Deal or no deal? The expansion of Dollar Stores

you've seen them dollar stores dot the landscape they offer bargains to be sure but overall are they a deal or no deal a question which helps explain why Fort Worth passed new restrictions on them just this past week our cover story is reported by alison aubrey of national public radio movel iowa is part of the nation's breadbasket so it's a bit of a surprise that it's not easy to buy fresh food in this town of 1600 in 2016 the discount retailer Dollar General opened next door to the local grocer when Dollar General first come in right away we our business probably dropped 15 20 percent Chuck Davis is still in the grocery business but he says his mobile location just could not compete it's one example in a nationwide controversy about the increasing influence dollar stores can have not only on where we shop but also on what we eat Mobile's Dollar General does not sell fresh fruits or vegetables or meats but it does have lower prices on just about everything else some people might look at this situation and say dollar stores are selling what people want at cheap prices that's competition competition that's good but we're not we're not talking competition where we're on an even playing field so that the volume that they buy you're under their table with the grocery closed most of móvel now drives thirty minutes to Sioux City for a head of lettuce and down the road in Correctionville the local grocers also closed after Dollar General opened there too in this struggle between Main Street and corporate America the concern was once Walmart in town after small town Main Street is going out of business stunned by a huge and controversial discount retailer shopkeepers call The Merchant of death today the focus is on Dollar Stores consider this there are now more dollar stores in the US than Starbucks and McDonald's combined 30 thousand of them as many brick-and-mortar retailers struggle dollar stores have quietly expanded to nearly every town in America and bargain hunters love them I'm just delighted I'll get happy every time I come here I feel like Oh somebody's gonna change the price any minute now there are three major chains Family Dollar located mostly in cities Dollar Tree the only store where everything is actually a dollar and dollar general now the largest retailer in the country when it comes to the number of stores 16,000 our stores have that option available to be able to run in get it and really get out I'm looking over your shoulder here these cards two for a dollar absolutely ting carts two for a dollar dollar general spokesperson Crystal Kissimmee says they've added a thousand new stores over just the last year our core customer has about a forty thousand dollar or less total household income and we know that they are shopping us from very rural areas to metropolitan areas all over the country in many communities the dollar store is a real asset a convenient place to grab detergent or batteries but in some small towns and urban areas the dollar store is also the closest thing to a grocery store and this can be a problem if you could talk to the executives of Dollar Stores what would you say to them shame on you you're killing America just so you can get richer Wow that's a pretty strong statement they have a model that is a brilliant model to make quick bucks off the backs of our health for years Barry Popkin has warned Americans about the dangers of too much sugar and soda now the professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is concerned about dollar stores they're adding a thousand a year at time when poor diets are linked to nearly 900 deaths a day in this country Popkin says look at what dollar stores sell rows and rows of sugary drinks candies and processed foods high in salt and fat increases their risk of heart disease mortality cancer mortality diabetes obesity this is the worst food that can be bought eating so is this exacerbating the health problems of the demographic that's shopping there yes it's adding to the health crisis that that that lower-income America faces and that's black Hispanic and white America all shop in these stores considered to cab County Georgia near Atlanta how many dollar stores do you have here in DeKalb County currently we have a total of 68 Family Dollar Dollar Tree in Dollar General Stores within this district county commissioner Lorraine Cochran Johnson says 25 percent of people in DeKalb County live in a food desert that's a low-income area with limited access to supermarkets she worries there are just too many dollar stores in these neighborhoods they tend to highly saturate areas when you look at the pattern of growth of the dollar store as well as the areas that have the highest levels of obesity hypertension high blood pressure there is a direct correlation you see that in your data we see that in the data that's one reason why Fort Worth Tulsa Birmingham New Orleans and Kansas City among others have already passed restrictions on where new dollar stores can open and as you might imagine dollar stores oppose these measures ultimately when you stifle competition the customer hurts the most and I think it gives us an opportunity to provide economic impact through jobs and to be able to really help the communities as for the impact the stores have on what we eat the big three chains say they're not grocery stores but dollar generals crystal Kissimmee says their stores do offer healthy options so we've got frozen vegetables we have all-natural chicken from Tyson so the healthy options sort of sit side by side with them really not as healthy I haven't items there's curly fries underneath the broccoli cuts there's breaded butterfly shrimp it goes back to the customer's choice to be able to make their decision and we have the options that should they want to be able to eat healthfully they can do so with dollar generals help Dollar General is adding fresh produce to some of its stores but so far that's only 3% as for its competition Dollar Tree which also owns Family Dollar the company declined our request for an interview but in a statement points out they quote complement and operate side-by-side with grocery stores back in western Iowa grocer Chuck Davis has one last store open in the town of Kingsley but it's unclear for how long Dollar General is building a new location here too are you worried oh definitely you are essentially asking people to come into your store and pay a little extra so that you can stay in business is that a hard sell for people in your community oh that's definitely a hard sell because everybody is trying to save some money it's up to the people of the community to really think hard and decide what they want it's it's completely up to them

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 304,109

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, business, economy, dollar stores, money

Id: GtAvJBAJfnE

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 08 2019