

The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business - linhir
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/the-dollar-store-economy.html?&pagewanted=all

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ahi
About 10 years ago I worked the register at a Dollar Tree store for exactly 1
six hour shift. I almost didn't go back to pick up my paycheck it was so bad.
The customer base of these stores is very very sad. For every artist that's
browsing for materials and inspiration there are a thousand little old ladies
buying shit they don't need with money they don't have.

And for the most part it is shit. The food is too suspect to feed to my pets,
and the consumer goods are notional facsimiles of real products. Like the Wow
brand ShamWow, or the dish rag that won't make it through a wash cycle, or the
Nerf gun knockoff that doesn't have any moving parts. None of this stuff is
worth lifting off the shelf, let alone paying a dollar for.

I spent 6 hours of punching 1 dollar, 1 dollar, 1 dollar pondering over the
people bringing this garbage to my counter, demanding indestructible plastic
cups be wrapped in a dollars worth of tissue paper, repeatedly asking how much
products cost as if they had not yet noticed they were in a dollar store. "How
did this 70 year old woman decide today was the day she needed 20 slightly
deformed acrylic cups? Has she been cupless all this time? And why return 2
hours later to get a dozen fake flowers?" I think I attributed that hollow
feeling in the pit of my stomach to some concern that all these fools were
being had, or perhaps that I was contributing to their hoarding illness.

The dread I felt was spot on, but the attribution was faulty. These people are
not fools. The products they buy aren't fake but symbolic. They brought these
offerings to my altar so that I might perform the "glassware" wrapping and
price-check rituals of consumerism. I thought I was taking a job working a
register, when I was really stepping behind the altar to become the liturgist
of the Enfield congregation of the Dollar Tree denomination of Consumerism.

I have never been much of a devotee of the Consumer way of life, and the
Dollar Tree denomination is the snake handling denomination of Consumerism.
The products in a Walmart or Target could conceivably fill someone's need or
desire. I doubt that much of what they sell is sold to fulfill practical wants
and needs--their congregation of faithful parishioners who come to worship and
trample every Black Friday for the year's must have electronic gadget attend
regularly on a more distributed schedule throughout the year as well. But
there is still a semblance of shame in the Walmart and Target version of idol
worship. Your car floormats are a little dusty and the ones with the really
rad flames on them just happen to be on sale! Outside the dollar store we're
not quite ready to honestly confront what we believe in, who we are. At 16,
with the quickly fading inoculation of an upbringing in the values of
Presbyterianism, hard work, and education I was certainly not ready to deal
with what I found in that Dollar Tree.

~~~
naner
_"How did this 70 year old woman decide today was the day she needed 20
slightly deformed acrylic cups? Has she been cupless all this time? And why
return 2 hours later to get a dozen fake flowers?" I think I attributed that
hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach to some concern that all these fools
were being had, or perhaps that I was contributing to their hoarding illness._

Maybe she was just lonely or bored and needed errands to run. I volunteered to
teach some basic computer stuff 1-on-1 at a 50+ organization and frequently
the people there didn't care about actually picking up the skills, they just
wanted someone to talk to.

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aninteger
People saving money are using coupons (I mean old fashioned coupons in
newspapers like P&G Brandsaver). For example, lets say you need bleach, and
you have a coupon for 50 cents off. You'll wait til Target/Walmart has bleach
on sale for 50% off, then purchase it with the coupon as well. You can
sometimes get bottles of bleach for 25c or sometimes free. My family does
this, so don't tell me it doesn't work :)

Most of the dollar stores do not accept coupons (Dollar Tree definitely does
not)

~~~
stonemetal
How often does the Dollar Tree sell things that you could actually find a
coupon for? Around here at least the overlap between items in the dollar store
and items that have enough of a brand name to print coupons is zero or
indistinguishable from it.

~~~
aninteger
The article mentioned bleach as a product that is in both stores so that's
what I was using for my example. I haven't been inside a $1 store in a while
so maybe the difference is that the $1 store doesn't carry Clorox while the
Walmart/Targets of the world do.

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ctdonath
A "dollar store" story:
[http://www.neardeathexperiments.com/smf/index.php?topic=1966...](http://www.neardeathexperiments.com/smf/index.php?topic=1966.0)

Short version: on a casual challenge, I assembled a camping/survival ("bug out
bag") kit from a dollar store with just $15.

Fun when a store has a broad range of stuff and one wonders "what can I do
with pocket change here?"

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ferran411
I can not speak for other dollar stores but please let me educate you on how
Dollar Tree manages their corporate chain.

First off there should never be an expired item in the store. If by chance you
happen to come across an expired item, by making an employee or manager aware
the item will be removed from the shelves immediately.

Secondly if you look closely at many of the products in the store you will
find brand names to be different but the manufactures to be fairly well known.
Americans tend to buy known brand names, thanks to advertising. Ask anyone who
works in a packaging and labeling factory and they will tell you they label
the same product with multiple different branding labels.

With that said my final point. Many company's have to much product, Dollar
Tree corporate finds these companies and offers to buy all of their over head
that would otherwise go spoiled or unsold at less than 48 cents on the unit. A
prime example is Chicken of the Sea tuna which is owned by Van Camp's, however
in Dollar Tree it is simply labeled Van Camp's (same great tuna just a
different label and 20 cents cheaper).

Items will only be thrown in the dumpster if they're damaged or expired.
Otherwise they're sent to another branch location for sale if it doesn't sell
well.

Sure Dollar Tree deals with mass production companies located in china and
other "cheap labor" parts of the world, so does the rest of the big boys in
the S&P 500.

In my community Dollar Tree is the only company that hasn't frozen wages,
still offers competitive wages, and offers decent employee benefits. I do not
work for Dollar Tree nor am I affiliated with them in anyway, I currently work
for the black hole A&P.

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forgotAgain
_All around, the stacks of products and aisles of merchandise screamed a
technicolor siren song._

To me it screamed lots of overpriced cheap junk. Seriously, these stores are
overpriced for the merchandise they sell.

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seagaia
Always nice to see that friendliness can go a long way for smaller local
places, that aren't necessarily restaurants.

Of course, not all dollar stores are created equal. There are some nice ones,
but also "soul-less" ones that just sell complete, Toys-R-Us bargain bin junk
that no one would enjoy...

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Tichy
I must admit I always worry about toxic chemicals in the cheap plastic stuff
from dollar stores. Probably I am too paranoid, but that is the way it is for
now.

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stonemetal
Wow, is it the fact checking department's day off? I mean they actually
interviewed the president of Dollar General and yet they haven't figured out
the fact that Dollar General is not a dollar store. Guess what Family Dollar
is not a Dollar Store either.

~~~
Goladus
I'm not sure there are any true "dollar stores" any more in the sense that
"Everything is one dollar." However the stores evolved from the original
gimmick are still called dollar stores even if the strict definition no longer
applies.

~~~
athom
I remember when you'd still hear people refer to _dime_ stores, though I'm
pretty sure the term was obsolete well before my time.

~~~
kevinpet
There's a "five and ten" store in Palo Alto, but it's $5 and $10.

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georgieporgie
100 Yen shops are everywhere in Japan. I was amazed at how much I began to
depend on them. Craft supplies and costumes for Halloween, snacks, towels,
etc. If I used it every day, and it wasn't clothes or food, I probably bought
it at a 100 Yen shop.

<http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2077.html>

~~~
chc
IIRC, 100en stores are a lot more legit than their American counterparts. Same
thing with convenience stores. In America, even the poor are reluctant to
visit dollar stores because the wares are so sketchy. But all my Japanese
friends were avid devotees of the 100en store and combini.

~~~
joshu
There is a Japanese dollar store here in mountain view called Daiso and it is
great.

~~~
rdouble
Ichiban-Kan in SF is pretty good, too.

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EwanG
All very interesting, but it sounds like one thing this area is missing are
the apps and social media links that might help grow the 22% part of their
audience into an even larger share. I presume there are folks on here who
could help fix that :-)

~~~
EwanG
Sorry, but why the Downvotes? I'm quite serious that some apps that would make
it easier for you to find Dollar Stores near you - or better yet that would
show you who has what in stock would help the adoption of shopping there by
folks who have grown accustomed to those kinds of things where they have been
shopping. I could also imagine an app that would let you scan in what is on
sale there, and link you to articles like the one mentioned in the opener to
make the "alien" lamp.

~~~
megablast
I am pretty sure there are apps out there that do this already. Also, dollar
store goers are probably not the biggest users of apps or smartphones.
Generally.

~~~
EwanG
But the article pointed out that 22% of the dollar store audience is now
people making over $70K - and that was what I was referring to.

