Sad reality of how dollar stores and the like are reshaping rural America...
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/...w-dollar-general-took-over-rural-america
Quote
Buhler's mayor, Daniel Friesen, watched events unfold in Haven and came to see Dollar General not so much as an opportunity as a diagnosis.
Friesen understood why dying towns with no shops beyond the convenience store at the gas station welcomed Dollar General out of desperation for anything at all, like Burton, just up the road, where the last food shop closed 20 years ago. But Buhler had a high street with grocery and hardware stores, a busy cafe and a clothes shop. It had life.
As Friesen saw it, Dollar General was not only a threat to all that but amounted to admission his town was failing. "It was about retaining the soul of the community. It was about, what kind of town do we want?" he said.
Dollar General is opening stores at the rate of three a day across the US. It moves into places not even Walmart will go, targeting rural towns and damaged inner-city neighbourhoods with basic goods at basic prices - a strategy described by a former chief executive of the chain as "we went where they ain't".
Food desert
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/...w-dollar-general-took-over-rural-america
Quote
Buhler's mayor, Daniel Friesen, watched events unfold in Haven and came to see Dollar General not so much as an opportunity as a diagnosis.
Friesen understood why dying towns with no shops beyond the convenience store at the gas station welcomed Dollar General out of desperation for anything at all, like Burton, just up the road, where the last food shop closed 20 years ago. But Buhler had a high street with grocery and hardware stores, a busy cafe and a clothes shop. It had life.
As Friesen saw it, Dollar General was not only a threat to all that but amounted to admission his town was failing. "It was about retaining the soul of the community. It was about, what kind of town do we want?" he said.
Dollar General is opening stores at the rate of three a day across the US. It moves into places not even Walmart will go, targeting rural towns and damaged inner-city neighbourhoods with basic goods at basic prices - a strategy described by a former chief executive of the chain as "we went where they ain't".
Food desert