As of January 8, 2024, Dollar General (DG) has 19,643 stores in the continental United States and Mexico. (Wikipedia)
In 2022, the company’s revenue was $34.8 billion and its net income/profit was $3.1 billion. (Wikipedia)

I was reminded of this the other day as I was waiting in line at DG and saw a manager fiddle with the safe (didn’t have my glasses on and couldn’t really see what she was doing).

Much like other large retailers (Walmart and Albertsons), DG has the ability to negotiate lower prices for some goods because of their enormous size. At my local DG, most prices are on par with the local grocery store. Of course I can’t really say local … not in my definition of what local is. DG is a 23 mile round trip, the grocery store (Safeway), is an 80 mile round trip. Such is the way of rural life.

Dollar General’s strategy is to target low-income and low-population areas that other major retailers avoid. 75% of their stores are in towns with fewer than 20,000 people. (LinkedIn) DG can and does serve as a food and other goods lifeline to the areas it serves. Well, at least my ‘local’ DG.

However, DG never has any fresh produce. I understand why, produce in a store is labor intensive compared to everything else. Plus produce goes bad if no one buys it, a potential money losing proposition.

DG does seem to have a poor reputation (lots of employee and consumer complaints) including more than $21 million in fines from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for having blocked fire exits, dangerous levels of clutter and more. Even shareholders are upset as they voted for a resolution that called for an independent, third-party audit into worker safety, a move that the company opposed. (CNBC)

DG does have its role in providing goods to folks who would otherwise not have any other resources. For that I am grateful. But, they need to clean up their act.