How Dollar Stores Quietly Consumed America

The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant's annual premium subscription.

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Max Moser
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

[willspicer]

My grandpa told me when I was young "It costs more to be poor". I never really understood that until I was old enough to pay bills on my own. Just like the video explained. Buying the bulk items is more money at once, but cheaper in the long run. Buying the smaller sizes is cheaper at the time, but ends up costing you more in the end. It's a sad circle of eating your own tail sometimes and hard to get out of once you start.

[tixeright]

The joke in the South is if you build a trailer-park or RV park anywhere Dollar General will put up a store right next to it.

[meowtherainbowx]

Fun fact: Online pranksters also concluded that the Wal-Mart in Kodiak is probably their least trafficked store. When Wal-Mart did a promotion with rapper Pit Bull to have him visit whichever location got the most likes on Facebook (probably assuming that people would give likes to their local stores), people thought it would be hilarious to send him to the most remote store in Alaska. Despite the obvious tomfoolery, Pit Bull went ahead and visited it, receiving keys to the city and some bear repellent.

[johnfrigo]

I bicycled across the US this summer, and even in the smallest middle of nowhere towns, one thing I could always count on was the dollar general stores. I was a bit confused who was even going to these stores. Makes sense now

[alanning]

The Foodliner in Haven Kansas was a nice store with friendly people working there, but Dollar General didn't simply outcompete them, they started out stocking fresh food options to rival the Foodliner. Dollar General sold everything at a very low price to run the Foodliner out of business and, once the Foodliner closed its doors, Dollar General raised prices dramatically and slashed their fresh food options. Dollar General used scummy market practices in order remove their competition and establish a local monopoly.

Source: I'm a lifelong Kansan with ties to/family in Haven.

These kind of business practices are what's destroying America's middle class and emptying the small towns of main streets. We need to draw attention to this as a country, thank you for covering this video Sam.

[gregmaland]

I can't believe that you actually put the annual cost of some Dollar General stores rent in the video. Data like that just never seems to be revealed in almost any type of article or video. Very impressive!

[cfvyfox]

My family owned a grocery store in rural SD and I can confirm, Dollar General drove us to bankruptcy in 2018. These dollar stores are both brutal to the local economy and inhumane to the people that both live and work there.

[michaelimbesi]

American Main Streets are actually remarkably resilient to dollar stores. The one thing you’ll notice about places that have a Dollar General is that they don’t have a real Main Street. They have a collection of parking lots with an occasional store. Places that look like the Main Street in your “main streets are fragile” shot at 17:58 don’t get dollar stores, because they have walkable downtowns with small storefronts where small businesses can actually survive.

[felixthecat]

I love how much importance was placed on soda in this video. it's so true. I used to work at one of their other branches and people mostly came in for cheap junk food, cheap paper products, and cheap chemicals.

[kamX-rzuy]

Our local grocery store closed soon after a Dollar General was opened. Thankfully a larger regional (non-grocery) company bought the plaza and reopened the store by contracting the operations out to another grocery store owner. Dollar General has since opened another store 5 minutes further down the road so now people coming from both directions pass one before getting to the plaza. Hopefully the grocery store will survive. It was remodeled and they put in a large alcohol section with a walk in beer cooler. They also have good prices on meats, dairy, and frozen food.
Edited: I meant Dollar General not Tree!

[NumadDude]

Its crazy how a youtube channel can do this comprehensive report better than national TVs

[michellelies]

I'm just gonna push back a little on the idea that the reason that the new training the employees received "didn't take" has less to do with high turn-over or individuals "not caring, " and more to do with the fact that there are two people in that store at any given time, trying to deal with a bunch of crap that's above their pay grade, on top of their own job duties. As a person who has worked more than ten years for a billion dollar chain establishment, I can tell you that we do, indeed, care about the safety of ourselves and our customers. But "safer cash handling procedures" fall by the wayside when you are taking orders at a drive-thru, working the window at the drive-thru and also preparing food/drinks for the drive-thru at the same time, in the middle of peak.

I know it's a small thing, but it's the kind of remark that can hit home for any service worker.

[justinG]

The Tide bottle is a perfect example of the poverty trap. Poor people pay more for most products because the don't have a lot of money at any one time. This keeps them poor.

[funby]

As a Canadian who just drove from Buffalo to Myrtle Beach, SC last week - I kept noticing these dollar stores in TINY rural townships. I went from wondering how they survived to now understanding that they actually thrive. Sad reality but thank you Wendover for helping me understand.

[DennisReynolds]

Walmart tried to compete with small scale stores and failed completely. Fortunately, a local grocery chain took the opportunity and bought up most of the locations Walmart built and now we have small scale really nice grocery stores in several small towns here in Arkansas.

[brose]

Another thing to keep in mind with the small quantity option, like the small tide bottle, is there is alot of consumers that specifically looking for small quantities. Apartment residents, college students, campers and truckers need small quantity items for small spaces. I'm an otr trucker and I love going to a DG. I save a bunch of money vs truck stop prices and small quantity items fit in a truck.

[majones]

Recently a town here in Michigan blocked a dollar general from opening because they already had one and it was pushing out local business. Dollar General sued and are now allowed to build the second location...

[Dayvit]

Had a similar situation when I worked in a drug store. There was no supermarket nearby so we got all the elderly people and others with mobility issues doing their grocery shopping here. I was actually the manager in charge of the food department and when I noticed this, I requested more shelf space and more variety - including fresh fruit. Can you believe it? Fresh fruit at a drug store.

[Aquatendo]

My first official job was at a Dollar General. I was a straight A’s, gullible high school student. I only lasted a month. From day one I was treated like a criminal - the training videos I had to watch said theft was more common from employees than by customers, so our bags had to be searched by a manager in front of the security camera before we could leave. And yet they immediately put me on the cash register, where I’d have to call up the manager every third customer in order to unlock the cigarette cabinet. The worst part, looking back, was that at close I had to clock out but still hang around unpaid for 15mins while my manager finished up. That way we could leave at the same time for “safety” (this was not a high crime area). In the end, the nail in the coffin was that they kept disrespecting my schedule requests for school. I left for a grounds crew job at a golf course and stayed there 3yrs, until I got an engineering job where I’ve been for the last 5yrs. And yet I only stayed at Dollar General for 1 month.

[Boxitron]

Would love to see something like this video for Spirit Halloween and a break down of their business model! Keep up these amazing videos please!