High food and gasoline prices are impacting where and how people across the nation are shopping for food.
As a result, some customers at a Dollar General store in North Central Florida are buying more and more of their groceries from the local discount outlet, cashiers at the business told The Epoch Times.
The high cost of gas “makes trips to town expensive,” said one store worker.
A cashier said shoppers are purchasing only enough groceries to last two or three days.
“It’s almost like a pay-as-you-go—maybe they don’t have the money to put it all out at once” to buy food for longer than that, said one clerk.
According to store employees, the most popular items sold are eggs, bread, lunchmeat, frozen dinners, and frozen vegetables.
“Oh, the eggs! Don’t let us run out of eggs! We'll hear about it if we run out of eggs,” said a cashier.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the price of eggs is up 55 percent over this time last year.
Dollar General says its mission is to “serve as America’s neighborhood general store … offering high-quality private brands alongside” nationally known and respected name-brand food, beverage, and household products at affordable prices.
Growing Food Sales
A survey of 50,000 households by the American Public Health Association found that between 2008 and 2020, dollar stores were already capturing the lion’s share of new growth in family food spending making them, by that narrow measurement, the fastest-growing food retailers in the nation.And the trend appears to be accelerating as inflation rages.
To keep things in proper perspective, the study also said that despite strong growth, the dollar store share of the total grocery spending by American households was just over two percent.
Dollar Stores Opening Every Day
Nationally, there were more than 35,000 dollar store locations in 2021, with 1,000 new ones opening every year.The industry is dominated by Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which also owns Family Dollar. The two retail giants each command about half the market.
The rapid increase in the number of new dollar stores may also be contributing to the jump in the aggregate total of their corporate grocery sales.
Price and Convenience
A 2021 survey revealed that the most common reason why customers shop at a dollar store was the availability of less expensive items.The second most common reason was convenience.
Respondents to the survey said the things they bought the most were non-food items like paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and other housekeeping goods, as well as holiday and party decorations.
Larry Hulbert of Seattle, Washington, stopped at a Family Dollar in Cornville, Arizona, to pick up a few items he needed on the fly.
“It’s a convenience,” he said, though he doesn’t shop at dollar stores often, even with inflation. “It’s the basic stuff that would be a fast turnaround that I can grab.”
Cornville resident Jane B. comes to the dollar store about once a month.
“When I lived on this side of the creek, I came more often,” she told The Epoch Times.
The draw for her is “anything lower in price” that she needs like dog food, treats, and locally produced eggs.
“It’s like a little grocery store,” she said.
Another Cornville woman said more people are using the Family Dollar for necessities because the prices are lower than in the supermarkets.
“I buy a lot of stuff here because they have a lot of cheaper stuff.”
Motorcyclist Mike Drunner said that due to inflation the dollar stores are not the bargain they used to be, “but it’s close.”
Shopper Brian Richardson told The Epoch Times that he stops at the Dollar General in Lavon, Texas, about 20 times per month for milk, bread, laundry detergent, paper towels, and trash bags.
He said he is doing many things to stretch his grocery budget.
Another Lavon-area resident, Maria Passons, comes to the dollar store to get deals on soda and coffee.
She warned that no matter the store, people need to be careful to compare prices because some items can be expensive even at a discount store.
Store manager Lekrisha Campbell said sales have increased tremendously over the past year, partly because people are looking for ways to save money and partly because of population growth.
When asked what sells best at the store, she answered, “Food. It’s mostly everything. Snacks, drinks, and pantry items.”
‘Mom and Pop’ Stores Squeezed Out
A Michigan homemaker told The Epoch Times she visits a dollar store about once a week because of “price and convenience.”She shops in several area dollar stores for non-food items such as kitchen utensils, napkins, cleaning supplies, greeting cards, and holiday decorations.
“For my purposes, groceries are purchased at major supermarkets where I can find better prices and variety.
“I’d prefer to support locally owned, independent, stores if their prices are affordable. The problem is there aren’t many left because of the coming of the big-box superstores into our small towns and the dollar store chains into our rural areas,” she said.
