Interesting Facts of the Day: Dollar Stores
1. The combined store count of the four dollar store chains— a total of 21,500 (consisting of 9,600 Dollar Generals, 4,200 Dollar Trees, 6,800 Family Dollars, and 285 99¢ Cent Only Stores)—now exceeds the combined store count of the three national drugstore chains (19,700 for CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid).
2. There are 2.5 times as many Dollar Generals in the U.S. (9,600) as Walmarts (3,858), and both Dollar Tree (4,200) and Family Dollar (6,800) have more stores than Walmart.
3. There are 5.6 dollar stores in the U.S. for every one Walmart.
8 Comments:
So, the natural follow-up question is this: what does this mean?
I'll head-off the stupid response by saying it now: This perpetuates poverty. This reasoning is stupid. Let's move on.
You never have to ask for a price check at the 99 cent only stores.
I don't know if the "Everything's a Dollar" stores exist anymore. I remember being in one a number of years ago. The cashiers had a periodic routine where one of them would ask for a price check, and the others would holler out "Everything's a Dollar!" I don't know if this was something at this one store or a gimmick they did in the entire chain. It was amusing, though.
My interesting fact: In my area, we have more charity-run thrift stores than dollar stores. 5 v 2.
As a happy shareholder of Dollar Tree common stock, I continue to marvel at the strength of their business model.
Their products are currently offered 100% at the $1.00 dollar price point and they add hundreds of new products each and every year. They sell about 6 Billion items and/or dollars annually. That is approximately 20 items for each man woman and child in the USA. For a couple of decades they have been able to maintain the $1.00 price point and the product makers/suppliers have been able to find ways to lower their costs.
Deflation of commodity items always prevails over long periods of time in almost any type of a free market.
What amazes me that many of these products leave their country of origin at a cost of about 30 cents. These items are factory produced in fully automated and fully depreciated factories. The raw materials are almost the only variable cost so there is still some margin for the producer.
Get over it... We have too much stuff and it gets cheaper by the moment.
Contrary to Mr. Murphy's assertion that this leads to poverty, the opposite is true. Poor Americans have access to a wide range of products at an affordable price. Those products are cheaper and better made each and every year.
Just like the Hair Club for men; not only am I shareholder, but I also shop at these stores regularly. I think my personal purchases more than offset twenty of the aforementioned American Shoppers that never enter one of these stores. Try it... you'll like it...
Contrary to Mr. Murphy's assertion that this leads to poverty, the opposite is true.
For the record, that's not my assertion, but rather those who are clueless. I agree with you 100%.
Well, these numbers really are based upon which Walmart locations you are including in your number. There are FAR more than what's reported here.
Erika: I have a link to Walmart's website in the post, where they report the number of stores operating in the U.S. at 3,858.
Post a Comment
<< Home