This is why you need to get the government out of business. They shouldn't be choosing what stores are built where nor should they be giving certain businesses tax breaks over others.
A question the article doesn't explore is what effect government policies and actions at higher levels (county, state, federal) have on the ability of a large chain like Dollar General to drive out local competitors. It might well be that getting government out of business, in the sense of stopping it from playing favorites, at those higher levels would be a net benefit.
Government has a place in prescribing how business is conducted. Without local government zoning for businesses your cities would be pretty shitty places to live. Light or heavy touch is the contentious point.
The bigger problem is that businesses by and large control America. Sort that problem out, complaining about government pushing business around is laughable.
Dollar General asks for a tax break and says they won't build a store if they don't get one, and the government can either accept or refuse. It's not clear to me how you can prevent this situation, short of passing a law at the state or federal level that forbids municipalities from offering tax breaks. (Which I actually think the government should do, to prevent races to the bottom, but that would by definition mean more state/federal control over local tax policy, and is not likely to be popular.)
Please think for a minute before you post comments like "This is why you need to get the government out of business." They're so easy to make that often people post them before realizing they don't make any sense.
Then while Dollar General wouldn't get any sort of tax break for building in a town, nothing could stop them either. Buhler wouldn't have been able to reject the store.