
Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America - devy
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/13/dollar-general-walmart-buhler-haven-kansas
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sj4nz
Just walked through a Dollar General store today while waiting for lunch. They
make Big Lots stores feel like Nordstrom.

If you are struggling I can see the appeal of the "low prices" but the value
of what you can get there isn't so great.

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Fjolsvith
True, also the packaging is slightly smaller than in regular stores. E.g.: 7
oz cans instead of 8 oz cans. But the price is just enough less than the 8 oz
size price to make the consumer feel they are getting a good deal.

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Waterluvian
Is rural America declining, or simply not improving the way the rest of
America is in the last 100 or so years?

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sj4nz
America is developing in exactly the way the systems we like to use dictate
they should grow.

Here it is a transportation issue--in the opposite way you might think. Older
towns in the mid-west are spaced apart roughly 6-miles because you would only
be able to travel by horse about 20-miles in a day. Naturally, you would want
to be able to do "things" in the next town so you don't travel the entire day
just to turn around and go back home. So, towns spread out about 6-miles and
slowly grow. Bigger towns grew faster and smaller towns stayed the way they
are. Bring in interstates and railroads and suddenly some towns, if they had
nothing "going for them" never grow again or shrink--they're completely
bypassed.

People leave town for the opportunities, so opportunities have little need for
these towns except for the occasional externality: e.g. a massive chicken
processing or pet-food rendering plant no one wants to live near.

Dollar General has found a dirt-easy strategy and picks up this easy money
because this is essentially a structural problem with people who have tied
themselves too closely to the land and governments that can't solve their
problems.

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Fjolsvith
Its only a problem for the low income to welfare range of folk. People who
have a better income usually have transportation and use it to shop in bigger
cities where the savings pays for the trip. Also, the trip doubles as a social
outing, where the folk eat out, go to a movie, etc.

