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The Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun (citylab.com)
The U.S. has added 10,000 of these budget retail outlets since 2001. But some towns and cities are trying to push back. From a report: A recent research brief [PDF] by the Institute of Local Self Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit supporting local economies, sheds light on the massive growth of this budget enterprise. Since 2001, outlets of Dollar General and Dollar Tree (which bought Family Dollar in 2015) have grown from 20,000 to 30,000 in number. Though these "small-box" retailers carry only a limited stock of prepared foods, they're now feeding more people than grocery chains like Whole Foods, which has around 400-plus outlets in the country. In fact, the number of dollar-store outlets nationwide exceeds that of Walmart and McDonalds put together -- and they're still growing at a breakneck pace. That, ILSR says, is bad news. "While dollar stores sometimes fill a need in cash-strapped communities, growing evidence suggests these stores are not merely a byproduct of economic distress," the authors of the brief write. "They're a cause of it."
Dollar stores have succeeded in part by capitalizing on a series of powerful economic and social forces -- white flight, the recent recession, the so-called "retail apocalypse" -- all of which have opened up gaping holes in food access. But while dollar store might not be causing these inequalities per se, they appear to be perpetuating them. The savings they claim to offer shoppers in the communities they move to makes them, in some ways, a little poorer. Using code made public by Jerry Shannon, a geographer at University of Georgia, CityLab made a map showing the spread of dollar stores since the recession.
Dollar stores have succeeded in part by capitalizing on a series of powerful economic and social forces -- white flight, the recent recession, the so-called "retail apocalypse" -- all of which have opened up gaping holes in food access. But while dollar store might not be causing these inequalities per se, they appear to be perpetuating them. The savings they claim to offer shoppers in the communities they move to makes them, in some ways, a little poorer. Using code made public by Jerry Shannon, a geographer at University of Georgia, CityLab made a map showing the spread of dollar stores since the recession.
I live in remote rural Appalachia. The last couple of years have seen an influx of Dollar General stores al over the region. They have opened in isolated communities that had NOTHING. Not even a place to buy a coke or a pack of gum. At Dollar General you can buy household supplies, clothes, food, all sorts of things that make life easier, far easier than driving 50 miles to a Walmart.
This article is myopic and is only concerned with ghetto people who might live 5 miles from a decent grocery store. Try living 50 miles from one and see if Dollar General is a problem. To folks around here it is welcome and improves quality of life.
Listen - cheap goods aren't a magic bullet cause of economic stress.
If I made a farming robot that grew a variety of high quality food for $0.05 a kilogram, and sold it to people for $0.07 a kilogram, it would mean that a lot of folks would be spending less money - and I might even put some types of business out of a market niche - but that does NOT have to cause mass poverty.
Rather, it causes a limited market failure. Market failures are where the ideals of 'free markets' break down - because they tend to happen when there isn't any room for incentives left.
I'd say this is ideally where the basic role of government lies. Government in this case meaning a group of people that decides common shared action for their mutual shared benefit.
When goods are too cheap for markets to pay people a living wage to have them on market - that makes it a perfect role for a government to play, to literally share the burden of, for instance, making sure that no one starves from neglect, or is unable to live productive lives for not benefiting a company enough.
Those flaws are 'externalities' to a corporate mindset, but the whole reason we work together as human beings outside that mindset.
Being able to produce practically endless amounts of good quality cheap food is a legitimate cause for real celebration - I don't find the argument that because it can also cause limited market failure to be a flaw.
Back in time, corporations were things that often existed for a limited time to serve a common community need, which were then dissolved when that need was met - it's why we still have corporate charters on them.. I think that may have been a healthier way to view that balance.
I mean, we've been taxing folks to keep farms alive for generations now - it's a legitimate logical problem letting market forces eliminate our agricultural infrastructure. Basically every part of society still has some aspects of it that supersede some market ideal - no matter how capitalist we idealize ourselves to be.
Ryan Fenton