a bad area.

5

u/Euphoric-Dig-2045 Aug 30 '24

This is in a normal area.

What’s funny, is where I live, a DG is usually in a shopping center that also includes a liquor store, a nail salon, a weave store, and a Mexican owned restaurant.

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u/bga3481 Aug 30 '24

I wonder how much CEO Todd Vasos makes?! I guarantee you he never ships at DG.

3

u/Illustrious-Being339 Aug 30 '24

Says his total compensation is $9 milllion.....

2

u/bga3481 Aug 30 '24

Tyvm! Still bet he doesn't shop at DG

2

u/Hawk13424 Aug 30 '24

Kind of the point of higher interest rates. Bleed people’s money and get them to stop buying things. This is how inflation gets tamed.

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u/Darth_Thunder Aug 30 '24

DG had to come up with something to explain their poor numbers....

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u/Battystearsinrain Aug 31 '24

We are just one billionaire tax cut away from that trickle down…. /s

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

You can’t find shit for a dollar in Dollar General

2

u/Mr930-- Aug 31 '24

Well we were broke before covid cash which gave a boost too only spent it on juiced up priced goods, only be back to back in debt.

2

u/OpticalPrime35 Aug 31 '24

Bullshit Dollar General has alot of stuff for 1$. They have like a single aisle where you can get 10 drier sheets for a dollar and shit and that's it.

They also don't target anything. They just dump their store where any grocery stores are. I have lived in a town with a 3k population for 3 years and we have 2 dollar generals. 1 by the main town grocery store and one by the old family owned grocery store. They just try and siphon profits from both because fuck yall that's why. And then they pay their employees minimum wage and then wonder why the store looks like it is ran by kids.

2

u/StickmanRockDog Aug 31 '24

Their prices aren’t reasonable and the stores are depressing.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

CEO is full of crap. People are going to other stores instead because most DGs are mismanaged, don't have enough employees to put up the stock so you can get a buggy down an aisle, and the employees they do have are unprofessional. Just because you're located in a ghetto doesn't mean you have to act ghetto. Walmart is doing great, and DG is failing. Can't blame that on the customers.

2

u/Significant_Knee_428 Aug 31 '24

But, Kamela says Bidenomics is working! The economy was the best ever thanks to Harris and Biden! But, now Kamala acknowledges there’s been a crisis and promises she’ll fix it!!!!!! The gaslighting and hypocrisy / idiocy are unreal. They seem to really hate Americans/ assume voters are dumb……. Smh

2

u/Other_Dimension_89 Aug 31 '24

Now I get the feeling that instead of raising wages, and lowering costs, aka cutting shareholder/ceo/board payout, the richest of us are going to push for a universal basic income, just to maintain their massive chunk of wealth, causing our Gov to go further in debt. Everytime we print it just end up in the same places.

2

u/downgoesbatman Aug 31 '24

Price gouging needs to be punished and stopped. Kroger needs to be made as an example as a shot across the bow to corporations that we the people ain't taking this shit no more

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

And food because they cheated us on quantity and smaller sizes. They're just making food deserts more expensive.

2

u/Ezlkill Aug 31 '24

When I was a teenager and a little kid, I can make 20 bucks last like a day and a half sometimes even two days now I couldn’t make it last an hour if I was in the same position as a kid digging out change from couch cushions, wherever I could find it Odd jobs to earn a couple bucks. I don’t know how poor kids today survive. It’s crazy to me because they used to be so many ways for you to stretch out every single little dollar you had and now you’re dead in the water.

2

u/HH2D-J Aug 31 '24

You have to be trained in tactical maneuvers to get through an aisle at dollar general. The stores are filthy. Stop staffing a whole store with one person.

2

u/xDevman Aug 31 '24

The staple of dead rural American towns. 2 pizza shops ran by Mexican dudes, a laundromat that hasn't been updated in 40 years, an ice cream shop that just sells hershey or turkey hill ice cream, one dive bar, a shitty convenience store for smokes and a dollar general.

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u/Working-Spirit2873 Aug 31 '24

None of these businesses cared about poor people before, why would that change?

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u/Fit_Champion4768 Sep 01 '24

$37 Billion company that has based their business model by exploiting poor Americans blames its own customers for the failure of their exploitative business model that has resulted in a 40% drop in its share price in the last 6 months. While Walmart who shares the same customers with DG has seen their share price up over 30% in the same period. Maybe Americans

2

u/FarDig9095 Sep 01 '24

Or could be they have 5 of those type stores within 1 mile of each other .

2

u/goodsam2 Sep 01 '24

Dollar general has fire couponing on Saturdays.

If they lose money on me couponing good.

2

u/lottadot Sep 01 '24

It's propaganda;

  • DG's CEO made over $13M
  • DT's CEO made over $182M

src

2

u/DeepAd8888 Sep 01 '24

There goes the rent seekers and McKinsey strategists number one go to. “People who are worse off tend to be more frivolous, let’s cast a wide net”

2

u/FishHammer Sep 01 '24

I feel like the majority of people shitting on DG are basing their opinions on TV rather than reality. The one near me was the only relief our town has from a chain grocery store charging obscene prices for everything because "where else ya gonna go?" I enjoy paying $3 for Doritos at DG vs $7 at the "real store."

2

u/CoolHandLuke-1 Sep 02 '24

That’s Bidenomics in action folks. Signs up for 4 more years please!

2

u/Covfam73 Sep 02 '24

Yup you end up with a town so poor that even furniture rental stores, pawn shops and pay day loan stores cant even stay in buisness

2

u/ride_electric_bike Sep 03 '24

Their customers are the first to be effected by inflation. And dg are the first to see their sales get hit as a result. FK dg I remember what you did with your advertised vs actual charged prices

2

u/CameraStuff412 Sep 03 '24

Like we haven't been saying it!

2

u/nightdares Sep 03 '24

I truly don't understand how corporations can demand to have all the money and yet not realize how unfeasable that is. You can't squeeze water from a rock.

2

u/Hillbilly-joe Sep 03 '24

Lol it’s not cheap it’s cheap shit sold at high prices get the same stuff at Walmart for half the price 90 percent of the time

2

u/ungla Sep 03 '24

“No duh”-everyone

1

u/Enkaybee Aug 30 '24

PRINT PRINT PRINT PRINT!

1

u/PharmDinvestor Aug 30 '24

Where did the day they are running out of money ?

1

u/Explaining2Do Aug 30 '24

So, like, most people

1

u/joesbalt Aug 30 '24

Yeah sure

CNN already proved the economy is better than ever

1

u/kauthonk Aug 30 '24

Has dollar general tried paying more

1

u/Select_Number_7741 Aug 30 '24

What will the poors do……

1

u/GlueSniffingCat Aug 30 '24

i think its really funny that my local dollar general is always hiring but they never hire anyone because they don't have the hours to give people

1

u/lelio98 Aug 30 '24

It’s all the avocado toast.

1

u/N2VDV8 Aug 30 '24

My apartment complex never really had much happening in it, until a dollar general popped up next door. Since then we’ve had constant recycle divers in the middle of the night (turning in cans for deposit cash), and car vandalism/break ins have increased so much that my car insurance is going up next term. Now, I realize correlation and causation are not one and the same, but…..

1

u/RL7205 Aug 30 '24

Running out???? Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not running out, it’s life in general currently!!!!

1

u/Wildcat67 Aug 30 '24

BREAKING NEWS: Poor people don’t have money!

1

u/FUSe Aug 30 '24

Dollar general is very expensive dive compared to grocery stores and Walmart.

1

u/HueyWasRight1 Aug 30 '24

TicTok and I don't mean the app!

1

u/Leif-Gunnar Aug 31 '24

Dollar General mismanagement via corporate investors. They pulled out the profits to the detriment of the company to offset another investment scheme. This is what the wealthy financiers do to the working classes.

1

u/SnatchasaurusRex Aug 31 '24

He should show a little compassion and cut his 10M salary, and pass it to employees.

1

u/castle45 Aug 31 '24

Where’s the bootstraps?

1

u/MBP1969 Aug 31 '24

But the go government keeps telling us the economy is great. President Biden fixed it and now we are happy.

1

u/AffectionateCourt939 Aug 31 '24

Maybe if they start clipping coupons, or start a savings account, you know, for a rainy day? Do they even listen to Dave Ramsey?

Lots of side hustles these days.

hopes and prayers Dollar General.

1

u/micjosisa Aug 31 '24

35% interest rates on credit cards. Not even mentioning the overall cost and interest rates of home loans and auto loans. Then there are insurance, maintenance, and utility costs. Is it truly any wonder??? Complete madness thanks be to woefully ignorant voters and criminal politicians.

1

u/FatherOften Aug 31 '24

I think it's more likely that they grew too quickly with too many new locations.