Dollar General: How Are They Thriving?!?! | Retail Archaeology 

Location, location, location. Town too small for a Walmart? Put a Dollar General there. And there are A LOT of towns too small for a Walmart.

They are successful because they are always put right smack in the middle of poor neighborhoods. You can walk about 15 minutes and get to a Dollar General or Family Dollar. That is not the case with Walmart or Target. That is also why they are super cluttered. They want to be able to offer a little bit of everything (toys, shampoo, food, etc.) for those people without a car. When I was in college I didn't have a car. There was a bus stop right in front of the local Dollar General to my apartment. So that's where I bought a lot of things (school supplies, food, even clothes) that I needed. They might not be pretty but I grew to like my local Dollar General because it saved my butt from going to school without supplies and clothes sometimes. :P

Underpaid,overworked,and understaffed employees. They mass produce these stores and place them around low class neighborhoods.2 employees working at once, one manager and one cashier

I work for dollar general and this issue is 100% due to corporate. They cut hours so badly we only ever have 2 people working the store on most days. the only time you'll see more than 2 employees is during shift changes or truck day. Its normally Thursdays in my store ill spend most of my time trying to keep up with stocking none the less recovery(cleaning the store). 90% of the time we are so short staffed we are just finishing up the last rolltainers from last Thursday as a new truck comes in.

I, myself, work as a key holder at a Dollar General store. We are always short-staffed and expected way too much on a 2-man-per-shift crew. Sometimes, we're even left by ourselves for extended periods of time, if not our whole shifts. It is absolutely ridiculous, and I've contemplated quitting to find something better so many times. Even after talks with the store manager and district manager. "You'll have that everywhere." I know, but this is an outstandingly horrid company. If I do end up quitting, I'll still probably shop there, but if I don't have to, I won't. I might make a video someday telling my experience there as a current part-time employee.

Gotta play devils advocate here but I worked for family dollar and have to say.. Doesn't matter how Mich you keep the store picked up most time the mess is from customers and in supervised children. And lack of employee and hours to schedule employees is a big problem as well

That motor oil isn't expired.. that's the date code it was made. Motor oil doesn't expire, the additives fall out after many years. Just shake the bottle really good.

I just hate stores with "Dollar" in a name that aren't dollar stores.

I live near a DG that constantly gets robbed and i was outside during one of them, and being the awkward person i am i waved at the robber as he ran by.

How are they surviving? I can tell you. Large poverty class in America, and abundancy. They also situate themselves around those communities which is why you see them most in rural areas or inner city slums. The people that shop there simply don't care what the stores look like. It's also pretty convenient, and not bad quality anymore. I've gotten pretty good stuff there from bedding to cleaning stuff to vitamins on the cheap. I just wouldn't shop at one late at night 😂

The floor in the Dollar General store in Olivet, Michigan probably hasn't been cleaned since Ronald Reagan was President.

The problem with Dg is under-staffing. At any given time there are two employees tops. On occasion I'll find a single female working. Our store has even closed because there was no one to work. Greedy, greedy company.

FYI, the detergent is locked up and/or has a touch alarm because people steal that stuff all the time and sell it at flea markets and stuff 😉 I worked as a vendor for Walmart and I remember when it became a big deal that we had to help them put security devices on ALL name brand laundry detergent caused the theft rate was so high.

I worked at Dollar General. I loved working with my coworkers, but the customers were the worst! It was stressful for all the time. The problem is that they only hire the bare minim for their stores, so they only have two people working at a time. I would have to work the register and stock shelves at the same time! This is impossible to do, especially when you have seemingly endless group of customers coming up to check out.

Okay, so I currently work at a Dollar General in a little mountain town. Let me tell you all a broken down essay for this shit. It. Is. DIFFICULT. to have the store spotlessly clean with even five people working the damn store because limited hours per week and limited staff numbers. Hell, we have FOUR keys. I'm the only one without a store key and I am just barely able to do a rolltainer in 8 hours due to having about 60 ish to a hundred customers within those 8 hours. Our feet are aching befor we close the doors and we just can't pick up every damn thing in every area of the store and those stock rooms are a mess and not because of us but because of limited space and insane truck loads. It's a fucking game of Traffic Rush when we try to find a rolltainer for food or something when a truck has come in and unloaded. Now, in the store I work in... oh mah gawd the toy isle gets fucking rekked every damn day because of kids and also parents looking for a toy. The marked down area is some what of a mess but it's not as bad as that shelf was. The cosmetics is a fucking wreck because bitches don't know how to put shit back on the shelf. I mean come on, you pulled it off the shelf don't fucking drop it like it's a piece of shit put it tf back pls. And the food area... oh boi here's the second best part of my store. Drinks. Opened. Half drank. and Unpaid for. Food. Opened. Half eaten. Unpaid for. A couple of hours before I wrote this, a coworker and I were closing up and she found a thing of dollar wafer cookies and like... three or four fucking cookies were eaten... asshole didn't even eat at least a quarter of 'em... Somebody opened a bottle of water and drank half of it and put it back to have it fall over and spill onto the floor... And now... the most best part. The people that come it. I get them all. The rich. The poor. All of it. Now granted, a good portion are good people. Some devote Christians. Some just kind and friendly and honest. I've had people get a drink and open it and drink it in the store and then come up to the register with either a half drank or an empty bottle and say, "Hey, I got a little thirsty while shopping." And they hand the bottle to me. I tell em I don't mind and that I'm glad they were honest. I have had some felons, some crack heads, some prostitutes, and homeless be this honest. But there was one night a few months back as of when I wrote this. I was with a different co worker known for taking every other week off due to a rare health problem. Two women about mid 20's to early 30's walk in. One I know due to my dad giving her a ride in our vehicle. The other I didn't know and she had a nearly empty bag on her. They were in the store for about an hour when my co worker pulls me to the front and mumbles to me. "You know that girl that came in here with an empty purse? Go kinda and get a look at her purse now but don't spook 'em." So I walked over and I asked them, "Do you need any help finding anything?" And I glanced at the purse. About the size of a fucking small back pack. They said they were fine and I went back to the front since the sun had gone down and the hour was a prime time for shoplifters. And boi did we have a shoplifter. So I kinda hover around the front since it was getting closer and closer to closing time and the woman I knew waves me over and needs to ask a question. A few moments later and I hear the other co worker yelling and I somewhat sneak back to the front door. Shop lifter was caught trying to run off. So after the coworker gets her bag and holds it under possession for shoplifting, the girl has a "breakdown". She runs off as the police arrive but our company policy has stated that we do not chase running shoplifters. That's the police's job. So, the cop pulls up to the parking lot and the innocent woman does get questioned for possible acompilace in crime, and then the cop empties the bag onto the hood of his car. About $100 dollars worth of our store product, and a couple of hypodermic syringes. Best part of the evidence: She had her ID in the bag. She was from Kentucky and she had a record. Rest of the night went pretty quiet. coworker had power to damage out the products and we salvaged what wasn't damaged and put it back on the shelves. I'll be honest. Haven't had a lifter that damn bold since then but I know I sure as hell an't goin' back to McDonalds to work. So there's my story. Not all Dollar Generals look like this one, but they could be a hellufa lot better if the customers treated it that way. And if you think we don't do shit... sign up an application and at least work for seven scheduled work days and see how it is to be on the other side of the register... you might start treating register workers a little better after you've seen the hell they go through and deal with.

I work at a local Dollar General and I have to say the thing that keeps us alive is crack-heads

My theory on Dollar General's success is simply that they choose their locations very well. I notice they put a majority of stores in the middle of food deserts, rural areas, or close to low income areas where people don't have any choice but to do their shopping there.

As of right now I am a full time employee of dollar general. I get paid fairly well for a retail job. I also do get health benefits. I work anywhere from 32-45 hrs a week. (Starbucks is vended through Pepsi by the way.) Unfortunately this corporation has a lot to work on if they want to appeal to people in 2018. More often than not, stores look like this one because they have irregular staff. Either can't keep People hired or have enough people but cut so many hours that it's nearly impossible to get things done in four 6-9 hour shifts. Planograms, mag, and recovery are just a few things that most employees are required to do. Dollar General makes their employees do all of it. Not just run a register or stock the shelves. Both. Usually at the same time. The store managers are always given endless tasks and usually have to work 70hrs a week to keep the store stocked, organized, and shopable. I can't speak for the store you went to but NEVER would we have food so close to expiration left on the shelf. Most products are believed to be old and nasty but I guess that depends on how well the store sells product. Most of our food, especially canned doesn't expire for the next two years or so. Anyway if you have any questions I'd be happy to give you some insight!

Likely to be in the same shopping complex as a Dollar General: Paycheck Loan place, Liquor Store, A Rallys/Checkers/Dixie Queen

That DG is clean AF. The one I live near looks like they are in 24/7 stocking mode. Boxes lining aisles, tons of crap everywhere, plenty of expired food on the shelves.

The date on the oil is the production date, not an expiration date. I don't think motor oil ever expires.

The reason they thrive is that, for most of rural America they might as well the only shop in their towns. Vice News (i think) made a video about this, many small mom and pop shops have shuttered because of them. Simply put they haven't done a lot of good (don't think the store's layout, i.e. beer at the front of the store, shitty fruits and veggies... helps either). And as for the locked off Tide pods, it's because people were stealing them in exchange for drug money. Happens a lot unfortunately in poorer/opioid-affected areas.

Dollar General is depressing to shop at, even more depressing to work for, and all around feel ghetto, even in small majority-white towns. I am no big fan of the chain, but as I am poor I have to go there when I need stuff. Also yeah, 9 times out of 10 they are an utter disaster and understaffed.

As a former employee, in my area they could care less to restore or repair anything wrong with the store. They also claim to be uncompetitive and pay their workers very little, even though they expect the same type of work you would see at walmart. It's a convenience but it's a terrible work experience. EDIT: To be fair about all the clutter, the company just tends to just send way too much product and expect the workers to just figure it out.

The reason Dollar General is doing so well is they are opening stores where there is little or no competition particularly opening stores in rural area.

If you think DG is trashy and ghetto, try going into a Family Dollar sometime. lol

Motor oil does not expire. The date shown on the bottle is the manufacturing date. As long is sealed,its still good.

I currently work at DG. And let me say, it's really something. I get along well with my co-workers, aside from our Manager, who's on a constant state of get it done or I'll write you up. As many times as hours get shifted around and changed, it wasn't much of a threat. No matter how ON TOP you were with getting things put away, it was a battle. And keeping the store clean, don't even get me started there. Most customers are generally nice, but we do have a few that are rude as hell. I am close to moving on and finding something better.

One thing about Dollar Generals is they pop up in rural areas with no general, grocery, or corner stores. I myself live way out in the country. I'd rather drive 2 miles down the road to Dollar General for batteries and flour than drive 5+ miles into town to a grocery store. A lot of people in poorer areas don't have vehicles and out here public transport is a myth. You shop where you can walk.

West Virginian here - people love Dollar General in my state, mostly because DG puts their stores in places where grocery stores are a good distance away. Any small, very rural town you go to in West Virginia - and Appalachia, really - has a Dollar General, guaranteed.

Dollar General is Walmart for poor neighborhoods. Except, Walmart has better prices. Toys on the same aisle as car products/chemicals, RAID next to baby products and garden utensils right next to the emergency exit. Employees don't even care, and you know what? I don't really blame them.

Welcome back to "Random Shit on RU-vid That's Actually Interesting"

As bad as this store looks, Family Dollar stores look even worse inside. They are successful because they plop their stores in low income areas that are convenient. They will always exist because they sell items people need regularly.

Ours are all so busy that you usually have to wait 20 minutes to be checked out. I think they thrive in our area because we are kind of rural and it’s closer than going to the grocery store or Walmart.

My local Dollar General is terrible. Very narrow aisles, usually stocking carts that are filled with stock that needs put out, and you can’t get your shopping cart thru and have to back up... make some tricky maneuvers to find a way out. I used to work there years ago and it’s not changed much. Understaffed because corporate doesn’t give the managers many hours to distribute amongst the handful of employees. 95%of the time there are only two employees working, one management and one cashier. There’s always a long line at the register. Although this Dollar General is next door to where I live, I prefer driving one mile away to the Family Dollar. It’s much cleaner, always stocked, rarely a wait at the register. A much better, quicker shopping experience.

Dollar General expects it's employees to do everything all at once instead of having cashiers, a stock team and recovery team. The store I work at is functioning on a skeleton crew and I'm not sure if it's because the store manager is keeping all the hours for themselves or if they aren't allowed to hire another person.

Worked in one for two years, the store I worked at never looked this bad but the company gives no benefits so no one has motivation to really try

For Moter oil that is the date that it was bottled. I learned that from working at AMOCO Oil Company from 1995-2002. Moter Oil doesn't expire but they have to put a date on that when it was bottled. I learned that from our distributor.

Fills in the gaps between Walmarts. I live in a very rural area. Between two Walmarts there are 4.

as a asst manager: My store is given 130 hours roughly a week to disperse between 2 full time employees and one being me. that's 80 hours for us. The rest is for part time cashiers and key holders. As far as scheduling goes.. We have to meet a schedule score. That means if I put 3 people to work from 8am to 2pm my score will be 40% it has to stay above 90% Soo what do I do? I have to schedule 1 person from 8am to 2pm. It's very hard to stock 1,500 piece trucks that come every Friday when DG only let's soo many people work at one time and for a certain amount of time. Soo many people wonder why almost every DG is a wreck, I put it like this.. Open your house up to 400 people from 8am to 10pm while most of them destroy everything, open things, break things ect. and have 3 people try to help them, answer questions, walk them to things, clean up, fix things, do more picking up all while listening to the same questions. Why is this store a wreck. You need to do your job or hire more people! It's almost impossible

3:26 post tide pods challenge. I prefer the Rick Serra Soap bar challenge

I worked for this company for two years, horrible company. They keyholders work by themselves for hours on end with no other person coming in until noon.

I used to work at a Dollar General for two summers while in my tiny small town. They're all like this basically, and it was so stressful to be in such a cluttered environment. I'm working at a Walgreens now temporarily while I go to grad school, and I had no idea a retail store could be so clean and run so smoothly.

I worked at DG for 4 years at many different locations as a stocker and this store you looked at is in pretty good shape compared to where I have worked personally. You would not believe how bad they are actually.

You can tell if you're in a bad part of St. Louis by whether or not you're near a Dollar General / Family Dollar. So many drug deals go down in those parking lots. They have signs saying that they don't carry more than 20 dollars in change, NO LOITERING etc...

I've had the misfortune of visiting many of these stores across the rural rustbelt, and can say that your observations seem to be typical of most locations. Consistently awful, and yet continuously expanding.

I guess when the customer's choice is buy your food there or starve, they aren't really incentivized to improve themselves.

Speaking of trashy romance books, there's a book at my location about the founder of Dollar General hidden on an end cap that's filled with cheapo children's books and trashy dime store novels. Quite fitting, really. Also, speaking of expired product, my location had a whole cooler of expired milk that someone was supposed to come and clear out; they didn't do it for two weeks.

The number one reason I shop there is because I’m poor and it’s in the neighborhood. Location matters a lot, and they build themselves around the ghetto areas like me. Also their prices are pretty much the same as Walmart’s but the difference is that everything is easier to find and also dollar general along with other dollar store have little to no line every time you checkout.

location location location, in the south they will put these in the middle of no where, where there is no other stores, or on the edge of towns on store barren highways

the over head cost of running the store means they cannot afford many staff members or inventory clerks to keep things proper. They over-order things because they must order in bulk, to make the cost as low as they can.

Don't make fun of my K-mart, I miss my store, they closed.

It’s no wonder they are a billion dollar company... they don’t do any advertising, their stores have zero upkeep, low paying jobs.... all profit for them. I’ve been to their stores all over the US, and they are all alike.

One market that DG (and Family Dollar) caters to that Walmart absolutely rejects is people too low income for a working car. Pick some random southern or midwestern towns of 7-15k. Walmart towns, through and through? 9 times out of 10, Walmart may as well be on Mars it is so hard to get to without a car. Is there a 4-lane road with a no-sidewalk bridge? Great, Walmart wants to be on the other side of that. DG, on the other hand, will be in the main part of town. With a sidewalk and everything. They do quite a bit of no-car business already, and they're making a (probably smart) bet that the poorest 20-25% of Americans will become mostly non-car-owners through poverty, while Walmart continues to bet on "everyone who matters has a car".

I'm an ex-Dollar General Employee. Here are my thoughts: The non-lit sign just screams "COME SHOPLIFT HERE" Locked up tide-pods? Pre. People trade that stuff for drugs. 4:19 Oh yeah this place gets shoplifted alot. This tells the shoplifter the employees really don't give a shit about the store and people are less likely to watch you. Alot of stuff not front-faced (pulled to the front).

At the dollar general near me they lock the koolaid up behind the counter. Not joking. The laundry soap is left for all to take. Lol

The Dollar General I work at is actually well-kept, but that is because my boss actually cares about how good the store looks. My coworkers are nice people to be around, which is lucky for me. We do get a few characters in our store from time to time, but most people are relatively normal. Dollar General is also kind of cheap when it comes to paying employees. Cashiers only get $7.50 an hour despite all of the money Dollar General makes.

I am currently a dollar general employee, have been for two years, and honestly. The way a store looks is determined GREATLY by who works there and whose running the store. In our district, our store is generally considered the best. It's the cleanest, has more stocked shelves and we make twice as much money as others in our district, because their stores looked like this. Multiple customers have complained about the others around our district. It's so sad that incompetent employees and managers make us look bad, because we all bust our asses. My store manager has stayed hours and hours after she was supposed to get off because our district manager puts so much on her, to where she gets stressed and snaps at us, for no damn reason. Dont blame the employees, we are doing the best we can.

Hold up hold up...they were selling Iron Man 3 for $9.99?! I just bought that same film for $24.99 at Best Buy smh I need reevaluate where I shop lol

I like the Taco Bell kit! Late night Taco Bell without the DUI! 😅

The date on the oil is just the production date.

Typically they only have two employees at work at the same time and that's why many are messy

it seems retail always has a problem with employees.. you know why? because of shitty customers. whenever you go into a store and complain about small things, keep in mind that an employee has probably worked hard all day and the last thing he/she wants to hear is someone complaining about small b.s. We need to change our consumer habits and stop wanting perfection to retail. its killing businesses and hurting low wage employees. I really think the problem it starts at the bottom, not the top.

My friend is from a small town in Texas and she told me how the dollar general was the closest thing she had to a Walmart. Her family would buy basic essentials and food from there then drive 45 minutes to the next town to go to Walmart. Dollar General is cheap and accesible and that's why it thrives.

As a store manager for a company rated to be the best in the southeast (I’ll let you guess), this irks me! The back stock on top of the gondolas, the messy shelves, the out of date items... good grief. So trashy and clearly no standards of excellence. I’d say most the blame for this store goes to this particular management team. From my experience shopping DG, they look like this, and they never seem to have more than 2 people at a time working. There’s where the money comes from. I have no less than 30 associates at all times in my store.

A lot of non-perishable foods are printed with an "expiration date", but there are no FDA guidelines for these labels, so they could be a suggestion to retailers when to rotate stock or even implicate when the food tastes the best.

This is one of those very, very few moments where reading the comments section is actually insightful. Admittedly, I'm still not a big fan of Dollar General, especially with the way they're growing like rabbits (we have SEVEN within five miles of home), and how poorly they seem to be run compared to other retailers. But on that same token, I have to agree that they do fulfill a niche that nobody else has been able to replicate on the same level of success. And given their compact layout, they probably don't cost nearly as much to build or run as something like, say, Wal-Mart would. Not only that, but they require so much less space, so it's easier for them to fit into smaller places where people who live in low-cost housing can simply walk to and from without having to drive. Yes, their stores can, and often do, look pretty trashy. Less than half of the locations I've been too would be considered acceptably clean on a regular basis -- the rest of them look about as dingy, if not worse, than what was shown in the video. But in spite of that, they still have a pretty steady customer base. As far as metro area locations go, I've hardly ever been to one that has been empty at any given time of the day. And as much as I would rather shop elsewhere, me and my family are still regulars -- they have what we need in the short-term at agreeable prices, and not many of them are particularly out of the way, either. In short: they may not be attractive, but they do what they do well enough for the people who need them to stay well afloat. Here, you really do have to look at both sides of the coin... or in this case, the dollar.

We have 3 Walmart's and 9 dollar generals. 8 out of 9 are amazing but Walmart is so out of touch I love being able to get in and out and Saturday's deals.

One more thing. I live in a desert region and my husband does commercial AC. He has worked at a local General Dollar a few times. Their AC units are junk and they will only pay for very basic repairs. They make it very hard for the AC company to get paid (everything goes through corporate) and the temps in the store are kept high enough to make the employees constantly miserable but low enough that it feels cool when you come in from the 110 degree heat outside.

That Pennzoil date is the date it was produced. Not an expiration date

I watched Thundercats regularly as a kid in the 1980s

Motor oil doesn't expire. Thats the date it was bottled. I agree the stores are in rough shape but you should know what you are talking about.

omg...your commentary cracked my stuff up! dollar generals ALWAYS look like this. I live EXTREMELY rural and Dollar General is the only option i have to buy something quick. we have no Walmart, target, Kmart, just a mom and pop grocery store that has outrageous prices and not much of a selection. I usually make a list and go once a week 40 minutes out to civilization, haha, but what do you do when you find yourself with a need for tampons on the fly?? or ran out of something quicker than you thought you would?? Que Dollar General. it's a necessary evil. lol

I once stopped by a Dollar General, as it was conveniently placed to get a drink at. The 7-11-type parking lot was the first warning. Dirty diapers flung about on the ground. And the internal store didn't look much cleaner. I think the clerk at the register was the only employee, too. Perhaps, something that is far more impressive (to the negative) is that this company recently opened up a branch near me. They took an empty lot in a rural town whose former supermarket couldn't survive and built it...to look like this. They had the chance to do anything they could have wished for from day one...and created something akin to what we are seeing in this video. Advantage is that this town has two (or more) bars, one no-name fast food place and a casino. (At least, the decent number of residence can pray away their sins.) There's not another business around for a few miles.

As someone who comes from an extremely large metropolitan area. I have only seen 3 dollar generals and a handful of family dollars. But, when I travel in the smaller towns, I notice they put these on almost every block or out in the middle of no where, miles and miles from the nearest Walmart. I believe that's why they are thriving because they focus themselves around areas that don't have much options for stores.

I think you would gain greater insight if you actually worked a retail job at one of these places.

i worked for dollar general all the stores dont look like this it all depends on the manger and the workers the new ones are way taller (about 20 feet tall) the tide pods and stuff like that are behind the case because people steal them if you look closely they have little tags that are for going through those detector things so people cant just run out of the store thats all im going to say since im not going to defend the company but yeah

Never thought I be interested to see what a dollar general looked liked. I always assumed it was like dollar tree, With prices being a $1. I’m in Canada and it reminds me of a store we have called Giant tiger.

Tide is a high theft item. It is a status symbol in inner city ghettos. When my son was little...(so 8 years ago or so) a entire 18 wheeler of tide was stolen....they found it empty in a chicago ghetto...sold the tide right out of the back of the truck.

The Dollar General closest to me actually looks pretty clean on the inside. Not a lot of stuff on the floor in the aisles.

I worked for a hotel that had a corporate account with these creeps. The district managers would all stay at the hotel during training. Up to two weeks at a time sometimes. They were the rudest, meanest damn people I've ever encounter in my entire life. Very abusive to the all the hotel staff. I can't imagine how they treat their employees.

That store is poorly managed obviously. My hometown Dollar General doesn't look like that. As a matter of fact there is never an employee standing at the register they have to constantly reorganize the shelves and I have to yell for them to come check me out. My town of 1100 people will never have a Wal-Mart (the closest one is 12 miles away) and we don't even have a real grocery store in our town. Actually their soda prices usually beat Wal-Mart and I'm a stickler for expiration dates on food and I've never noticed theirs being like Big Lots or anything. The question should be how could they not thrive here in the states and the other question would be where do you live?

I live in the UK... and this is verry much like the American version of where I work. They'll make money with the mantra, "stack it high. Sell it cheap.... "

I live in San Antonio, TX and the stores look exactly the same here...too funny! But I like shopping there because you can get in and get out much faster than you can at Walmart. Great prices and product selection also.

Here in rural parts of South Carolina these Dollar Generals are popping up on every corner. In some areas there are 3 to 4 stores withing a 5 mile radius..CRAZY..Kmart did this and failed Food Lion did this as well and Failed..This store will eventually FAIL

There's a Dollar General in my town that has been open for 20 years. It used to be a good place to shop, but over the last 5 years or so it has been going downhill. The aisles are small, tight, and at times, very unorganized. The employees aren't even at the register half of the time because of the lack of business our DG gets. They try to seem happy but I can tell they aren't. I've stopped shopping there since a Family Dollar just opened in my town one week ago and it's so much better than DG in so many ways. I'm hoping that having competition will make my local DG step up its game but sadly, I kind of doubt it.

Ah, yeah, Waldenbooks. Early eighties. Miss that bookstore. And by the way, nice music in the background.

I worked at a Dollar General and it was horrible! Smh

Where I live in Kentucky many of the smaller grocery stores have shut down. Some people cannot drive 30 minutes or more to the nearest town. Dollar Stores are the only convenient and cheap place to buy milk, bread and other items. A new store was built close to where I live and it’s amazing. The floors, aisles, lights and fixtures actually look “up-scale”-no joke.

One thing I remember is Wal-Mart as a kid back in the 90's, before they went to the "Supercenter" format. Stores were much smaller, no groceries except maybe for junk food, yes the old Wal-Mart stores were still triple the size of current Dollar Generals, but the idea was the same. General Merchandise, little bit of everything, lowest prices in town, easy to get those 5-10 things on your list and get in/out pretty quick. Dollar General kind of took over the old school Wal-Mart format.

This is one store location, where I WOULD NOT shop at after dark, at night!!!! That is a dark parking lot!!! There are no lights, except for right by the door.

This feels like a real life food and stuff from parks and rec especially with the baby stuff next to the bug spray lol

The only times I'll visit a Dollar General is when they have an exclusive food item. This year they had Orange Vanilla Cream M&M’s, Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Pringles, Summer Splash Skittles, Chocolate Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows, and Nashville Hot Chicken Pringles. I've only gotten the Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Pringles, which were the best!

How does oil millions of years old, expire?

Dollar stores, Dollar general, 99 cent store are fun to shop in. They are an adventure

In a nutshell, yes, that's every dollar genearl i have ever steped foot into.

I don’t know if the one near me is that bad, especially as far as expiration dates go, but it’s crammed with stuff. I think they try to do too much. Dollar Tree, by contrast, is always nice and clean. Good layout and without crap like clothes. And they stay as a true dollar store and don’t offer a lot of name brands. Like how yours used to be a Waldenbooks, mine used to be a grocery store when I was a kid. The Dollar General actually only occupies part of the retail space of the grocery store. I remember getting one birthday cake from there when I was a kid. Oh, and the big advantage to making tacos at home with that Taco Bell kit is that you get have actual ground beef in your taco.

DG was ranked #2 worst place to work in the country last year.

I'm literally SHOCKED watching this. I shop at DG all the time and they are always immaculate, well stocked and spacious in my area (North East Ohio). The one I shop at near my house is actually a DG Market and has a full grocery store complete with meat and fresh produce.

Hi! Current dollar general employee here. The people of this particular store has lazy employees in my eyes. Isles are a mess, and food should be taken off shelves as they expire. But the reason they are a mess is because they hard limit a store to x number of hours a week. And they are suppose to have x number of employees per store. There is no time with 2 people working to restock 1000+ products a week. All while you have to work around and take care of customers. It is an impossible task. I come from a smaller store and bust my ass throwing 300+ products every other day with trucks averaging 600 packages. But yes my co-workers don't seem to be able to help. And the manager is so caught up in resets and paper work, we only have 3 active employees on the floor. 2 if you count one who doesn't want to work. And only me if you count the last one being extremely slow. But we still manage to make it work, keep product up to date, store clean and well kept, as we as having one of the best reviewed stores in our district for speed of check out and friendliness.