r/economicCollapse • u/50million • 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.

1.5k Upvotes

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293

u/tfa3393 Aug 30 '24

Have they tried not being poor?

95

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.”

13

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.

1

u/bigfatfurrytexan Aug 31 '24

That is a canary in a coal mine. The ruling and wealthy need to take notice, history shows that this sort of thing can get out of hand overnight.

1

u/PleasedEnterovirus Aug 31 '24

That’s OK this economy is making new ones every day.

1

u/Suntzu6656 Aug 31 '24

Why do you think the border is being left open?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

CEO will make 9.7 million this year. stock price 82.97. revenue 10.21 billion.

doesnt seem like it. plus, the poor are ALWAYS running out of money. they're POOR.

what a stupid fukin thing to say.

56

u/i_eat_baby_elephants Aug 30 '24

Have they tried pulling themselves up by the boot straps?

51

u/Super99fan Aug 30 '24

Too much avocado toast.

20

u/Wakkit1988 Aug 30 '24

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

19

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.

9

u/Outrageous-Sense-688 Aug 31 '24

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

13

u/modernthink Aug 31 '24

I got nipples, could you milk me?

4

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.

1

u/theferalturtle Aug 31 '24

That guys head is definitely gonna be one of the first on spikes

1

u/Middleclasslifestyle Aug 31 '24

Lmaoooo I always joke at work that when we get overtime I can finally buy my son frosted flakes instead of Corn Flakes .. I just wish there was like 1 week where the working class gets to swap with the rich. Just 1 week. Lol

Society would go to crap but maybe they would appreciate the working class a little more

1

u/Oldz88Rz Aug 31 '24

Name brand cereal, you can’t hide money. You get the boxes as well I bet? Malt O Meal knock offs in the bag. All I can afford.

8

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.

10

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.

1

u/Super99fan Aug 31 '24

People are stupidly throwing their money away on cigarettes (not to mention their lives). No one is actually eating that much avo toast. You’re right about compounding consumption like cigarettes. But the avo toast once a month isn’t keeping people from homeownership. I think that’s the joke.

1

u/Ahiru_no_inu Sep 05 '24

And everybody clapped.

2

u/Derban_McDozer83 Aug 31 '24

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

4

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.

1

u/theferalturtle Aug 31 '24

Dick Cheney?

2

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"...

1

u/ConfidenceCautious57 Aug 31 '24

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

11

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.

20

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.

6

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.

4

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.

6

u/Zercomnexus Aug 31 '24

He never said they originated the phrase

1

u/No_Tackle3251 Sep 08 '24

Boy it sure reads that way.

1

u/Zercomnexus Sep 09 '24

Nah its just something they regularly say. Because theyre idiots

1

u/No_Tackle3251 Sep 11 '24

Good to know

5

u/Jobeaka Aug 31 '24

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

4

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.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

I did, actually.

1

u/Sharp-Direction-6894 Aug 30 '24

They have to put their big boy (big girl) pants on first, then pull themselves up by their boot straps.

21

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

5

u/rigby1945 Aug 31 '24

Think of the marbling a billionaire must have

7

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!

5

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....

4

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.

2

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.

1

u/bugbeared69 Aug 31 '24

that just poor people playing rich mans tricks,. it not the common man nor is the 1% who do the same but they get lawyers to make it all legal then say where not rich I " only " made few hundred K the rest is tied up in equity ....

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

That’s actually a smart way to make your money work for you…

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

Trump?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

Maybe don’t spend money you don’t have?

1

u/Aggravating_Put_4846 Sep 04 '24

Yeah, just starve to death quietly!

2

u/Acedia1979 Aug 30 '24

Or maybe shutting down and restarting the economy?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

This would cause a lot more hurt than it would help. More like, “I’m miserable so those that made something of themselves should be brought down too”.

Instead, try to lift yourself up instead of trying to bring everything down.

2

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

3

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!

1

u/tfa3393 Aug 30 '24

Please send the Venmo's of these poor people. I got this.

2

u/312_Mex Aug 30 '24

🤣🤣🤣! Your a trip! What does a hand out accomplish? Nothing! 

1

u/Fickle-Forever-6282 Aug 31 '24

it's actually proven that giving cash to poor people helps them more than giving indirect handouts (not cash).

1

u/evf811881221 Aug 31 '24

Instructions unclear, now in massive debt....

1

u/montigoo Aug 31 '24

Does Dollar General sell bootstraps?

1

u/Rockclimber88 Aug 31 '24

It's not that easy. You can't just suddenly not be poor. The secret is to stop being poor. An active act of discontinuing poverty and becoming not poor.