The danger of the dollar store dominance

Yep. We just got one in our community. Makes me sad.

.99 cent store only has started selling stuff way above a dollar. Even Daiso has stuff above the usual $1.50.

My problem with the dollar store? The groceries are CHEAPER at a regular store. You may only pay a dollar for a pint of milk. Seems like a good deal but when you realize there are 8 pints to a gallon then that milk is now $8 a gallon.


I feel the same way about all those little bodegas and other little grocerily stores.

One of the problems not addressed in this article is how expensive fresh fruit and vegetables can be. And most people don't know how to prep dishes well with them, not everyone obviously. There is lots of research out there that the poor eat a particularly bad diet due to the lack of availability of fresh and healthy produce.

Crap food is almost always cheaper than nutritious food no matter where you buy it. Just tool down the cereal aisle in the grocery store. The boxes that have the least nutrients are the cheapest. Or $2 for an entire box of 6-8 junk food cakes or $2 for 2-3 apples. Even if your have access to produce that doesn’t really solve the nutrient issue, Iceberg lettuce $1/ head vs spinach $3/bag

It’s always pissed me off

And no, i don’t think it assumes poor parents are ignorant, it assumes that they will choose for their children to feel full even if there are no nutrients available. It’s rather sad to have choose between feeling fed & actually eating nutrients. But that is often the case of the choices parents face.

Both of you are right in way.

Bodegas are ingrained into certain cultures, and people feel safe shopping there. And they can buy the food they are familiar with.

But little do they know that their dollar goes farther when they can buy a loaf of bread $1.99, instead of a bun that cost .75 cents , A bag of oranges that costs .89 cents a pound instead of .50 and a dozen eggs for a dollar. Short on dollars find a substitutes. Tortillas, canned fruit, frozen veggies. Learn how to make stuff like egg noodles , vegetable pancakes, dumplings. All of this is easy and takes very little time.
Budget Shopping and meal planning needs to be taught somehow.

Some bodega will run a tab until pay day.. It is hard to walk home with a gallon of milk or even to take it on the bus with other things. Transportation issues were mentioned somewhere above.

Yes as well as likely no power or gas. So there is no option to cook the food or maybe even store it

This is what happened where our cabin is. We had a grocery store in town for years until it changed ownership and the new owners couldn’t make it go. About a year after it closed and it was obvious nothing new was coming in, a Family Dollar opened up on that same stretch of road. It started out with the typical dollar store stuff, but quickly started adding more actual food options. Now within the last year they added an entire wall of refrigerated and frozen foods. While it won’t replace the actual grocery store that was there, it does fill a gap especially if you run out of something like milk, ketchup or hamburger buns. The next closest grocery store is about a 20 minute drive away by car.

Family Dollar stuff isn’t all a dollar. The one by our cabin sells all the common dollar store things but also some clothing, some groceries and other household things that the other stores in town don’t sell. It’s more like an old time general store.

Agree. Dollar Generals are popping up everywhere. There are 6 in my county which is one of the smallest counties in the state. We only have 3 grocery stores in the entire county including Walmart. So many DG that one day I think we will find the rural countryside littered with empty buildings that used to be Dollar Generals because they are over expanding and a better option will come along. The buildings probably won't be empty, they will be converted to churches because that is what happens to all empty buildings around her eventually. But I digress...

Personally, I don't like Dollar General because they are cluttered and I don't think you get a better price. I have a friend though who disagrees about the price and she loves her Dollar General because it is close by and she has mobility issues. She can get what she wants there with less walking than going to a regular grocery store. She loathes Walmart, the other most popular shopping option in our area.

We have 1 Dollar Tree which sells everything for $1. I was in there a few days ago to get some drawer organizers for my craft room. I go once a month or so when I need something odd that I know will be cheaper than Walmart. I even do a gelliprinting video using items you find at the dollar store. It's been one of my most popular videos.

I did think the last time I was in there that I bet people actually spend more buying small boxes of trash bags and plastic wrap for $1 rather than going to a grocery store and getting a larger box.

I can see the benefit of having a store close by but the selections are limited. It seems to me if these stores capture the market in their communities, they can then raise prices on people who can least afford it.

There are like 6 of them/variations of them here in our tiny community. I was shocked at the number of them when we moved back here about 5 years ago. And another one just opened up last week. I am shocked they are doing that much business here.

I think much more effort needs to be expended on educating people when they are younger about basic food preparation, basic car knowledge, basic finances. Very few of us need to know algebra in real life, but we all need to understand interest rates, credit cards, bank fees, nutrition, and how to prepare a basic meal or how to read a recipe.

In my experience, most people do not know how to prepare basic or slightly beyond basic meals. Their parents did not teach them and in many cases, their parents' parents did not teach either. People are also inclined to think -- for whatever reason -- that all food has equal nutritional value. As a small example, I was trying to explain to a mother -- who has a college education -- that pickles do NOT have the same nutritional value as other fruits and vegetables. She was convinced of it because her mother had told her that when she was a kid. She also thought hot dogs four times a week was just as good as grilled chicken or beef -- "it's all meat, what's the difference?"

We end up throwing milk away almost every week because the 2 adults are low carb, one teen is health conscience in that he doesn't eat dry cereal any more then once a week, and my daughter doesn't drink milk other then in her dry cereal. So the 1 dollar pints are so much better for my family.

Running a tab is not good.

My father in law is at the point that he can’t buy a whole gallon of milk because he can’t lift it. Smaller sizes in grocery stores should not mean bigger prices.