Rural residents love dollar stores because they are the rare and often only place in town where they can buy the necessities of life, from allergy medicine to motor oil.
Now you can add fresh vegetables to that list.
More than 5,400 Dollar General stores sell fruits and vegetables outside of the freezer aisle: onions, apples, lemons, organic salad packs and more are spread across the 17 feet of wall space on this shelf.
Adding produce to these stores could transform access to nutritious food in the United States, especially in small towns. Most have no other options, and rural stores — with their thin profit margins, especially on produce — have long struggled to stay open in towns with few customers.
Grocery advocates have long accused dollar stores of worsening food access in rural America, saying that the discounters’ persistently low prices and business models are killing small grocery stores.
They fear that the extra competition could lead to more shops in rural areas having to close their doors.
Fresh fruit comes to Fruitdale
Fresh jalapeno peppers line the produce aisle at Dollar General in Fruitdale, Alabama on June 24, 2024. Dollar General now offers at least 16 feet of wall space for fresh produce in more than 5,400 stores across the U.S. (Stephan Bisaha/Gulf States Newsroom)
Fruitdale, Alabama, is less of a town and more of a scattering of homes around a high school. The unincorporated community has three churches, one gas station, fewer than 200 residents and no grocery store.
Despite this, Dollar General added fruits and vegetables to its downtown store last year after Washington County residents filed a petition.
Richard Petcher, a local farmer, recently picked up breakfast from the store: whole milk for his goats and organic vegetables for himself to eat with his omelet.
“If I had made a trip to Mobile four days ago, it wouldn’t have been fresh,” Petcher said. “The whole community is very grateful for the Dollar General.”
The discount chain began selling produce in 2003 at its DG Markets, stores that are designed more like supermarkets. In 2017, the company tested selling fresh produce in about 100 of its more traditional stores before expanding its offering to thousands of locations last year.
In January, a press release reported that Dollar General now has more stores selling fresh produce than any other mass-market retailer or supermarket in the country, beating out Kroger and Walmart. Those supermarkets have much larger produce departments, but Dollar General strategically offers the top 20 items normally sold in traditional supermarkets.
The discount chain also has a much deeper reach in rural America — and everywhere else, with more than 20,000 stores. At last count, the three big dollar brands — Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree — have about as many locations as Walmart, McDonald’s and Starbucks combined.
‘We need policy solutions’
The Dollar General store in Chatom, Alabama, on June 24, 2024. The chain expanded to a larger location in Chatom and began selling fresh produce at the new store. (Stephan Bisaha/Gulf States Newsroom)
Since 2022, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has been working to ensure that Dollar General offers healthier options.
A survey conducted by the organization found that customers generally have a positive view of dollar stores, but want more nutritious shopping options. Dollar General employees have heard the same thing from customers, which is why the company has begun expanding its products.
This earned the chain applause from senior policy officer Karen Gardner, but she is concerned about the company’s long-term commitment to offering fresh vegetables.
“I think both, hurray — this is great. And we need policy solutions,” Gardner said.
After all, Dollar General hires few workers without offering many hours, often leaving stores staffed by only one employee at a time. Meanwhile, produce requires more attention than canned food, and much of it must be thrown away when it spoils. It’s a big reason why supermarket margins are so thin, while Dollar General’s decades-long growth spurt has been fueled by keeping costs low and profits high.
Dollar General said it is using artificial intelligence to improve ordering for stores, but the company declined to say whether the production line is profitable and declined to comment on its operations, such as whether it would provide more hours for workers in stores that sell perishables.
Rural supermarkets concerned about increasing competition
Mayor Harold Crouch stands in the produce aisle of his local Dollar General store in Chatom, Alabama, on June 24, 2024. Crouch is confident that competition from Dollar General will only make his city’s local grocery store better. (Stephan Bisaha/Gulf States Newsroom)
Gardner believes communities should consider passing their own dollar store laws.
Dozens of cities have already imposed restrictions on how close together chains can be, while some cities require a certain amount of product that can be sold.
Many of these laws were passed to protect grocery stores, but the actual research on the extent to which dollar stores pose a threat to grocery stores remains mixed. Dollar General officials argue that their stores are a complement rather than a competitor.
However, rural supermarket owners say they have already seen how much the discount chains are damaging their businesses.
When a Dollar General at Cahoy’s General Store, a full-service grocery store in South Dakota, temporarily closed its doors due to a flooded parking lot, sales at Cahoy’s increased by 30%.
The store’s owner, Dan Cahoy, now expects his produce sales to take a hit now that Dollar General is offering its own sales. He also believes it could lead to less access to food in some places.
“Especially for other small towns where their grocery store is struggling,” Cahoy said. “It could lead to some stores closing.”
Grocers at Kansas State University’s Rural Grocery Summit said they give back to their communities more than companies like Dollar General, such as sponsoring youth teams, increasing the amount of money in the local economy and hiring more workers.
Duane Legg, owner of Legacy Food Markets and Bakery in West Virginia, says it’s also difficult for grocery stores to compete with the buying power of large chains and the special offers they get from big companies.
“How can you compete as an independent entrepreneur?” Legg asked.
For Legg, the answer is his bakery and locally produced products that shoppers can’t find at a dollar store. Other grocers said they’ve survived by taking a similar route: working harder, offering healthier options and specialty items.
That’s why Harold Crouch, mayor of Chatom, Alabama, isn’t worried about the Dollar General threatening his town’s only grocery store.
“Without competition, sometimes quality and price go down,” Crouch said. “This helps both of them get better.”
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a partnership between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana, and NPR.
