Dollar General conquered rural America. Now it’s eying on grocery and home goods.
3 min readDec 7, 2022
Despite short-term profitability issues, Dollar General’s transformation into grocery and home goods is moving forward.
What to know
In the last two decades, Dollar General spread like wildfire throughout America. It’s used a basic strategy to transform itself from a mid-south operator into the 17th largest retailer in America.
- Lower real estate costs by never buying and always leasing small-footprint stores.
- Simplify inventory and purchasing power by only carrying 10–12,000 items-most of which are shelf stable.
- Lure shoppers in with low absolute cost while maintaining big margins through high unit costs.
- Lower operating costs by underpaying and understaffing stores.
- Avoid big-name competition by locating stores in rural areas where even Walmart won’t go.
In 2013 revenues at the Tennessee-based retailer neared $16 billion. In 2022, the company crossed $35 billion in annual income, doubling its revenue in under a decade. In that same period, Dollar General added around 6,500 stores to its footprint-with many more to come.
