Dollar General Is Putting Local Grocery Stores Out Of Business (HBO) 

VICE News traveled to Kansas, where the rise of the discount store has spurred the fall of another, arguably more crucial type of establishment: small, local grocery stores. WATCH NEXT: Women Of Color Are Trying To Get Out Of The U.S. - bit.ly/2GGAaLL

Dollar general : *we are the cheapest stores all around the USA* Dollar tree: *hold my 1$ beer*

The people will go to where the price is cheaper. This has always been the way

Unfortunately we lived off less than $50 a week and had to buy enough food for me and my mom. We couldn't afford to go to anywhere else. If it hadn't been for the Dollar Store, we wouldn't have been able to eat.

Local Grocery Store:Salt is 2$ Dollar General:.50¢ No ones made of money

Dollar General is NOT a dollar store. I think a lot of people assume that it is. Just wanted to point that out.

With how expensive things are becoming now a days, of course people are gonna go for what's cheapest. We live in an era where being choosey with your products, groceries and such...isn't really much of an option. Which is EXACTLY why Dollar General is succeeding so well in these low income areas. Think about it. If they decided to open it's door in a more suburban, upscale area, do you really think people who have the luxury of being choosey with their products, groceries and such, would shop at a sort of "last resort" store? Nope. People with that kind of money are gonna want what's healthier, more organic and of the best quality. And Dollar General definitely isn't the place for the wealthy.

My local grocery store charges $1.55 for salt, my Dollar General charges 55 cents!

I go whereever it is cheap for me. I'm not gonna go broke so a store manager can get paid.

I have a feeling many of these businesses were having financial trouble before Dollar General arrived.

Dollar General filled the void in a nearby small town after a long established grocery store went out of business for gouging customers. The gouging got so bad that people were driving up to 20 miles away to go to Kroger, Aldi or Walmart. Like it or not, Dollar General provides affordable items in small communities with few or no options for shopping.

There's a grocery store in my town, and the price of their products cost more. A box of oatmeal is 5 bucks while DG and FD got it for 3 dollars PLUS COUPONS! These small shops are killing themselves.

A local grocer says "dollar general moved in and it's hurting my business". Flip side... "I can no longer gouge my customers because of competition".

I worked for years at Dollar General in my younger years as a manager and cashier before that. They treated me well for what it was, and they have a rock solid business model. DG did very well through the last recession, and continues to do well today. I don't think they should be punished for having a track record of making smart business decisions.

Living in a small town where we only have one grocery store, which effectively has a monopoly and charges sky high prices and is also known to be a terrible place to work with questionable health safety standards, I think I'm okay with this.

Shout out to dollar tree for being true for being only a dollar per item (especially the snacks)

Dollar general is my go to place for my snack runs

"How many discount dollar stores do you need in one community?" You need as many as it takes for supply to meet the demand of impoverished people, that's how many.

The company first began in 1939 as a family-owned business called J.L. Turner and Son in Scottsville, Kentucky by James Luther Turner and Cal Turner. In 1968 the name changed to Dollar General Corporation and the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange. And for the record, I live in a small town that could use a corporate entity like this just to keep the price gouging local stores in check! I've lived in other small towns that "suffered" from the opening of a wal-mart supercenter, it thrived, the grocery stores that didn't close had to re-evaluate how badly they were fucking their own community by gouging them solely because they could. This needs to happen in most small towns across america just to keep them in check price-wise.

As someone who works for Dollar General, I can tell you good folks that the customers that we get are 1) very dedicated to shopping with us. 2) the same ones day in and day out. 3) almost always come back for the convenience and the prices of the goods we offer.

You can get all the celebrity endorsements, advertisements, and extra crap you want. The cheaper price will always win.

Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores are paradise for us college students. Bought about a weeks worth of meals for $6.

I live in a very small town that had one grocery store and that store was overpriced. DG opened and the grocery store had to lower its prices. Competition is good.

boycott dollar general and come to my store where I have less stuff and much higher prices.. it just makes sense doesn't it?

I go where is cheaper simple as that. I work too hard for my money to pay for something that is 5 dollars when I can get it for $1

So if they don't sell meat and a variety of bread why not open a butcher shop and a bakery

*Wait till Aldi comes to town.* They can compete with almost any supermarket chain.

Back in the 80's, I owned a small produce shop in FL. When I confirmed Walmart was moving a few miles away, I listed my business for sale. By the end of the following month, it was sold and not my problem anymore. Walmart opened a year later and the shop closed soon after. It's that own guys fault for not knowing his market.

Grocery stores:(exist) Dollar General: *Im about to end this mans whole career.*

It's not dollar general fault. People need better job opportunities to pay for better food than they won't shop there.

People used to say the same thing about Wal-Mart. When I was broke and hungry and wouldn't go on welfare - I fed myself at Dollar General. I'm the common man and I support Dollar General.

Solution? Keep selling what the Dollar General doesn't carry and adjust your inventory and overhead accordingly.

I’ll go where it’s cheapest for me and my family to shop. Especially if it means that we’re left with extra money in our bank account.

I mean hey where you going to shop? Somewhere that charges almost $5 for a gallon of milk or are you going to buy a $1.50 maybe $2.00 gallon of milk.

The middle class is rapidly declining, and at this rate in about a decade, we won't have a middle class. Where else can the low income class afford to shop? More than half the U.S population now is low income...

My hometown was without local groceries for 20 years after a fire. Dollar General is the first gallon of milk available outside a gas station since.

Being a life long Kansan and a business owner I have to say this a a joke. These old guys are the reason Kansas is failing. They’ll go to Walmart (the store that shut down grocery stores only to underpay their employees to the point they receive billions in financial assistance) every week. I can’t speak for other states but in Kansas Dollar General is a blessing.

Listen folks I worked for Dollar General for 7yrs. Their business model is to put their stores in the poorest communities. My store was in an area for senior citizens and low income housing. Instead of driving or taking the bus they can walk to my store an get a bulk of what they need for the week. The year when we had the gas spike was my best year! I had customers who would shop every day! They loved the fact that we would greet them by name and have that small town appeal. In bigger stores you rarely see the same person twice let alone knowing your name. The money makers were the “off brands” items. You wanna pay 4 or 5 dollars for a 3pk of Bounty paper towels or a $1.50 for the DG brand? I even had local businesses like restaurants, bars, and gas stations buying in bulk. Why go to a grocery store, Walmart or Sam’s Club when they can get the same items from my store? Perfect example, quite often we would have Pepsi products on sale for a $1. Again the local businesses would rush to my store buy in bulk then jack up the price for their customers. DG doesn’t have a limit unless by law on their products. Walmart is also notorious for putting retailers out of business. They are the reason retails don’t have unions. If you even whisper or seen talking about it you would be fired on the spot! The real story is how they treat their employees like crap. It’s like sweatshop conditions in some stores. Plus no one can live off of $7.00 an hour! The money as always is in management and we got treated even worse. We are required to work 6 1/2 days a week salary. That way they can work us even harder. Many times management had to run their stores 1-3hrs by themselves to save money! Which is why turnover is off the charts! It’s been 6yrs since I left due to cancer. Yet I’m still getting checks from all the class action suits won by current and pass employees. Yet, they still continue to grow. They’ve opened up 6 more stores to my area making it over 20 stores at the moment. They also added another distribution center to keep up with all the new stores. As long as customers keep buying all the bad stuff will continue to get swept under the rug. That’s the DG way!

"why don't these poor people shop more responsibly by buying their food at places like whole foods?" - person who isn't poor

With your disposable income diminishing everyday the choice is clear.

This shows the desperate situation our country is in. People have no disposable income these days, so instead of going to the store owned by their neighbor, which helps to support the community, they're being forced to go to the cheaper chain store that's taking away any unique identity of the town.

I live in a small town. There wasn't a grocery store. There is a gas station with over priced gas and other stuff. Thank you Dollar General for doing what no one else would do. Or could do. We still drive 10 miles to buy the large portion of our groceries. But now I don't have to drive 10 miles to buy hamburger buns at the 10 miles away price. Before DG the gas station hamburger buns were half again the price. That is huge in my economy.

That's complete nonsense. Dollar General, Lidl, Aldi, and many other discount grocery stores are not putting anyone out of business. What's putting these businesses out of business it's maybe the way they treat customers, they are not modernizing, they are not having competitive prices. Isn't competition a wonderful thing because it weeds out bad retailers and a rewards good retailers? It's really easy to blame someone else, but it's hard to admit that maybe you're doing something wrong.

I live in rural area. I feel Dollar General is more of convenience than saving. Some of their items actually cost more. If I need a couple of things quick, I'll drop by DG. But if I'm actually shopping for many items, I'd drive the extra few minutes to my nearest grocery store or Wal-Mart. But I love that DG is widely accessible, especially in the middle of nowhere.

I'm so glad DG built a store next to a "convenience" store near me. Keep up the good work DG. 👍

Oh boo hoo! You've been gouging people with high prices and now somebody comes in with low prices and you want to cry about it!

So we r suppose to feel sorry for these store owners who have had all the business in these rural communities. When people who are absolutely way below the poverty line have access to cheaper goods. Tiny towns don't have an issue with dollar stores everywhere. In a lot of these communities people had to drive an hour or more to find any groceries. The mom and pop stores left during the recession or way before. Where I live they spent millions to not allow Walmart to come but then approved target unanimously. More often than not, these communities don't want poor white people and minorities stopping in their small town. For me, that's a bigger story.

Boycott a company because it’s more efficient and serves the community better than the alternative. Smdh.

No DG in my neighborhood. I go to 3 different grocery stores to get more for my money...Commissary at March ARB for meat and seafood, Mexican market for the freshest and cheapest produce and Winco for everything else totaling $200..... It's an ordeal but it's better then spending $300 at Walmart or Albertsons when I can save $100 and have a few margaritas at happy hour🍹🍹😂

Good for Dollar General! They are showing how overpriced those grocery stores were.

What these communities actually need are German discount retailers like Aldi and Lidl, who combine the formula of Dollar general with cheap fresh food, such as meat, fruits and vegestables.

WHY on earth would I go to an expensive place. If it's cheaper count me in.

You really can't blame the dollar General for being the king of cheap, They worked hard to get where they were, They all started like Local Businesses, And for some people to say they don't know what its like is absolutely false. Everyone starts out small.

This is a 60 plus year old company. They found a way to thrive. Deal with it. Grocery store markup is ridiculous anyway

This is the same old story of grocery stores who had their monopoly in town with their prices, then competition come to town and go bust in panic. Truth is these small independent food stores never wanted to modernize, never wanted to protect themselves from rainy days, they don't offer anything alternative, don't have a website, despise technology, and eventually become the dinosaurs of business: extinct.

Just wait until Dollar Tree comes to town. Retail is a blood sport and survival of the fittest rules. Aldi will soon put most of the remaining grocery stores out of business anyway. The decline of small town retail began decades ago with Walmart, then Amazon, and now Dollar General, etc. Customers want lower prices and convenience. Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

lmao love how the protesters have the store's address on their signs. Like thanks, now I know theres a dollar general on pine street.

Americans STOPPED COOKING with fresh food 2 decades ago. Look at grocery stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables, most like Stop & Shop chooses to sell pretty vegetables instead of affordable ones, due to lack of demand. But if you look at the Asian grocery stores, they're increasingly expanding, even as close as within a block or two. That's because Asian people cook EVERY DAY, 2 - 3 times a day from scratch. Americans eat from boxes and cans.

My town is so poor that our Dollar General offers layaway.

I mean...10 dollar stores with no grocery store? You wouldn’t be able to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, etc..

I was just in Publix today & I bought a couple of things but I finished my food shopping at family dollar because I’m on a budget & have a growing child to feed. Dollar general is my favorite as well.

If Dollar General is putting them out of business then they need to reevaluate their business strategy.

So WalMart knows how it feels now. Suck it WalMart.

I'm relieved there is a Dollar General. In areas where there is only a Walmart and Winn Dixie that have sky high prices, it helps save money on laundry detergent, toilet paper, hygiene items etc. I moved to an area with an Aldies and an outlet grocery store but I still shop at Dollar general for certain things.

I wished all businesses would reinvest more in their community's

If it's cheaper it's cheaper . I always go to the cheaper stores . I wasn't born in this world to keep those rich stores rich. They lose because of their greedy high prices

I live in a small ass town in North Carolina. The closest dedicated grocery stores is 20 minutes away in the next town. There are two different dollar stores in my town both within 5 minutes of my house. There's no wonder why I would go instead of a larger store if I only need a couple things.

This is not a collective actions problem. If people was willing to pay the actual full cost of "real grocer" they would not go out of business. This happens because Dollar general provides more value to the community than the grocer

Dollar general the poor man's Walmart.

Oh cry me a river. This is a simple equation, lower your prices to adapt with the times. With the epidemic of homelesness in america, do you really think that the homeless person or someone living in poverty is going to spend 4 dollars on a can of food instead of 1 dollar. Simple logic. Greed and the lack of caring is a cancer that is not going away.

The guy who shut down his grocery store should have rather transitioned to meat shop. Much more profitable and niche-based. Plus his competition would be zero.

So what these people are saying is that instead of a Dollar General operating in a food desert, they'd rather have nothing at all. Preventing DGs from opening up in an under-served community isn't going to make a Winn Dixie, or a Kroger, or a Target appear in its place. And even if one of those stores DID open up in place of a discount retailer, they'd still be complaining about how they're driving local stores out of business.

Before Dollar General moved in, the closest place to get groceries in my old town was 20 miles / 35 minutes away

I'm poor as shit and Dollar General is a place I can afford. You richers want your local overpriced stores, have at it.

Stores like Dollar General are not putting local grocery stores out of business. People are putting them out of business. Your customers have chosen to go elsewhere because their dollar will go further.

What’s the problem??? Grocery stores have produce, meat, liquor and beer just to make a few things that dollar stores don’t have...so why are they closing...cuz people are buying a few boxes of cereal and cans of soup at DG. 🤦🏽‍♀️...our neighborhood convenience store had maneuvered to compete with CVS...he’s still going strong

A lot of people are talking about how "hurr durr those small grocers are overpriced" without understanding economies of scale.

Good. Grocery and retail stores have been overcharging customers for really basic, inexpensive things for way too long.

“The community” says they don’t want the DG to be there yet business is booming. Hmm.

I love Dollar General. I'm gonna go to where the prices are cheapest. It is what it is. 🤷🏽‍♀️

One just opened in my rural town I reside in(Population around 250 or so) and there are no grocery stores here. It’s really a blessing. No need to travel back to a bigger city for the little things that get forgotten, just head to the DG.

The Dollar General helps me not have to drive 25 miles to get milk. It is what it is.

Ok, so a Dollar General opens near your store, and from that moment your sales begin to decline by $700 to $1000 per day, every day. Meanwhile, this KSU dude says the vast majority of Dollar General stores don't offer fresh fruits and vegetables, hardly any variety of dairy products, and very little variety in bread. How, after 1,095 consecutive days of declining sales, does it not occur to you to scale back your product line and focus only those items that your local Dollar General does not sell?

Damn I wish we had a Dollar General here in Seattle 😥 it's crazy expensive to buy and live here.

In my rural Western North Carolina county of 35,000 people, we have 8 Dollar Generals, one Dollar Tree, 8 grocery stores including Walmart, 1 Big Lots, 4 meat markets, 5 Mexican grocery stores, a few produce stands, not counting any locally owned shops still in business. The DG isn't really putting anything out of business unless they can't keep up with their customer's demands. That's the underlying problem, really. A lot of locally owned stores refuse to change their business model to survive. They've, "Been doing it this way since 1950, and I'll be damned if we change!" What they really should do is turn their stores into alternative shops, such as a bulk-buy store or specialty shop; stores we don't have any of here, and would make a killing off the health and environmental conscious people in the area. What's killing local grocery stores is the mindset, not competition.

I lived in a rural town in Iowa--9000 people. It was a nicer town, because there was a college (where I worked). And there was a SuperWalmart, two chain grocery stores, and a more high end store that was smack dab in the middle of town and catered to a wealthier crowd--the doctors, the faculty, the students, the moneyed locals. Dollar General is on the outskirts and caters to the people whose income hovers around the poverty line. There are so many people like that in rural America. The fancy store was, too me, shockingly expensive. It wasn't that amazingly fancy, compared to the big city I came from. So, I didn't find it to be a good deal. But it really was pricey. And I only bought wine from it. I think the problem, beyond the health of these single-proprietor stores is this: Once the traditional grocery stores shutter, you will have a population of people who are going to be eating packaged goods: high sodium, high fat mac and cheese in a box type fare. And this will not be good for their health in the long run.

So she doesn't want Dollar General to open another store because there's already several dollar stores in the area, but she wants and welcomes a grocery store to open, expecting that somehow a grocery store would survive while surrounded by several dollar stores, with the entire basis of the video being that dollar stores are putting the grocery stores out of business? Sorry if I missed something..

I’m fascinated by dollar general. We see them multiply in wealthy yet rural retirement communities. The local DG to my parents home is so convenient and less expensive, I never thought about the repercussion to local grocers! Insightful and scary documentary you’ve created here!

I don't really see the problem. If you don't want dollar stores, then work on building a local fairly priced grocery store with quality options. I mean if people are so broke in a town that they can only afford Dollar General, then that raises a whole bunch of other questions about the local economy itself.

Ima open up a store called 89 cent commander and chief.....

If ya can't beat 'em; get Vice to do a micro-documentary to complain about 'em.

Well in California it’s way different instead of cheap grocery stores it’s more expensive stores like wholefoods, trader jones, and etc

In my town, we have a DG & a supermarket right next to each other. Both are doing well.

Using the local Dollarama I made enough tasty vegetarian chili (made, not bought in a can) for 3 good sized meals. It cost *$2.63 USD* Can't get that at the grocery store.

I'd rather they build Dollar Generals in the hood rather than liquor stores and check cashers

Problem is I can spend $50 on 1 meal, milk, bread at small town grocery store OR $90 for a cart full at Aldi's. Can't afford small town grocery shopping!

If you reside in a food desert, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, or DG do not sell fresh meats and produce...where do you go if there are no full service grocery stores? People really need to consider this. Besides, some food items cost more there than at grocery stores like bread, milk, and frozen foods for instance. Who wants to pay $3.50 for a half gallon of milk when you get it for half the price elsewhere. DG fills in a niche but falls short when it comes to groceries.

Evolve or dissolve.

These people boycotting are ridiculous, most low income families live from paycheck to paycheck so of course they're going to gravitate to whats cheapest. The fact that they want the people to not have options is absurd, more competition is good it gives people options to choose and competition helps lower prices.

ironically, the prices of stuff in dollar general in my city are more expensive than kroger and walmarts