How Dollar Stores Quietly Consumed America
Wendover Productions2 HN recommenders · 2023–2025
4.2M views · explainer · dated · Uploaded 2023-09-07
A Wendover Productions video on how dollar store chains expanded across America and why they displace grocery stores in small towns. It covers their business model and supplier leverage.
Offered as a good explanation of the business of dollar stores and how they affect local grocers.
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4 comments from Hacker News
> There is nothing inevitable about the dollar store putting the grocer out of business. I recently came across this, and I think it does a good job explaining the problem: [VIDEO]
> Their cost structure nickel and dimes the consumer so much that by the time you get to the destination you may have paid more for a much less comfortable trip That lends more credence to the comparison against Dollar General and similar discount stores. Dollar stores generally charge a higher price relative to quantity, but they offer smaller quantities than big box stores which allows their customers to spend less (but also get a lot less). Wendover on YouTube did a video on this recently [0]. [0] [VIDEO]
A couple of good videos about the business of dollar stores with similar takes: [LINK] (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) [VIDEO] (Wendover Productions)
There's a minute or two in this video(1) about DG from Wendover Productions last year that discusses this. Apparently they're so powerful they can get better deals from suppliers than Walmart and even get custom SKUs ($1 sizes of Tide Detergent, for example) from them to be the product on shelves in DG. Kinda crazy. 1) [VIDEO]