Ban the Dollar Store? DeKalb County passed a 45-day moratorium on new dollar stores (Sandy Springs: low income, house prices)

[jertheber]

Originally Posted by citidata18

To add (RE: Trader Joe's), just having one nearby does wonders for property values (which means more revenue for schools / roads / parks) and attracting other high quality economic investment.

Other upscale stores love to cluster around places like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods for the simple fact that they attract people with a ton of disposable income. Corporate employers also seek out communities with these types of stores when relocating/expanding because their highly-paid salaried employees demand them.

It's odd that you brought that up, in my local area there is a TJ's and right next door in the same base building is..A dollar tree. Both are extremely busy, with the dollar tree actually being a boon to the TJ's and not the other way around. It's called having a choice, an old American marketing theory that still holds water in the face your assumption of low cost mercantile being a drag on the upscale shopping venues.

[southernnaturelover]

Many times these dollar stores only have two employees working. That's why they don't have fresh foods, it's pretty hard for only two people to keep that stuff rotated. It's also why they seemed to get robbed a lot.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by jertheber

It's odd that you brought that up, in my local area there is a TJ's and right next door in the same base building is..A dollar tree. Both are extremely busy, with the dollar tree actually being a boon to the TJ's and not the other way around. It's called having a choice, an old American marketing theory that still holds water in the face your assumption of low cost mercantile being a drag on the upscale shopping venues.

Two key words:

Dollar Tree


(*read a few of the prior posts in this thread...)

[bu2]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

I'm not going to "listen". Someone can put the details in print. Sounds like it may be a sob story by cloal owners who couldn't compete. And the short print intro even said they are going into areas other businesses won't go so it isn't a matter of having a dollar store or a Target, but a matter of having a dollar store or no store at all.

Really. Make your point. Don't expect someone to listen to a podcast or youtube. On top of that, its a lot slower than reading an article.

[Mgyeldell]

Originally Posted by sheerbliss

And customers have to pay higher prices for some items.

I just watched a great video about Dollar General on YouTube that explained Dollar General business practices. While the price may be lower at the Dollar General or other Dollar Stores, these store typically sell smaller packages than Walmart or Grocery Stores which make the unit prices for these items higher, which entail makes the consumer buy more product because they will double the packages they buy. Dollar General and other dollar stores are very aggressive stores when it comes to their customers.

They are currently building the 6th Family Dollar in Riverdale, GA. Riverdale has a population around 15K maybe 25K if we include all unincorporated areas of 30274 and 30296. Very aggressive companies.

[sheerbliss]

Originally Posted by Mgyeldell

I just watched a great video about Dollar General on YouTube that explained Dollar General business practices. While the price may be lower at the Dollar General or other Dollar Stores, these store typically sell smaller packages than Walmart or Grocery Stores which make the unit prices for these items higher, which entail makes the consumer buy more product because they will double the packages they buy. Dollar General and other dollar stores are very aggressive stores when it comes to their customers.

I compared prices online at Dollar General vs. my local Kroger. Unit prices on dish soap (dollars per ounce) and paper towels (dollars per sheet) were lower at Dollar General. Toothpaste was about the same; Progresso soup was a little higher at Dollar General. I buy greeting cards at Family Dollar for $1 apiece--a fraction of what they cost elsewhere.

If dollar stores offer smaller-sized goods (e.g., a small bottle of shampoo for $1), isn't that a good thing for customers who don't have much money?

Regardless of whether prices are higher or lower at dollar stores, they can't make people buy anything.

Originally Posted by Mgyeldell

They are currently building the 6th Family Dollar in Riverdale, GA. Riverdale has a population around 15K maybe 25K if we include all unincorporated areas of 30274 and 30296. Very aggressive companies.

People in Riverdale must like to shop at Family Dollar.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Mgyeldell

I just watched a great video about Dollar General on YouTube that explained Dollar General business practices. While the price may be lower at the Dollar General or other Dollar Stores, these store typically sell smaller packages than Walmart or Grocery Stores which make the unit prices for these items higher, which entail makes the consumer buy more product because they will double the packages they buy. Dollar General and other dollar stores are very aggressive stores when it comes to their customers.

They are currently building the 6th Family Dollar in Riverdale, GA. Riverdale has a population around 15K maybe 25K if we include all unincorporated areas of 30274 and 30296. Very aggressive companies.

This.

There are about 2 dozen or so Family Dollar stores in Clayton County.

That includes an area where there are 2 Family Dollar stores within less than a mile of each other along a stretch of GA-138 Riverdale Road in North Clayton County.

To be fair, there are multiple restaurants and grocery stores in that area, including 2 international-themed grocery stores, an international-themed fresh seafood market, a Wayfield Foods (that originally opened as a Food Lion back in Fall 2009) and an Aldi, as well as multiple restaurants and grocery stores along the GA-85 strip through the center of Riverdale, so (thankfully) that area does not come close to meeting the definition of being a "food desert" where access to fresh food is several miles away.

But the existence and continued opening of so many discount 'dollar' stores (like a Family Dollar) in an area dominated by working-class and lower-income residents like Clayton County still does seem to have sort of a predatory feel to it.

[sheerbliss]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

But the existence and continued opening of so many discount 'dollar' stores (like a Family Dollar) in an area dominated by working-class and lower-income residents like Clayton County still does seem to have sort of a predatory feel to it.

How are stores preying on people, especially when there are so many competitors?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by sheerbliss

How are stores preying on people, especially when there are so many competitors?

It just feels predatory because there seem to be (and in many cases actually are) so many of these 'dollar' discount stores clustered in areas where they feel that the demographics (lower-income consumers) are favorable to their business model.

I am as big of a defender of and (reasonable) believer in the free market as anyone, but does there really need to be about 2 dozen Family Dollar stores (not even counting Dollar General and/or Dollar Tree stores) in a county (Clayton) of 290,000 people that is only 144 square miles in size?

And does there really need to be 3 'dollar' discount stores (2 Family Dollars and 1 Dollar General) within an 0.8-mile stretch (along the GA-139 Riverdale Road corridor in northwest Clayton County), especially when there already seem to be so many other grocery and food options in the area?

I don't really have a problem with a 'dollar' discount store here and there, but to have multiple 'dollar' discount stores within less than a mile in working-class and lower-income areas does seem to feel at least a little excessive.

There certainly does not seem to be this many 'dollar' discount stores in affluent areas like Buckhead, Sandy Springs or Dunwoody.

It is one thing to take advantage of a market opportunity, but it is understandable how many might seem to think that these stores are being predatory by concentrating so many of their stores in working-class and lower-income areas, almost to the extent that discount liquor stores concentrated so many locations in working-class and lower-income inner-city neighborhoods all over the country that had been decimated by 'white-flight' back in the 1970's and '80's.

In a free-market system, it is those store chains right to open up as many locations as they want wherever they want.

But in a free society, it is also the right of those (both local residents and outside onlookers alike) who may feel uncomfortable about those discount store chains' apparent 'over-targeting' of working-class and lower-income neighborhoods to openly express their discomfort with and even opposition to those companies' business model.

[sheerbliss]

You've made a case for an area being oversaturated with dollar stores. If so, some of them will go out of business. But you haven't said what the harm is to areas that have a lot of dollar stores.