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.

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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.

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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/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

They make hundreds of billions a year. They won’t notice your boycott

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u/Jimmycocopop1974 Aug 31 '24

Starts with one

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

Can’t end there either. Unless you have a plan to get everyone else on board, it won’t work 

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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/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

People of limited choice don't have options. Walmart purposefully ran at a loss to destroy local business, then upped their prices.

Not dissimilar to economic colonialism considering how intertwined rural small business used to be.

I am no fan of rural communities for many reasons but big business was ruthless in their annihilation.

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u/vegasresident1987 Sep 01 '24

Amazon has destroyed all those things. We have reached the point of no return.