Comment by shagmin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by shagmin | Hacker News Reader

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I don't think Dollar General is the bad guy so much as a symptom of a problem. As it is, they're often in low income areas and have a high markup. Grocery stores have low margins that prevent them from entering these markets (hence food deserts). Dollar General fills that niche - but as a result low income people who already spend a disproportionate amount of their income on groceries have to pay that higher markup as well. Meanwhile I can go to Trader Joe's or something and get much better stuff, cheaper too.

I remember living in a rural area where people couldn't afford a car, but could walk to a gas station and pay 3x the prices on everything compared to if they bought everything at grocery store - it just helps keep them poor. And often, I think people see "dollar" in the name, and think that automatically means cheap, but being poor doesn't mean being financially literate.

If people weren't segregated into rich areas | poor areas, or maybe grocery stores found some other way to be profitable in low income areas, or some other thing, this wouldn't be such a problem. But as it is right now, they are filling a need, granted with negative side effects.

Edit: I realize the article focuses more on Dollar Generals causing food desserts, rather than being a response to them. Guess I'm focusing on more what I've seen.

outside of 'food deserts', there may be other factors people shop at DG. There's one a block from my office, and I drop in there now and then to get stuff (snacks, or light bulbs, or whatever). Almost every time I'm in there, I'll see an older person doing what seems to be a weekly shop (or more) - they'll ring up $70+ of stuff - canned/packaged foods. Clearly stuff for meals. They then get in to a taxi or rideshare car and are driven away.

.7 miles from here - in a more convenient area to drive to, is a Lidl, with everything that person bought about 40% cheaper. 1 mile away there's a Wegmans. 1.4 miles away there's Target, Lowes, and Harris Teeter. All just as accessible via taxi/uber as this DG.

The only real thing I can think of in DG's favor is it's very easy in/out - there's 2 counters, no self-checkout, the store is small itself. Just walking around to find what you want in those other stores would take 3-4x as long as hitting the 6 aisles in DG.

But... they're paying a terribly high price for that little bit of convenience. There's been a couple of times I've wanted to tell that person "hey, you can save $20 or more by driving another 3 minutes down the street" but I doubt it would be welcomed. I can't think of a way to intrude that isn't intrusive or patronizing. :/

It's really hard to spend $70 at a real grocery store, isn't it? I feel like just a small number of items suddenly you're $100+. You certainly can't buy $1 batteries or light bulbs.

Granted, I'm shopping for myself, but buying goods for only a week or two out I don't feel like I spend $70.

If you go to a bulk store like Costco it certainly adds up. I don't go to those places because I can never use the stuff up fast enough before it goes bad.

Costco is a great place to buy non-perishables, dry goods, and stuff you can freeze the excess of. I agree it's hard to eat the fresh stuff but then again I don't have a family.

If I had the room for it it might make more sense, but alas I live in an apartment and can't store 12 paper towel rolls.

Good trick I learned while living the urban life was a highly raised bed, under the bed is super useful for storage space for things like extra paper towels.

> I can't think of a way to intrude that isn't intrusive or patronizing. :/

Because it is, people can spend their money however they like and they can value convenience or have any other reason to shop there. Also being old doesn't make them incapable of deciding where to shop.

when you see someone being told "this is $76" and they only have $70, and they have to decide - while I'm waiting behind them - what to put back... the thought of telling them "it's 40% cheaper 1 mile from here" crosses my mind. This exact scenario has played out in front of me 3 times in 2021.

And they tell you that they went there but the parking lot is too big, the carriages are too hard to push, they can't really stand in line a lot because their knee hurts them, and more.

I don't think people understand that sometimes your body makes savings not a savings. You don't miss good health till its gone, or the ability to do things with it.

Strike up a conversation. People do like talking about where to shop for the best bargains. "Hey, does this place have a good deal on X? I usually buy that at Lidl."

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