America's Poorest Shoppers Are Putting Discount Stores Out Of Business

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http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-poorest-shoppers-challenged-2014-7



Discount stores are slowly dying.

Yesterday, Dollar Tree announced it would buy Family Dollar, a chain that is in the process of closing hundreds of stores and firing workers.

Other discount stores have been struggling as well, writes Heidi Moore at The Guardian. Fashion discounter Loehmann's filed for bankruptcy, while Wal-Mart's sales have declined for the past five quarters.

"There’s just not enough money deployed by American families to keep all the discount chains in business," Moore writes.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-poorest-shoppers-challenged-2014-7#ixzz38whjDoXL

[MADem]

1. Are they "dying" or were there just too many of them in the first place?

How much plastic shit from China does anyone need?

[Arkansas Granny]

2. I think there might just be too many of them. We have many of them

where I live and more are being opened in small towns around here, as well. Some of them carry groceries, including refrigerated and frozen foods. I suspect that there are too many stores for the population they serve.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. In my town, pop. 6,000

and the county seat for a pop. of 23,000

there are 5 dollar stores, 2 are Dollar General and seem to be very busy.
The Family Dollar store has an empty parking lot most of the time.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. I live in a town of 87,650. Within a 25 mile radius of my zip code there are

7 Family Dollars, 19 Dollar Generals and 2 Dollar Trees. That's not to mention a few smaller stores that have the same format.

[Eleanors38]

32. Starbucks phenomenon. I don't shop at any of 'em...

Austin has several used goods places which are crowded with thousands of people getting killed on housing cost. This SS recipient uses them, and local indie restaurants.

[Peacetrain]

5. too many of them in the first place!

We have them all over the place around here..and no one goes to any of them, ( I usually go to get birthday cards, but that is about it) the stuff is so poorly made, no one wants it.. that is just a fact..

[MADem]

7. Yes, exactly--a card, a buck's worth of cheap wrapping paper, a pack of pens to

write the card out with! That kind of thing...

I brought an elderly lady to one a few months back--there isn't much "good" stuff in those joints, though they are very neatly laid out (at least the one I was in was...).

[spinbaby]

27. Sometimes there is good stuff

You have to check regularly but every once in a while you can turn up something good. My last good find was Pears soap--a favorite of mine. I bought out the joint and now we have enough to last us for years.

[RobinA]

19. Too Many

In my area they have cropped up like weeds. There are way more than there used to be. Lots of people shop there because they like getting things cheap. Personally, I hate them and don't shop there. WalMart is as low as I go. Used to love the 5&10, but those Dollar Stores et al. just creep me out.

[Worried senior]

26. The town I live near

has less than 1000 people, there is a Family Dollar and Dollar General. Walmart is 30 miles away and since they supersized it's got less than the older original store did.

Don't shop at Wally anymore than we have to but our Part D prescription company made them the preferred pharmacy so really have no choice but to buy our meds there.

Only get diet coke at the $ stores for the most part, once in a while I'll get some vitamins or over counter drugs as long as I know they are safe.

[Mopar151]

3. Nothing there that folks need

Basic foodstuffs not all that cheap, compared to a GOOD grocery, no fresh food, alll the cheapest crap that most folks just don't want.

In New England, they have proliferated alongside thousands of "drugstores", who also sell similar "groceries" at prices higher than supermarkets by "a lot%". They serve our "food deserts".

[eShirl]

9. cleaning supplies and paper products

and toothpaste

[Ghost in the Machine]

17. They are building a "Super Dollar General" in our town, complete with a grocery store. It's about a

quarter mile from the current Dollar General. We have 2 more dollar Generals in the County. 1 in the North end, the one in downtown (where they are building the new one now) and one in the South end of the County. We also have a Family Dollar within a block of each Dollar General. Our County is laid out weird... it follows the Tennessee River, and the whole County is 7 miles wide and 35 miles long. Many people depend on these stores, as their only other option is to drive 15 to 40 miles one way to another town to shop.... taking much needed tax dollars out of our coffers.

Peace,

Ghost

[Mopar151]

18. One of these days

Some genius is gonna reinvent the IGA.

[Ghost in the Machine]

28. We still have IGAs around here, too. I shop there quite often. They have some really good deals

on a lot of products. It's the only place I can find the big 1/4 lb. hotdogs that I like.... and like I said above, great prices on many products.

I'm a very frugal shopper and know how to stretch my budget, whether it be groceries, clothing or whatever else I need.

Peace,

Ghost

[DemocraticWing]

29. It's still around.

There are quite a few in Kentucky, most of which used to be a local chain called Houchens. It seems to be expanding too.

[Swede Atlanta]

4. There are probably several factors....

I think many of them expanded too rapidly over the past 15 years. The "housing-boom" driven growth of the first decade of this century turned homes into cash machines. Sales and profits were soaring.

But those people have lost their cash machines. Many of them have lost their jobs and the jobs they have are either minimum wage or much lower paying than jobs they had before.

Against that backdrop there are too many stores as in actual number of physical stores as well as too many discounters.

I had an uncle who would go to Wal Mart and if something was on sale he would be 5 of them just because they were on sale. I got the most bizarre Christmas gifts from he and his second wife. They were well meaning but the day I opened the gifts I asked myself if ANYONE could find use for the gift and the answer was always NO. If there had been any conceivable use I would have given it to Goodwill or another charity. But as it was "junk" from China, I would take it apart very carefully and recycle anything could be recycled (most of it was plastic so the answer was yes) and the rest went to the trash.

We do not need all this crap from China (and elsewhere).

[MohRokTah]

6. After the Dollar Tree/Family Dollar Stores merger, I expect store closings.

I imagine somewhere around 3000 stores will be closed due to redundancy of location.

[KG]

11. LOL - here let me fix that for you, BI

'There’s just not enough money deployed by American families to keep all the discount chains in business,'

There’s just not enough money deployed by American BUSINESS to keep all the discount chains in business,"

[hatrack]

12. Too many vultures on the carcass . . .

It's down to mostly bones now, and not everyone gets to flap away with a full crop.

Sorry, birdies!

[Rex]

13. Well we can be certain it is not the very rich.

America's poorest shoppers sometimes have to live off the dollar menu at Mc Donalds. But yeah...let's worry about some corporation going out of business. Those poor CEOs.

[Historic NY]

14. You can only suck so many $1.00's from people...

when they realize its mostly crap.

[former9thward]

15. But we are told the economy grew by 4% in the 2nd quarter.

I guess for some people it did.

[MissNostalgia]

16. Not feeling sorry for Family Dollar

I took a week long temp job with Family Dollar in McCormick SC to assist in the opening of a new store. It was hard manual labor, I really wasn't prepared for it physically. Nevertheless I stuck to it, and the following week I was to be paid, I wasn't. The entire group of new hires I worked with weren't paid, we all had to to call corporate to get help, and eventually did get our pay.

[justiceischeap]

20. There’s just not enough money deployed by American families...

Deployed, really? Why not just say American families don't have enough of that money to "deploy" in the first place? I don't think it's that American's aren't spending their hard earned dollars, I think they don't have the dollars to spend and when they do, they're spending it wiser or more likely, using food banks.

[liberalhistorian]

21. I'm not sure they're dying, I think

it's more likely that there's a glut of them. The only reason the Family Dollar here in town is still in business is because it's a rural town on a remote Indian reservation, there is no other place to go within ninety miles, and people don't have cars and gas money for the trip. In the other town we recently lived in, the Family Dollar was struggling because there was an Alco's right across the street.

[Initech]

22. There's not enough money to keep all those corporations making those precious billions.

[Octafish]

23. Wealthiest nation in human history.

And it's mostly in the pockets of 400 individuals.

[Orsino]

24. The aristos are back!

Did you miss them!

[Octafish]

25. And the sophistos want so to be like them.

Eyes wide shut the whole time.

[TheKentuckian]

30. For some things (detergent, dryer sheets, toiletries) there is no better place to shop

For other things like clothes (on occasion better and cheaper than Walmart) but more groceries there may be no place worse.

[CoffeeCat]

31. I totally disagree with this article...

Yes, Family Dollar is tanking--but it's always been the weakest of the small-discount stores.

Dollar Tree is growing and doing well, and The Dollar Store's stock has surged since 2008. I wanted to punch Jim Cramer (CNBC) in the face for urging his viewers to invest in The Dollar Store and cash in on the middle class's misfortune. But Cramer was right.

2008 changed everything. The middle class suffered a great deal and people were looking for ways to save money. We discovered that cleaning products and batteries were $1 at these discount stores. Many items, such as make-up, pet supplies, health and beauty products and paper goods are cheaper. The middle class has continued to shop in these places. Who is going to pay $3.50 for Windex when you can't get the dollar-store brand for $1? I can buy helium balloons, gift bags, dishwashing soap, party supplies, glassware, etc.--all kinds of things, for $1 at Dollar Tree.

These discount stores changed our family's shopping forever. These stores will continue to thrive as the middle class continues to suffer and wages stagnate. We're paying so much more for groceries--don't even get me started. Gas is expensive. Healthcare costs are so much higher. College costs are crazy. We're looking for ways to save money as our salaries are stuck.

Also--Walmart is in decline because that company is hated with a passion. It's not because the poor aren't shopping there anymore. It's because people at every socioeconomic level are shopping there less. I avoid that place like the plague and I used to shop at Walmart weekly. I wouldn't even lump Walmart in with these discounters. Walmart's prices are NOT that great. Certainly not as low as the dollar stores, and they are tanking because of public hatred of their brand.

I think these dollar stores (Dollar Store, Dollar Tree) will do well and continue to do well.