Comment on Dollar Stores: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 7 months agoThey’re “cheaper” as in “you walk out the door generally having spent less money”, but they are absolutely FAR more expensive in terms of how much you pay per quantity/volume of products purchased.
It’s a chain that’s specifically designed to predate on poor people. The business model is “separating poor people from their money by making them a shitty offer that they can’t really refuse”.
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.
I can buy $5 worth of cleaning supplies to tidy up a temporary space. Broom, mop, detergent.
The supermarket - a broom is $10.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
You’re not getting what I’m saying.
I’m not talking about how there are a small handful of reasonable use cases as a customer that make sense at Dollar General.
What I’m pointing out is that they’re intentionally nickel-and-diming poor people on cost-of-goods. If you compare pretty much anything Dollar General sells to the same thing at Costco (or, even better, the Kirkland brand stuff, which is generally at least as good AND less expensive), you’re going to be paying a LOT more per weight/volume/unit at DG.
Their business plan is to go into economically-depressed areas, undercut EVERY OTHER STORE IN THE AREA and force them to close, and then they can do literally whatever they want because they’ve cornered the market by driving the competition into the ground. And they use that monopoly to exploit poor people.
It’s super fucked up, and their business model has a demonstrably negative socioeconomic impact on areas that are already struggling socioeconomically.
Dollar General very, very genuinely needs to die.
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 7 months ago
That’s fair. I agree.
The stuff from these stores do not have a shelf life, you’re absolutely right. That broom example, maybe last 3 uses before it’s tossed.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
And therein lies another aspect of why DG is horrible: not only do they push stores that sell non-consumables out of business, but also grocers.
In terms of foodstuffs, DG pretty much only sells low-quality and -nutrition groceries with extremely long shelf lives, like chips, bottled drinks, snacks, sometimes some crappy frozen stuff squirreled away somewhere - you know: junk food. No fresh meat, poultry, fish, fruits, or vegetables, ever. So not only does DG exacerbate socioeconomic issues in poor area, but they also exacerbate and create health problems in low-income populations that they serve, because they push all the stores that sell any food or groceries of reasonable quality out of business.
This is the second gilded age.