[HN Gopher] The economics of dollar stores
___________________________________________________________________
The economics of dollar stores
Author : pseudolus
Score : 233 points
Date : 2021-06-27 10:54 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thehustle.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (thehustle.co)
| brudgers wrote:
| To know me is to know I am cheap. All dollar stores are not
| equal.
|
| Everything in DollarTree is $1.00. That's not the case with the
| other two big chains. Not by a long shot.
|
| A few weeks ago I was thinking about DollarTree economics as I
| drove down the Susquehanna Valley.
|
| Seems like it collects pretty valuable data about consumer
| preference and demand in the absence of differential pricing.
| Campbells condensed Chicken Noodle or Tomato? One eight inch
| chef's knife or one six inch knife or two four inch knifes?
|
| When I buy a knife and a can of soup and three picture frames,
| that combination is informative for merchandising a Kroger or a
| Walmart. There's a long play there.
|
| Particularly because I might use a credit card.
|
| Dollar General and Family Dollar are traditional retailers with
| no aversion to gouging the locals. They are slightly larger gas
| station convenience stores without the environmental problems of
| gas tanks and the real-estate expenses of space for pumps and
| busy corner locations.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| So if I can summarize the article, the economics of dollar stores
| are "sell things for more than it cost to buy them".
|
| I mean, it seemed like the article wanted to have some nefarious
| take, but offering smaller quantities of items so people can
| afford them, even if the per-unit cost is higher, doesn't seem
| like some unexpected malicious intent. I mean, I certainly expect
| to pay more per gram if I'm buying a travel size of toothpaste
| vs. the 4 megatube family pack at Costco.
|
| And the fact that the stores are oriented so the popular items
| are in the back - just like literally every grocery store in the
| country - is also unsurprising.
| krm01 wrote:
| I too was under the impression that there was some kind of
| clever way these shops operate, based on the title. But the
| economics are exactly like any other shop.
| ghayes wrote:
| There's a good Planet Money on this from NPR. They imply that
| the real profit is from not stocking fresh goods and other
| items that 1) spoil, 2) have lower margins and 3) require
| employees to constantly restock. So they basically sell high-
| margin goods (negotiated in bulk) with absolute minimum
| costs. That's it.
|
| [0] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/26/717665452/e
| pis...
| myself248 wrote:
| I haven't RTFA, but it's always struck me as funny that some
| of the items at the dollar store are 49C/ at the big box.
| Stuff like hose clamps comes to mind. You can get quite
| ripped off if you let yourself think "dollar = cheaper than
| everywhere else".
| amelius wrote:
| Yeah, but the article provides relevant numbers.
| grae_QED wrote:
| I feel the same way. It feels like the article has some anti-
| capitalism undertones. They are clearly trying to vilify dollar
| stores. I think the author is butt hurt that "big dollar" is
| taking advantage of poor people.
|
| But in reality, dollar stores are what poor people want. If
| they thought they were being taken advantage of or manipulated
| then poor people wouldn't buy anything from dollar stores. They
| want cheap stuff, and dollar stores provide just that.
| MomoXenosaga wrote:
| I often go to a "cheap shit by the container load" retail
| chain called Action and they are always packed. And all kinds
| of people go there- Dutch people are infamous for their love
| of cheap and it's considered a point of pride. Capitalism
| always wins.
| equality_1138 wrote:
| > feels like the article has some anti-capitalism
| undertones...
|
| What a knee-jerk sensationalist review of the article. It
| makes a fair point about why some consumers like the stores,
| and others welcome its convenience. Is that some major
| controversy? In fact much of the article could be taken as
| positive (pro-capitalistic) review of their strategy, a case
| study in making lots of money the old fashioned way.
| chillwaves wrote:
| Even rich people shop at Walmart.
| klyrs wrote:
| > But in reality, dollar stores are what poor people want.
|
| No, they really don't. They want high quality goods just like
| everybody else. Poor people also want food with good
| nutrition. But they aren't able to afford those things
| because the modern interpretation of capitalism is "exploit
| the poor to the maximum possible extent." You can be against
| this without being anticapitalist.
| LambdaComplex wrote:
| > If they thought they were being taken advantage of or
| manipulated then poor people wouldn't buy anything from
| dollar stores
|
| I've seen people (whether they be college students or just
| people living paycheck to paycheck) talking about how they
| only have e.g. $5 USD to spend on groceries for the next two
| weeks (because that's how much they have in their bank
| account, and that's when payday is).
|
| If your choices are "something you can pay for at the dollar
| store at a less-than-optimal unit price" or "something you
| literally cannot buy because its purchase price exceeds the
| number in your bank account" then you really don't have a
| choice.
|
| Poor people don't want dollar stores; they just want to
| survive.
| k2enemy wrote:
| The article kind of contradicts itself by bringing up this
| point, then later saying that people make a lot of impulse
| purchases and the average trip costs $16. I don't doubt
| that your anecdote is true, but it seems to not be the
| typical case.
| baobabKoodaa wrote:
| That's not a contradiction. A store can have more than
| one type of customer.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I think it's useful information, even if it should be
| intuitive. I know a number of people who shop at the dollar
| store because they believe they're saving money. In particular
| I think it's nice to shed some light on the special
| arrangements the stores make with manufacturers to produce
| products that _look_ like the equivalent of what you get in a
| normal store but only cost a dollar, while in fact containing
| so little of the actual product that they 're a worse deal.
| mkr-hn wrote:
| A dollar store owner explained it to me more or less as: they're
| the last stop before the dump. It's like how bill collectors will
| buy up debt a company has given up collecting themselves for
| pennies on the dollar.
| s5300 wrote:
| Ahh. Does this mean that the meat that can be found in some
| dollar stores finds its way there as it's last stop before
| becoming animal meal?
|
| Does not surprise me one bit.
| mkr-hn wrote:
| I think grocery store throw-aways are on a different supply
| chain. There are stores that sell the old bread from grocery
| stores. I assume there are stores for meat that's still good
| but past what the grocery stores stock.
| joezydeco wrote:
| The Dollar Tree in my town actually has expired bread
| products from Bimbo bakeries (Thomas' English Muffins,
| Brownberry, etc).
|
| The english muffins are a pretty good deal for $1,
| considering it's $4+ in the stores.
| Noos wrote:
| The article sort of conflates two different models. Dollar Tree
| is actual "everything in the store is a dollar" while Dollar
| General and Family General are mostly small retail stores that
| sell things at a variety of prices. They round prices to the
| dollar, but otherwise are traditional retail that just locates in
| unusual locations.
|
| Five Below is another "dollar store" in that blend, focusing
| mostly on goods for young adults and teens. Originally everything
| was below $5, up to and including some video games and
| electronics like computer accessories or even drones.
|
| It isn't too new of a niche, closeout retailers have often
| existed and its not uncommon with small businesses; ocean state
| job lot in the NE kind of exists with this model. I think what is
| unique is the small retail store model; dollar generals are as
| big as a walgreens or CVS, but stock a pretty full assortment of
| goods for the size. They are pretty impressive for being micro-
| super walmarts in a sense.
|
| Dollar tree's are interesting because you can actually find books
| and dvd/blu-ray there. It's sort of a commentary on how tough it
| must be to be a creative when I can buy remnant books from A list
| authors sometimes; I've seen Jonathan Franzen, John Scalzi, Bill
| Mckibben, And Rod Dreher books end up in the dollar bin. There's
| also a staggering amount of generic animated dvds in the
| pixar/disney mode.
| adventured wrote:
| > It isn't too new of a niche
|
| Definitely an old retail segment. Walmart's origins derive from
| Sam Walton operating a Ben Franklin five-and-dime variety store
| (a wholesaler dating to the 19th century), which was that era's
| equivalent of a Dollar General store (including having spread
| itself to 2500 locations all over the place). With him later
| opening Walton's five-and-dime store.
|
| Interesting representative story on the recent conclusion to
| that chain:
|
| https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/20/ben-franklin
| tshaddox wrote:
| I remember Dollar General carrying cheap/generic brands growing
| up, but when I went to one last year it seemed
| indistinguishable in selection and pricing to a Walmart or
| similar large chain grocery store.
| RandomThrow321 wrote:
| The article calls out the difference between Dollar Tree
| (everything is a dollar) and Dollar General (low prices but not
| necessarily a dollar) in one of the images.
| canadianfella wrote:
| Why didn't you make "dvd/blu-ray" plural?
| bradleyjg wrote:
| Paperback books that don't sell are discarded so as not to
| compete with long tail purchases but hard cover books are
| expensive enough in terms of production and distribution that
| the end up getting discounted instead.
| laurencerowe wrote:
| That's definitely not true for all paperback books. I often
| buy remaindered paperbacks at Dog Eared and Alley Cat
| bookshops in San Francisco. You can tell they're remaindered
| because they're marked with felt tip.
|
| When I lived in the UK, Fopp was a great source for them
| (along with discount films and music.)
| bradleyjg wrote:
| My knowledge of the subject goes back to a high school job
| in a bookstore. Things may well have changed since then.
| Back then we ripped the covers off mass market paperback
| and sent them back to the publisher for a credit. The books
| were supposed to be discarded but you did from time to time
| come across a paperback book with no cover at a thrift
| store or similar, so clearly that didn't always happen.
| b3morales wrote:
| Can you expand on this? Do you mean a paperback copy of a
| book somehow competes with a later sale of the same book?
| rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote:
| Yes - they don't want to flood the used book market with
| paperbacks, which would compete with future sales of the
| same title.
|
| If you're a bookstore and a hardcover doesn't sell, you
| have to return the whole book to the publisher. If a
| paperback doesn't sell, you just have to rip off the front
| cover and return that to the publisher.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book
| echelon wrote:
| Supply and demand. If you decrease the supply, the small
| existing demand will pay more.
| Robotbeat wrote:
| When suppliers destroy supply, it makes a good argument
| for piracy
| runj__ wrote:
| I somewhat agree with you but I really do like some kind
| of curation, even if that curation is done by the market.
| There's nothing inherently good with a surplus of bad
| goods. I'd prefer a copy of "The Library of Babel" vs.
| all of the books inside of it.
| mherdeg wrote:
| Ocean State Job Lot is fun. Also in New England I _love_ the
| Marden 's business model. As far as I can tell from the
| advertising it really is a family business that's hit its
| scaling limits at about 15 stores -- when you walk in you see
| whatever remnant stuff a member of the Marden family thought
| people would like to buy when they went shopping for remnant
| inventory. Like they list the names of people who buy this
| stuff on their web site: https://www.mardens.com/sell-to-us/
|
| They even have a special type of store dedicated to flooring
| and I feel like this reflects the family structure somehow
| (like a niece or nephew is really into flooring or something).
| It's just such interesting retail.
| jsz0 wrote:
| One thing I really like about Ocean State Job Lot is they
| have a couple isles of really cheap fun timeless kids toys
| that I remember playing with as a kid. I think for a lot of
| lower income families it's probably one of the only times a
| kid gets the thrill of walking into a store and selecting new
| toys to buy.
| wyldfire wrote:
| > It's sort of a commentary on how tough it must be to be a
| creative when I can buy remnant books from A list authors
| sometimes; I've seen Jonathan Franzen, John Scalzi, Bill
| Mckibben, And Rod Dreher books end up in the dollar bin.
|
| Talented authors who drove retail bookstores to stock their
| inventory. But when some of it didn't sell, the dollar stores
| snapped it up for nearly nothing. IMO that's not a slight to
| the authors. It's to their credit that the bookstores saw their
| promise based on existing sales at the time.
| [deleted]
| streamofdigits wrote:
| Dollar stores are fascinating as they are the final piece of the
| puzzle in the long journey of organizing mass produced
| consumerist society. This started more than a century ago with
| the invention of (high end) department stores [0].
|
| The end result is hardly satisfying (or stable): an unstopable
| stream of plastic pollution, toxic levels of sugar and a reliance
| on cheap labour in remote lands. All those factors are coming
| under scrutiny and pressure...
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker%27s
| xyst wrote:
| dollar stores are essentially a predator on the lower to middle
| class; and marginalized communities. also these stores are
| notorious for only carrying highly processed items, not exactly
| the best diet to feed your family on.
|
| also, for those $1 toys they sell I bet the source of manufacture
| is dubious at best. if the nike sweatshops are bad, I can't
| imagine the working conditions for a dollar store sweatshop are
| any better.
| dalbasal wrote:
| This is interesting. Well written/compiled. All sorts of things
| to be interested in.
|
| One noteworthy point is how much frames matter. Adjusting
| quantity (eg small old spice bottle) instead of price makes a big
| difference in how things play out. It makes everything different.
|
| Another point is returns to scale. Economies of scale are long
| known and highly observed. Things like "buying power," oligopsony
| and such were documented as Wal Mart came up. I think there's
| more to be said on this. Winner take most is a transformative
| curve. Where's it heading? Is it even bad that markets are
| structured this way?
|
| I suspect this oligopoly's biggest long term competitor is
| AliExpress. As the author notes, the key element is being a good,
| opportunistic buyer of cheap goods. A lot of things come down to
| mail/delivery systems. I think we're at a point where actual
| delivery _infrastructure_ will start to be built. How it 's built
| matters.
| neilv wrote:
| > _Dollar stores do this by going after the stuff nobody else
| wants: surplus items, discontinued products, and old stock that
| didn 't sell well elsewhere._
|
| My experience with Dollar Tree suggests additional methods:
|
| * Smaller amounts of product in package (like the article
| mentions elsewhere).
|
| * Substandard product. I've gotten everything from Sunbeam
| batteries, to name-brand envelopes that were obviously thinner
| than the same brand I'd bought elsewhere (to the point that my
| printer wouldn't even feed them), to criminally non-sticky fake
| "duct tape". I've also seen things that are obviously too small
| (lower cost to manufacture), like car window shades.
|
| * Packaged food imported from outside the US, even with popular
| US branding on it.
|
| * Prices in some cases the same or higher than another store
| nearby (e.g., $1.00 for a can of food available for $0.89 or
| less, within walking distance).
|
| Before Covid, my favorite thing to buy there was Hefty brand zip-
| seal plastic bags. (I avoid Dollar Tree for things that go into
| or on the body, but the bags are fine for purposes like
| organizing non-ESD small parts, and providing some dirt and
| moisture protection of things in backpacks.)
| jffry wrote:
| Why is this "article" a bunch of images of text with charts
| interspersed?
| kcorbitt wrote:
| I absolutely love dollar stores. I recently needed to buy a set
| of crayons for my son and the options were $5 on Amazon, $4 at
| Target or $1 at the local Dollar Tree (and the pack had 36
| crayons, vs 24 from the other sources!).
|
| They're not the right place for everything, but for kids' art
| supplies, cleaning products, party paraphernalia, seasonal decor,
| etc, they can't be beat. They seem to have a pretty strong stigma
| for some reason (seems like most professionals wouldn't be caught
| dead in one) but they shouldn't. Great place to shop!
| herbst wrote:
| You could just shop in China yourself (AliExpress)
| GhostVII wrote:
| Sure, and wait a month for an empty box to show up
| herbst wrote:
| AliExpress has escrow. You are essentially less likely to
| be screwed than with Amazon (no escrow, and still many
| shady sellers)
|
| I also never had empty or wrong products show up, and I
| shop nearly everything that is made in china anyway
| directly from ali. And assuming it would happen, I just get
| my money back thanks to escrow.
| eisa01 wrote:
| I was still screwed, couldn't get a refund on a 10 USD
| USB-C headphone adapter that hissed with my iPad. They
| claimed they couldn't hear it on the video I submitted,
| and there was no possibility to protest or submit a new
| recording
| kube-system wrote:
| I too have been screwed by Aliexpress escrow. It's
| worthless and protects the seller first.
|
| I got a combined shipment that was missing an item. I
| sent a message telling them that one item in the shipment
| was missing. They responded by saying that the tracking
| number showed delivered, closed the case, and gave me no
| way to respond.
|
| I buy from Chinese sellers on eBay instead, their buyer
| protection actually works.
| allenu wrote:
| I bought a couple of items there and they were great
| deals. Tried buying a third item and it never showed and
| the seller said to wait a bit longer and eventually it
| went over the time limit to get a refund. Seller didn't
| respond after that, so I've learned my lesson and won't
| shop there anymore.
| herbst wrote:
| I got my money back each time so far if the item was
| broken or different than advertised. No questions asked.
| Prolly they are more careful with European customers?
| Maybe because I spent relatively large amounts already?
| No idea
| melling wrote:
| The article claims that Dollar Stores are more expensive. They
| often sell smaller amounts to meet the price, but unit cost is
| more
| II2II wrote:
| I agree with the claim that dollar stores are sometimes more
| expensive, but asserting the unit cost is higher is an over
| generalization.
|
| One of the nice things about dollar stores, in my part of the
| world, is they don't play games with sale prices. Sale prices
| make it easy to cherry pick prices seen at other retail
| chains once or twice a year then claim they are cheaper. In
| many of those cases, the product is only cheaper per unit
| because they force you to buy the product in larger
| quantities (e.g. by taping or shrink wrapping multiple units
| together). That may be fine if it is a product where you can
| plan ahead, has a long shelf life, or is something you use in
| quantity. It is not so great when it increases waste since it
| is a "just in case" product or you won't be able to use it
| before it expires. If your aim is to reduce waste (or
| resources or money), you may be better off buying the product
| when or as it is needed. At any particular moment in time,
| the unit price at a dollar store may very well be lower than
| that of other retailers.
| pessimizer wrote:
| Another result of this, especially with food, is that it
| probably causes you to gorge in order to keep things sold
| in too large amounts from going bad. Now you don't have
| _any_ of the thing you like, so you go buy another
| oversized package which will lead to you gorging again in a
| week or two.
| powerapple wrote:
| That's not "expensive". _Expensive_ is that I need to pay
| $1.99 for something and I have throw away half of it because
| I couldn 't use it. I'd rather spend $0.99 for 1/3 the
| quantity. I am spending less money after all.
| DangitBobby wrote:
| Which doesnt apply to deodorant, toothpaste, cleaning
| supplies... or much of anything that Dollar Tree sells.
| Unless you are throwing it away for some reason other than
| that it went bad like you had to buy some because you are
| traveling, in which case, you are not at all the normal
| customer.
| mywittyname wrote:
| Sometimes it does. If you rarely use bleach, what is the
| point of buying a 5 year supply for $X when you can get a
| 2 year supply for $x/2?
| jabbany wrote:
| Bleach does go bad though... If left too long it will
| decompose and lose potency... So not the best example
| maybe...
| scarface74 wrote:
| The smell sizes are great for traveling.
| mnahkies wrote:
| I think this point is underappreciated. Sometimes it
| definitely makes sense to pay more per unit/kg for some
| item for a smaller quantity if otherwise you'd be throwing
| out an excess
| alkonaut wrote:
| At some point I bought a sampler set of miniature
| colognes from one of the big makers (CK I think).
| Probably 5 x 5ml or something. Dirt cheap, and perfect
| for traveling. Turns out 5ml of cologne is enough for
| years and years if you use it rarely and sparingly (as
| you should). The huge 50 or 75ml perfume bottles must be
| one of the products most often thrown out without
| finishing.
|
| I bet CK thought these sampler sets would create
| incentive to buy one of their larger bottles, not make
| customers set for life on cologne.
| grogenaut wrote:
| the ones i got as gifts always evaporated before i used
| them all.
| celticninja wrote:
| No sure they are thrown out due to the expense, I know I
| would never throw one out. But I do end up with 3
| different ones on rotation because I don't want the same
| smell all the time. Smaller ones would certainly be
| better for variety.
| mnahkies wrote:
| They effectively have no expiration date as well, so
| there is no sense in throwing them out.
|
| Personally I'm happy with my one scent though and will
| just keep using that until it runs out
|
| Really what I was getting at with my original comment was
| more about food, and how it sometimes makes sense to take
| the higher price with a smaller quantity, iff you don't
| believe you'll be able to consume the larger quantity
| before it expires
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Like any retailer, buyer beware!
|
| Some things at dollar stores are great deals, many things are
| not. You just need to know your prices.
|
| "Dollar General" and "Family Dollar" stores tend to target
| poorer buyers who make poor pricing decisions from many
| points of view for a variety of reasons, ranging from poor
| access to transportation to poor financial literacy.
| dataviz1000 wrote:
| I was thinking about this the other day. Instead of raising
| prices on junk food, they are making the packaged size
| smaller. This might not be a bad thing in the US because of
| the obesity problem. Since people will be eating less
| unhealthy food they might save on health care costs.
| voisin wrote:
| Could be that they lure people in with lower unit costs on
| some key, easily comparable items, and then the customer ends
| up buying a bunch of higher margin items too. That happens to
| me often - go in for something I know is way cheaper than at
| Walmart and directly comparable, and end up picking up a few
| other things that may not be a killer deal but saves a second
| stop at another store.
| wombatmobile wrote:
| That's called a loss-leader strategy.
|
| It's the same strategy fishermen use when they invest a
| small amount of money at the bait store before a fishing
| trip. As you said, it's a lure.
|
| The strategy is not exclusive to dollar stores.
|
| > Like other retailers, a dollar store's interior layout is
| set up so that commonly purchased staples like cleaning
| supplies and milk are in the back of the store. This
| requires shoppers to walk through other aisles, resulting
| in impulse buys.
|
| So, people's thoughts and decisions are affected by what is
| immediately in front of their eyes, despite their
| considered intentions arrived at through deliberation.
|
| We all know that's true because it happens to us, and we've
| all experienced forgetting something until we walk out of
| the house, and then returning to inside the house or room
| before we can remember it again. Our thoughts are
| significantly dependent upon our circumstances.
|
| What's surprising is that the full impact of our non-
| independence of thought has not been well accounted for by
| philosophers who speculate about the concept of free will.
| the_lonely_road wrote:
| I disagree with your characterization of this being non-
| independence of thought.
|
| You don't know what you don't know. It's not on your list
| because you didn't want it when you went to the store.
| You saw it, and now you know about it, and now you want
| it, so you buy it.
|
| I never understand people who try to make this seem
| nefarious. You walk past 10,000 things you didn't think
| about and don't want so you just walk past it without
| picking it up. There obviously some small exceptions,
| like filling the checkout lane with candy because they
| know kids are going to harass the parents, but in general
| it's about the first strategy. Show people things they
| want that they didn't know they wanted when they walked
| in so they will spend more money in your store.
| wombatmobile wrote:
| > You don't know what you don't know.
|
| We all know and expect soda, chips, chocolate, and other
| highly fattening snack foods to be in the store,
| prominently displayed near checkouts, often advertised at
| a discount on sale.
|
| > It's not on your list because you didn't want it when
| you went to the store.
|
| Right. That's because in our considered state of mind, we
| reject those dietary choices as unhealthy. And yet, we
| end up buying it after we are exposed to retail layouts
| that are designed by psychologists to maximise the profit
| of the store owner.
|
| > I never understand people who try to make this seem
| nefarious.
|
| What would you call it?
| IncRnd wrote:
| Nobody called it "nefarious shopping." It is called
| "impulse buying," and stores are configured to maximize
| impulse buys whether through candy at the checkout lane
| or something else. Stores are arranged in the front
| decompression zone, the front, the center, checkout, etc.
| for this reason.
| newsclues wrote:
| Or perhaps some Dollar Stores also use liquidation
| inventory to sell lower than normal prices?
|
| Doubt that crayons are loss leaders.
| Bostonian wrote:
| I like them too, but the article notes that their prices per
| unit are usually a bit higher than at other stores.
| tjoff wrote:
| I guess (we don't really have them here) that while they
| might never be the cheapest option they will most often be a
| cheap option.
|
| And where every other store is cheap on some stuff and
| absolutely ripping you off on others it is kind of nice to
| know with greater confidence that you are not being ripped
| off.
|
| Also, if a 10x pack costs 90% of a 24x pack at the regular
| store a dollar store might be decently priced for a 8x pack.
| Which is fantastic if you only need and want ~5.
| okareaman wrote:
| They are great if you stay away from certain things like
| batteries, which are usually drained or near dead.
| mrfusion wrote:
| Agreed. The cheapest I could buy a plastic spatula on amazon
| was $7? Bought one for a dollar instead. Seems to work fine.
| permo-w wrote:
| $7? You absolutely did not look very hard. I just checked UK
| Amazon and found them for PS1
| mrfusion wrote:
| I just checked again in America. The cheaper ones seem to
| have very high shipping costs.
| permo-w wrote:
| I included shipping. Maybe American amazon is different
| in some way
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| That might be one of the easiest use cases for me to justify
| spending more on quality, not that I would trust Amazon to
| sell quality, but from a reputable brand or retail store.
|
| I am assuming that a plastic spatula will degrade when heated
| up, and a lower quality plastic will have a higher
| probability of degrading and depositing plastic into the food
| being cooked, which then gets ingested of course.
| kergonath wrote:
| That's why I prefer wood ones. I can't say I ever bought
| one at a pound store, but even a basic one for PS5 lasts
| years.
| paul_f wrote:
| It could be quite difficult to tell the difference between
| the two spatulas. They might be identical. Just because it
| costs more is no guarantee of higher qualify.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| As goes with everything in life, nothing is certain. But
| I operate under the assumption that there is a higher
| probability that a reputable brand known for selling
| higher quality goods is actually selling higher quality
| goods and performing the necessary quality control
| measures to ensure it.
|
| Of course, one also has to remain informed on which
| brands are decreasing their quality and cashing in on
| their reputation.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Buying from a brand with a reputation is very different
| than assuming a more expensive item is higher quality.
| gruez wrote:
| Well GP was talking about amazon, so there's a fair
| chance that the $7 was also low quality chinese junk,and
| if you wanted higher quality stuff you'd need to shell
| out $15 at least.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Hence ... brands, and other forms of reputation
| generation and management. Sure, these things are never a
| guarantee of quality, but the brand owners want you to
| feel that they are.
|
| Sometimes, too, they do turn out to be!
| dopidopHN wrote:
| Your whole country is exotic to me, and I formed my opinion on
| things as a old adult.
|
| For me dollars store are the reliable place to buy toxic stuff,
| cleaning supplies and in general non-food item.
|
| I like that it's small and to the point.
|
| The food there make me sad, though. It's almost exclusively
| crap.
| qPM9l3XJrF wrote:
| My local Dollar Tree offers 12 eggs for a dollar, a loaf of
| bread for a dollar, a decent sized bag of frozen berries or
| vegetables for a dollar, 2 pounds of rice for a dollar, a
| 26oz can of baked beans for a dollar. That's not exactly
| crap.
| myself248 wrote:
| > cleaning supplies
|
| Yikes! Cleaning supplies and medical stuff are things I will
| _never_ buy from a dollar store. Most of the cleaning
| chemicals have more fragrance than active ingredients, they
| never work well but the place smells like you cleaned like
| mad. I have to assume the medical stuff is just as poor
| quality, but I have no way of assessing it.
|
| It also bothers me that a lot of the cleaning products are
| packed in bottles shaped like drink bottles; an illiterate or
| merely distracted person could be in for a nasty surprise.
|
| We agree on the food, for sure. It never _says_ it's expired,
| but it tastes ten years old.
|
| One thing I always get at the dollar store is lint traps. The
| big box charges 3x the price for an absolutely equivalent
| product. Lint traps and office supplies. I don't think I've
| ever bought envelopes or binder clips anywhere else.
| astura wrote:
| My local Dollar Tree has excellent food - sure, no fresh
| vegetables but there are staples plus name brands that costs
| 2x-5x at the local grocery stores and other stuff that's not
| even available at other stores (specifics off the top of my
| head - Zapp's Voodoo Heat chips, I've never seen them
| anywhere else besides the dollar store).
|
| Obviously the stock is somewhat inconsistent.
| busymom0 wrote:
| > The food there make me sad, though. It's almost exclusively
| crap.
|
| It depends upon what type of food you are looking for. If you
| are looking for branded things like pop, chips,
| chocolates/candy etc, then they are very good deal.
| IncRnd wrote:
| That's a list of crap food, which might be what was meant.
| However, if you compare the ingredient list for a seemingly
| identical item, the ingredients (contents or quantity) will
| many times differ between a dollar store and elsewhere.
| taftster wrote:
| "seemingly identical item" -
|
| Can you give a more specific example of this? Like if
| it's two different brands of "chicken noodle soup", then
| I'd assume the ingredient list could/would change.
|
| But are you saying that a can of Campbell's chicken
| noodle soup in the dollar store is different from the
| Campbell's can at Walmart? e.g. the same brand
| ingredients change?
| middus wrote:
| I think that's what was meant with crap
| InvaderFizz wrote:
| I would have assumed the crap they meant the sad looking
| meats and cheeses in the refrigerators.
|
| Dollar Stores are hit and miss. I needed some emergency
| earbuds for a trip. Wow, I didn't know you could
| manufacture earbuds that sounded that bad, even at the $1
| price point. I am by no means an audiophile either.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| draw_down wrote:
| I think Dollar General is a little different because it's not
| really a $1-price store. As the name implies, it's a general
| store, with lower prices than a CVS or similar. You can get beer
| and stuff there, I don't think that tends to be the case in a
| Dollar Tree but i could be wrong
| atlanta90210 wrote:
| Family Dollar operates a store near me in Atlanta. Their parking
| lot is so filthy sometimes the neighbors organize to go clean it
| up.
|
| It appears to me Family Dollar hates their customers given the
| food choices, the attitude of the employees and how they maintain
| their property. I avoid them all.
| PopePompus wrote:
| I've been struck by how ugly some stores catering to the poor
| are. Not ugly because they are cheaply decorated, but
| intentionally ugly, using things like black on yellow coloring
| for signage, etc. I guess it's eye-catching, but not in a good
| way.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Or maybe to signal "yeah, we can afford to shop here"?
|
| Like, my dentist's office is really nice. Not just clean, but
| very nice. I seem to be the only one in our family that
| realizes that we're the ones that paid for that. Better than
| charging the same amount for a dumpy office, but makes me
| wonder how much we've been overpaying.
|
| Even a fancy restaurant will follow the 5second rule in the
| kitchen, but it will be a nicer floor they're picking it off
| of. (I never understood granite countertops... they're
| porous! The last thing you'd want in a kitchen).
| pfdietz wrote:
| > (I never understood granite countertops... they're
| porous! The last thing you'd want in a kitchen).
|
| https://www.easternsurfaces.com/seal-granite-countertops/
| gumby wrote:
| The article itself is quite interesting: short, simple sentences
| and many colorful graphics. It looks like it could be from a
| middle school textbook. But the content itself is not simplistic.
|
| Is it intended for a segment in which this is common?
| [deleted]
| EGreg wrote:
| I am shocked that dollar stores exist in 2021 given all the
| inflation that occurred in the last few decades!
|
| A testament to the world's supply chains and manufacturing
| automation :)
| justinjlynn wrote:
| Ah, I see, so they make quite a bit of their profit by selling
| smaller quantities of lower quality goods at higher per unit
| prices through framing the value proposition carefully and
| managing expectations to their benefit. Makes sense, given the
| markets they target, that they're exploiting the effects of the
| 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness and quite successfully
| too.
| bradleyjg wrote:
| Bodegas in NYC make no pretense about being a good deal. It's
| understood that you are paying for convenience.
| heresie-dabord wrote:
| The data presented suggest that poor, uneducated (innumerate)
| populations of consumers try to find most of what they need at
| one store and do not calculate price per unit (PPU).
|
| Or if the poor are aware of PPU disadvantages, they have a
| sense that shopping elsewhere isn't worth spending more time
| and energy.
|
| So the $DiscountFranchise just needs to be able to locate
| itself as close as possible to the socioeconomic-target
| population.
| baybal2 wrote:
| Go and run around city looking for some widget. You will
| spend more on fuel/public transport.
| brtkdotse wrote:
| In case someone wonders about Boots theory -
| https://samvimesbootstheory.com/
| chrbarrol wrote:
| They also "bulk up" food products, for example introducing
| filler into meat products such as water and salt [1] such that
| they can sell a smaller amount of meat for the same price
| without the consumer noticing.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONOoKtAH53E
| sfifs wrote:
| There's a lot of equivalent store types in Asia. The Kirana
| stores in India, the Sari-Sari stores in Philippines, the
| neighborhood groceries in much of South East Asia etc. A very
| similar dynamic applies - the shoppers buy several times a
| week, maybe even every day because they're daily or weekly wage
| earners.
| kcorbitt wrote:
| I realize the article mentions that sometimes happens, with
| their example being a 0.8oz deodorant. But as a frequent
| shopper it isn't my general experience. I often compare prices
| and on a unit cost basis (so controlling for the sometimes
| smaller dollar store quantities) you can almost always buy the
| same brand from a dollar store for a steep discount compared to
| a traditional supermarket or Target.
|
| In general I feel like there's a tendency to view products
| marketed at poor people as exploitative. That's sometimes
| merited (payday loans!) but honestly, dollar stores are really
| effective at providing a good product at a great price.
| gambiting wrote:
| >>That's sometimes merited (payday loans!)
|
| That's also a very interesting discussion to have because
| from what I understand, payday loans businesses exist because
| the alternative is worse - people who are desperate will
| always borrow money from someone, so it's better that they
| borrow from a well regulated business rather than from the
| "pay or we'll break your legs" kind. And then the 1000% APR
| is argued that it's the actual cost of risk with these loans
| since they default so often.
| d0100 wrote:
| Don't people in the US use credit cards? If you are going
| to payback the money on your next payday, why not just use
| the credit and pay it on your payday?
|
| Do stores not allow split payments?
| bradleyjg wrote:
| People with bad/no credit can't get credit cards (except
| secured cards, in which case you have to have the money
| upfront.) The Venn diagram between patrons of payday
| lenders and people with bad/no credit is a circle.
| dazc wrote:
| Also likely that such people who do have credit cards are
| already maxed-out to their limit and paying the monthly
| minimum?
| fennecfoxen wrote:
| At some point APRs really stop making sense for two-week
| loans. It's easier to understand what people pay in three
| parts: processing costs, a risk premium, and the lender's
| margin. _Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law_
| estimated the margin at 3.75%.
|
| The argument against payday lenders is a paternalistic one
| with moralistic overtones, with all the potential flaws
| that might entail.
| pnutjam wrote:
| Ever had a payday loan? I'm guessing no.
| [deleted]
| 41209 wrote:
| The worse alternative is sleeping on the streets when you
| can't pay your rent. While I do think payday loans are
| evil, I recognize why they exist. I would prefer a much
| more robust housing support system for lower income people.
| Almost all of society's problems could be fixed with more
| affordable housing. For example let's say you have abusive
| parents, if affordable housing exist the moment you turn 18
| you can up and leave. But now you have bizarro programs
| which will stop you from attending college if you get
| "affordable housing"( government subsidized). When I was
| young I was able to find a $600 apartment, on the free
| market. Now the same place is 1200$.
|
| On the other hand, rent-a-centers are disgusting. I
| remember when I was a kid I had calculated they wanted me
| to pay something like $3,000 for a $500 laptop. But the
| idea is you only need to give them $50 a week. I went and
| saved my money and found the absolute cheapest laptop I
| could, paying cash for it.
|
| On a larger level, car loans are also extremely exploitive.
| No one needs a car which cost more than $20,000, but all
| these shiny ads show girls will swoon over you, men will
| respect you, as long as you buy a car which is $75,000 +
| tax and destination.
| bradleyjg wrote:
| > I would prefer a much more robust housing support
| system for lower income people. Almost all of society's
| problems could be fixed with more affordable housing.
|
| > When I was young I was able to find a $600 apartment,
| on the free market. Now the same place is 1200$.
|
| The issue is that the overwhelming goal of politicians at
| all levels is to increase the value of individually owned
| residential units above the rate of general inflation.
| This is far and away the most popular form of welfare and
| impossible for any politician to oppose. It is also
| diametrically opposed to affordable housing so any and
| all affordable housing proposals are bound to be
| ineffective bandaid proposals.
|
| If we want affordable housing the only way to get it is
| first lower the homeownership rate.
| mastax wrote:
| California has made huge strides over the past year to
| legalize housing, so I have some hope that the winds are
| changing.
| bumby wrote:
| It's interesting as well that the policies used (e.g.,
| mortgage interest deductions) are almost universally
| considered bad policy by most economists. It's rare to
| find such a consensus in economics, yet it's such a
| third-rail that politicians can't touch it
| bradleyjg wrote:
| It's "worked" for a very long time. Greatest generation
| through even some older millennials have been able to
| treat their homes like a self filling piggy bank.
|
| It's natural that there would be a lot of denial that
| this can't go on forever.
| bumby wrote:
| I think from the economist perspective, it incentivizes
| the wrong behavior and ends up not helping those it was
| supposed to help in the first place.
|
| For example, the tax deduction incentivizes people
| getting the biggest house possible to maximize the
| deduction. It also disproportionately benefits the higher
| income classes because they are able to afford more
| expensive homes. So from a perspective of helping more
| people become home owners it's bad policy. It's actually
| better at helping people who already are in a class that
| can afford homes just be able to afford more expensive
| homes. From that angle, it never really "worked".
|
| But so many people are accustomed to the benefit it's
| virtually impossible to roll back.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Depends. I got a car loan for a modest car with 0.7% APR,
| I don't see a problem with that.
|
| My mother-in-law leases a new Toyota Corolla every few
| years; she gets trouble-free motoring at a reasonable
| rate.
|
| Myself I have no idea how many miles I am going to drive
| next year (do I work from home? take the bus? do I drive
| to Montreal or North Carolina a lot?) so I buy a similar
| car and drive it into the ground.
|
| Many of those luxury cars are leased, not loaned; the
| headline number ($/month) looks low compared to a loan on
| a modest car. You will probably need a lot of warrantee
| repair (a Toyota and a Cadillac are quality cars in their
| own estimations, but not in each other's; if you need
| your car to start in the morning so you can get to work
| pick the Toyota.)
| 41209 wrote:
| A Corolla is only $20,000, so that fits my point. But I
| have seen tons of people buying cars they can't afford,
| in order to impress people they don't like. The easiest
| way to waste tons of money is by buying an overpriced car
| mnahkies wrote:
| I've never paid more than about 3.5k USD for a car. Not
| sure what the second hand market is like in America but
| in NZ and UK you can get great cars for a fraction of the
| cost of buying new.
|
| In terms of maintenance, I've had some that were
| troublesome, and some that needed nothing, it's a bit of
| a lottery in that regard. Most common problems are
| solvable with a few hours on your back in the garage
| though.
|
| Possibly most interesting is that the value decay has
| already taken place at this point. Eg: buy a car for 2k,
| sell it 5 years later for 1.5k, as opposed to buying it
| for 80k and selling it two years later for 40k
| mkr-hn wrote:
| The Cash for Clunkers program destroyed the used car
| market in the US. It's slowly recovering as cars from the
| 2000s and 2010s enter it.
| eigen wrote:
| the CARS program ran for 1 month in 2009. so it didnt
| affect 2009 and later model years. it appears to have
| increased new car sales in 2009 so it should positively
| affect the used car market in later years as those new
| cars moved to the used car market.
|
| please explain how the used car market is "slowly
| recovering" 11 years later.
| mkr-hn wrote:
| It took almost 700,000 of the most affordable cars off
| the market. That plus the reliability of newer cars means
| they stay with their original owners longer, so there are
| fewer used cars on the market at prices people can
| afford. Used car prices are still out of reach for too
| many people even before factoring in things like
| insurance and registration.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| The floor price of a car that passes inspection is about
| what you say in the US but if you want a car for racing
| on a frozen lake you can pay less.
|
| The $3.5k car is going to need more than $0 a month in
| repairs; the lease price includes that. If you like
| fixing your own car, get joy out of a unique car, don't
| mind owning three VWs and having one run at any time the
| clunker can be a win. But if your clunker needs a $200
| repair every month you might decide a payment and a
| reliable car is better for you.
|
| Infotainment systems are in reverse gear but people
| underestimate the environmental and safety benefits of
| newer cars. There was that time I rolled my fit. I got
| lucky, but I didn't even feel pain and the back window
| broke out so I even had an easy time getting out with the
| car wedged in the roadside ditch.
| justinjlynn wrote:
| > buy the same brand
|
| That doesn't mean they're the same product or quality,
| however.
| celticninja wrote:
| I don't think a brand will change their recipe or reduce
| quality of components, when simply resizing is easier.
|
| If they wanted to do that then they would be better off
| creating a different lower cost brand, rather than a new
| manufacturing process for $ store items.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Brands will offer a cheaper quality product with a
| slightly different model number in electronics though.
| celticninja wrote:
| Worth it on higher end stuff not on $ store items.
| sfifs wrote:
| This isn't correct. Big brands virtually never skimp on
| product quality for smaller stores because it harms the
| long term equity and value. They customize quantity.
| jhbadger wrote:
| At least clothing manufacturers do skimp on quality for
| downmarket sales. It used to be that clothing at "outlet
| centers" were literal overstock items, but as they've
| become more popular, clothing makers now have cheaper,
| lower quality clothing made especially for sale in
| outlets.
| raverbashing wrote:
| These products are so well optimized now they're mostly
| margin and packaging/shipping/handling cost.
|
| I doubt your toothpaste tube cost more than $0.50 in
| actual materials to make. And on a store this can go for
| $3? $4? (from a quick look in Amzn - approx values the
| cheapest one is $8 for 6)
| sfifs wrote:
| CPG industry margins are quite public as almost big
| brands are owned by listed companies. They're not high.
| The highest margin categories for big retailers i believe
| tend to be clothing.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| They're not wrong about the big difference between
| production cost and selling price. CPGs are basically in
| a war with eachother over marketing and need to spend the
| maximum amount possible to get you to but their $3
| toothpaste over another CPG's $3 one and over a lower-
| priced generic. If they could cut their marketing budget
| in half, they would, but that would only work short-term.
| arcturus17 wrote:
| Toothpaste costs $6-$8 in Amazon US? Holy cow.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| No, it is ~$3 for a standard ~5oz size.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Crest-Complete-Whitening-
| Toothpaste-T...
|
| Amazon is more expensive than Costco/Walmart/Target, but
| especially so for dense, heavy items like liquids (or
| toothpaste).
| celticninja wrote:
| Similarly in the UK, whilst there are certainly PS1 store
| offerings from brand names which are smaller than their
| traditional supermarket offerings, the vast majority of
| products are end of line or bought up cheaply in bulk where
| they otherwise we're not selling. I have had success in the
| past finding items which I have resold on eBay for
| significantly more because their true value is higher.
| amcoastal wrote:
| Definitely! Dollar tree is the place to get things like
| dishes and cleaning supplies. You get the same bottle for $1
| that is 1.88 at Walmart or whatever. I'll only buy things
| that the dollar store I KNOW are cheaper though, sometimes
| you'll think you're getting a deal and then the same product
| at Walmart is 90 cents.
| rcpt wrote:
| Huh. Was expecting to come away from the article with "like
| McDonald's, they're basically a REIT" but I guess they make
| decent profit on that stuff.
| jjice wrote:
| I personally always considered the "general" stores, and
| considered Dollar Tree the main "dollar" store out of the bunch.
| I think these stores are super interesting though, because,
| growing up in a town with a Walmart and Target, there was no
| reason for me to go to a Dollar General. However, when my friends
| and I would go camping, the only store for miles and miles would
| be a Dollar General, and it was relatively booming. The stores
| aren't bad by any means, but limited and a bit more costly, but I
| get an odd feeling of coziness if they're the only real store in
| town.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| One thing I noticed at our local 99 cent store, and didn't see
| mentioned in the thread... cashier wait times. There's a large
| number of customers of course and they keep costs down with fewer
| cashiers. So you are looking at twenty minutes standing in line
| for your $8 in goods.
|
| I did this a few times and (combined with needing to drive there)
| and decided it was not really worth the savings from our
| quick/overpriced markets in walking distance, except in rare
| circumstances. YMMV.
| LegitShady wrote:
| a similar store near me replaced their 2 checkouts with 5 self
| checkouts, and has one person nearby to help/monitor.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Funny, because our expensive store did that, but the dollar
| store may not have the upfront capital for it.
| LegitShady wrote:
| I've seen some super large dollar stores that are making
| lots of net profit. Just because the items are cheap
| doesn't mean the net margin is small, because the items are
| cheap to buy too, and they're chains that buy large
| quantities often directly from a manufacturer to get the
| best price they can.
|
| I think it just depends on what the net improvement is. If
| they had two checkouts before, that each required a person,
| and they replace it with 5 checkouts that now require just
| one person, the cost per person-checkout is 20% of what
| they were paying before. The machines themselves might be
| leased or otherwise amortized over significant periods
| giving a cheap cost per year. If lines of people are
| waiting for checkout that might mean a much improved
| experience.
| spicyramen wrote:
| I do use Dollar store to buy stuff that is just pretty much
| disposable such as Balloons, birthday decorations among others. I
| can say that food is pretty bad and not healthy. Very similar to
| Iceland supermarkets here in UK
| hytdstd wrote:
| It's fascinating how the coverage map is so drastically different
| from the typical US population map. In particular, they
| completely cover the east half of the US, but not the west.
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| Give them time. They will eat the entire country.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIqC5y1zm-4
|
| There does seem to be an opportunity to bring the same type of
| store to the western states but the low population portion in
| the interior west might keep it from being economical to
| operate distribution centers that incrementally cover over more
| and more western territory. They'd need to invest in a
| distribution network in the western states that were mostly
| independent from the eastern ones. That might be too much risk
| for their low margin business model.
| vel0city wrote:
| Uh, it seems like it tracks a US population map pretty well.
| The Western half of the US is largely pretty sparse with only
| pockets of densely populated cities.
|
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_population_map....
| Hinrik wrote:
| Drastically different? It looks almost identical to a map of
| the U.S. where each dot represents a town:
| https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapping-population-density-...
| Clewza313 wrote:
| 100 yen (approx $1) have long been huge in Japan too, and their
| business model is even simpler: most of what they sell is plastic
| and made to order in China in huge volumes. They have grocery
| selections too, but nothing that would require refrigeration or
| otherwise spoil quickly. And while hardly luxury, they're also
| not down-market in the way that Dollar X's in the US are, many
| are located in central business districts and there's no stigma
| to shopping in one.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100-yen_shop
| tkgally wrote:
| Daiso, the largest chain in Japan, designs a lot of their own
| products, and the shear variety of some product lines is one of
| the stores' attractions. Twenty years ago, before going back to
| the U.S. from Japan for a family reunion, I bought fifty
| folding fans, each with a different Japanesey design, at Daiso
| as gifts. The relatives I handed them out to seemed delighted,
| and they cost me only a buck apiece.
|
| Until I started working from home last year, I wore a suit and
| tie to my job in Tokyo. I have a collection of more than two
| hundred ties, each one different, all looking reasonably
| decent, bought for a hundred yen apiece at Daiso ten or twelve
| years ago.
| mcshicks wrote:
| There are Daiso locations in the US (and I think many other
| countries now), at least in California. They aren't as good
| as the ones in Japan, and they have somewhat different items
| in one location than another. But they do have lots of
| interesting stuff, although most of it is $1.50 and up. The
| tool section is pretty neat as well as their stationary
| section.
| proggy wrote:
| As someone who's spent time between California and Japan
| recently (2019-2020), I honestly think the differences
| between a Daiso in the US (Los Angeles) and a Daiso in
| Japan (central Tokyo) are very slight. I bought a lot of
| little gifts for people from Daiso when I was in Japan, and
| I've found that most of what I bought is also available in
| the stateside stores. Most of the everyday goods
| (household, serving ware, tools, cleaning, toys,
| stationery, etc.) are identical, with only the food and
| beverage section differing significantly. For instance, in
| Japan there is a limited stock of local brands by the
| register (somewhat marked up vs. the local combini). In
| California, it's a very select handful of true imports, but
| most of it are brands who are producing a local US variant
| that Daiso doesn't have to ship through customs. And
| interestingly, they stock some specialty Hawaiian drinks
| like POG that you can't find easily in either California or
| Japan.
| mcshicks wrote:
| Hey that could be. So yeah I didn't mean to imply the
| goods were different, just less selection. I mostly go to
| the ones in Oceanside and Keary Mesa, and the last one I
| visited in Japan was in Fujisawa early 2019. I haven't
| been to the one on Sawtelle in a while but I do seem to
| remember it being bigger than the ones in San Diego.
| riffic wrote:
| Daiso has a presence throughout Los Angeles, and it is
| definitely a different animal than your typical dollar store.
| wirthjason wrote:
| They are popular because they are good. The products have good
| designs and reasonable quality, at or above the $1 level. The
| stores are bright, clean, and the staff friendly.
|
| My guess is that they have a much more integrated supply chain
| than the stores in the US and can better understand what their
| customers want/need.
|
| There is an air of quality around Y=100 shop shop and a stigma
| of $1 stores being junk. Any reasonable Okaasan takes it as a
| badge of honor finding good stuff and bragging about it.
| zdragnar wrote:
| I used to have the same opinion of dollar tree and co, until
| I met my wife, who shops there frequently.
|
| Like any other store, there are certain things that you
| should get elsewhere. However, I was genuinely impressed that
| the quality of many things was quite a bit higher than what
| the stereotype had led me to believe.
|
| Edit: perhaps it is worth pointing out that she also shops
| Wal-Mart and aldis, and buys only from each of the three
| stores what the better deals are.
| eloisant wrote:
| I'm not sure about US dollar stores but there are really good
| deals at Japan's 100 yen shops. For example simple plastic
| boxes that cost 10 euros in France are at 100 yen in those
| shops.
|
| So in Japan it's not just for poor people, there are items
| where it doesn't make sense to buy them anywhere else than a
| 100 yen shop.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| These dollar stores are located in many business districts.
| Definitely not right on a main street, but within a nearby
| vicinity (like 1-3 miles). At least they are in my state.
| Dollar stores are never farther away than 10 miles max.
| kaptain wrote:
| It's expensive to be poor.
| Liron wrote:
| On the contrary, we should appreciate that every single item in
| the dollar store is a marvel of modern economies of scale that
| benefits all customers, poor ones most of all.
|
| Show a modern dollar store to a Soviet Russian in 1989 or
| anyone from 100 years ago and they'd go nuts.
| thenanyu wrote:
| You're never gonna get anywhere with that argument
| unfortunately. The hedonic treadmill is too quick and
| everyone you're responding to grew up taking all of these
| modern miracles for granted. I remember what buying snacks
| was like growing up in China in the early 90s.
|
| You brought your own rice and a dude on the side of the road
| would pop it for you in a lead pipe.
|
| We shopped at dollar stores after landing in the US and it
| was mind boggling.
| sabujp wrote:
| ahh dollar tree, where we go for birthday party favors for little
| kids
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| The different purchasing power of US$ and CAD$ killed the
| "everything in the store is a dollar" model in Canada at least a
| decade ago. But Dollarama, which is so successful that it has
| pretty much squeezed out the other dollar store chains, has
| really just established themeselves as the "everything store"
| below the Walmart tier without any particular price - just low in
| general. Metal foil cookware, kids' party supplies and certain
| kinds of candy/sweets (I love their weird brand chocolate bars,
| particularly the "Island Bar" (Bounty clone) and Duoletta (Kinder
| Bueno clone). Also if you're out cycling they're a good place to
| buy things like Gatorade or chocolate bars for a reasonable price
| in quantity 1.
|
| And sometimes a totally ubiquitous store with a predicatable
| inventory of crappy-but-adequate stuff can be a real problem
| solver. For example, hit the road with the small children for the
| long drive to Grandma's, and half an hour out we find that we
| have the fruit, but not the knife to cut it with. No problem,
| next Dollarama is 25 minutes away, we'll just grab a knife there.
| $2! With sheath. Sure it doesn't stay sharp as long, but it
| totally did the job.
| gotorazor wrote:
| Dollarama is everything for $4 CAD or under. They don't
| advertise this fact, but you won't find an item over $4.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| Dollarama is by far the best one. Super popular in Canada. Things
| are around the $4 mark. Surprising good enough quality for some
| things. Clean and well organized store.
| wenc wrote:
| When I was younger, every single Dollarama item was priced at
| exactly $1 before tax (prices inched up to $2 for some products
| a decade after, but the majority of items were still priced at
| $1). On average, the quality of most items ranged between
| passable and decent. Most university students I knew bought
| household items from Dollarama and for the most part it would
| be fine. I find that Dollarama is just more mainstream in
| Canada than dollar stores are in the U.S. You would find
| Dollaramas in mall basements and other medium rent places.
|
| The key was to have some idea of the quality floor of the
| product one was buying. Winter mittens for example. Unless you
| really try, it's hard to make winter mittens that suck --
| there's just not that many ways to go wrong. I still have mine
| from a decade ago and they're fine. I still wear mine in the
| winter.
| failwhaleshark wrote:
| Don't even hate on my dollar stores (coworker made a mint on the
| Dollar Tree IPO... Grr!;)
|
| Okay, good.
|
| There have been numerous agenda (economic? class superiority?)
| articles about "dollars stores: bad." Somehow that they're racist
| or responsible for food deserts, poverty, crime, and your grandma
| yelling at the cleaning lady.
| june_twenty wrote:
| In the UK we have poundland which is the same idea. To be honest
| I love it. I get protein bars, chewing gum, cans of coke, milk
| and sweets cheaper than anywhere else.
| xtracto wrote:
| I have fobd memories of Poundland, 99c and Home Bargains while
| living in the UK as a poor international student (poor meaning
| I lived with a scholarship from my country).
| robjan wrote:
| From what I understand, a lot of the Poundland goods are grey
| market parallel traded goods. e.g. Colgate toothpaste
| manufactured in the UK but intended to be distributed in
| Poland. The manufacturer often sells them at a lower margin in
| lower income markets because some money is better than none.
| jfk13 wrote:
| Sometimes the foreign-language packaging of an otherwise-
| familiar brand item makes this really obvious!
| WalterBright wrote:
| The article mentions they'll have to get creative when inflation
| makes the dollar worthless, or do a little rebranding.
|
| Motel 6 did the same thing. I remember when the 6 meant six bucks
| a night. It was a great place to catch some Zs when on a road
| trip.
|
| My dad said the "Nickle Bar" candy bar's size grew and shrank
| with the cost of chocolate.
| [deleted]
| death_syn wrote:
| When the pandemic hit, I switched my shopping almost exclusively
| to Dollar General, because despite the slightly higher prices
| compared to Walmart (sometimes) and Aldi (almost always), the
| number of customers in the store was always pretty light at any
| one time. I did still have to go to one of those places for
| things I couldn't get there (premium cheeses, premium meats).
| But, that became a once a month outing at most versus my weekly
| shopping trip, which turned from 20-30 minutes to 10 minutes in
| total, with less exposure to other humans. I honestly believe the
| Dollar General may have saved my health as far as COVID exposure
| risk goes.
| supernova87a wrote:
| In the world where every store is trying to work you for whatever
| profit can be made, at least a Dollar Store is relatively
| transparent about what they're selling, and straightforward about
| it. And offering basics that people can afford.
|
| I tried to find a plastic water spray bottle in Target, Walmart,
| etc. for spraying water on plants or like while ironing. Every
| option was a fancy-fied designer spruced up version for $8
| looking like it was aimed at the "Real Simple" market. I could've
| bought a spray bottle full of sink cleaner for $3 and emptied it
| out for the bottle, and saved money.
|
| At least you can go to the $1 store and find this and not get
| ripped off under the guise of "style and design for the busy mom"
| at 10x what it should cost.
| baby wrote:
| Same for a plunger. Target only sold fancy ones.
| jessedrain wrote:
| I think the article oversighted that even dollar general has loss
| leader products. When I was a poor student, I remember
| practically living on $2 worth of 5-10 bananas and a gallon of
| milk everyday, it was the cheapest in my town and I looked.
|
| You can be poor and still have a fair, unexploitative shopping
| experience at those stores.
| notsureaboutpg wrote:
| Well, you can only have that experience because someone else is
| having an unfair, exploitative experience at the same store...
| mgh2 wrote:
| The article had good points, but it misses one opportunity for
| businesses that see value in this model: marketing exposure.
|
| If I were someone who wanted to try a brand and do not want to
| pay big upfront, I will start here and then buy in bulk later if
| I am satisfied.
|
| Yes, some established brands sells their leftover inventory
| (brand impression as a side-benefit), but I have also seen some
| unknown, generic brands start over at dollar stores and then
| disappear off-shelf.
|
| My hypothesis is that they either failed, or were testing the
| market/demand (cheaper shelf space?) before selling to more
| traditional retailers, but I am not sure this is the case. Need
| an insider to understand the logistics.
|
| Aside from that, there are some really good deals that gets rid
| of branding/bs, that adds cost to the price of the actual product
| itself - sometimes, with not much diff. in quality.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Interesting; most stores are similar or same brands in Canada vs
| USA (with noble exception of Tim Hortons). But we have Dollarama
| and Buck Or Two, whereas top US are completely different.
|
| I wonder if it's because Canadian supply chain logistics tend to
| be different (Target famously flopped for not taking that into
| account), or some other factor.
| nelblu wrote:
| Dollarama also doesn't accept returns. Not sure about the US
| stores, but that is another reason why they must thrive.
| wffurr wrote:
| Loonie Toonie was a pretty entertaining name for one. I didn't
| get it at first when I visited.
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