Posted on 12/29/2018 6:41:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
It has become an increasingly common story: A dollar store opens up in an economically depressed area with scarce healthy and affordable food options, sometimes with the help of local tax incentives. It advertises hard-to-beat low prices but it offers little in terms of fresh produce and nutritious items—further trapping residents in a cycle of poverty and ill-health.
A recent research brief by the Institute of Local Self Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit supporting local economies, sheds light on the massive growth of this budget enterprise. Since 2001, outlets of Dollar General and Dollar Tree (which bought Family Dollar in 2015) have grown from 20,000 to 30,000 in number. Though these “small-box” retailers carry only a limited stock of prepared foods, they’re now feeding more people than grocery chains like Whole Foods, which has around 400-plus outlets in the country.
In fact, the number of dollar-store outlets nationwide exceeds that of Walmart and McDonalds put together — and they’re still growing at a breakneck pace. That, ILSR says, is bad news.
“While dollar stores sometimes fill a need in cash-strapped communities, growing evidence suggests these stores are not merely a byproduct of economic distress,” the authors of the brief write. “They’re a cause of it.”
Dollar stores have succeeded in part by capitalizing on a series of powerful economic and social forces — white flight, the recent recession, the so-called “retail apocalypse” — all of which have opened up gaping holes in food access. But while dollar store might not be causing these inequalities per se, they appear to be perpetuating them. The savings they claim to offer shoppers in the communities they move to makes them, in some ways, a little poorer.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The “food desert” paradox
Ashanté Reese, an assistant professor at Spelman College, lives on Atlanta’s Westside, within two miles of a pair of dollar stores. Her zip code was particularly hard hit in the recession, suffering a 50 percent foreclosure rate. Those demographics are now changing, but the residents for a long time included elderly folks and people on fixed incomes—the exact kind of shoppers dollar-store executives have said they are targeting.
There’s also a traditional supermarket, a Kroger, which is where Reese shops. But the one near her house isn’t as nice as the one 15 minutes away, she says. The one in a whiter, more affluent neighborhood regularly advertises grains, nuts, seafood, olives, and wine.
Boo hoo. First world problems.
How many people worldwide would be grateful just to have clean tap water? Even just cold water. How many people’s only access to water is contaminated and requires a trek to an alligator infested pond and back. Flint, Michigan’s water would be a big improvement.
It is not rare to see an EBT card customer with a basket full of junk food, sweets and cigarettes.
Busybodies. Next thing you know they’ll want government run health care.
Those stores are like roaches.
From what I can see, it’s not restricted to poor neighborhoods - those damn things are everywhere. Down the mountain, we have three of them within a couple miles of each other. When my daughter and I went on vacation through the south, it became a running joke to point the things out every five minutes - because in many cases that’s the ONLY store you would see for miles.
Yes, this is the new Black cause.
In the neighborhoods in question, the local folk rip off legitimate grocery stores left and right. Their already slim margins can’t handle this so they close.
Sounds like a golden business opportunity for a leftist/commie. Open 100s of expensive, upscale supermarkets selling lots of organic food, but not bad stuff like beer, wine, etc in every big city, in the poorest areas that are “under-served”. What could possibly go wrong with that!
The ghetto dwellers create their own “food deserts”by shop lifting.Drive the main line stores out of the neighborhood.
This is a “Let then eat cake” analysis of the issue.
Haven’t convenient stores existed for a long time? Were they offering all the nutritional value that people needed? What’s the difference?
Typical liberal pretzel logic.
So,,, Dollar Stores are racist and cause poverty, Who knew???
Good Grief!
In the neighborhoods in question, the local folk rip off legitimate grocery stores left and right.
—
So true.
No talk of minimum wage, either. Increases in it makes these small shops cheaper to operate.
Most Dollar stores are a rip off if you factor in the cost per item/oz/serving/etc...
But I won’t forsake them in neighborhoods where the “po people” that live there make poor life choices and so the only stores that will move there are dollar stores.
I tend to agree with the article, although for slightly different reasons.
In my area 4 new ones popped up over a year.. Simply on my way to the bank. I live in Rural Pennsylvania. I can not stress this enough - I drive 20 miles to my bank and now pass 6 of them.
These stores carry every bit of junk that you can think of, but I have used them. Because it’s so close (And my other nearest option is a Walmart which is basically an up-scale dollar general) I’ve gone there for milk and things like that.
The quality is terrible. But there is a 1 mile trip versus 12 mile trip to a real grocery store (The real grocery store has actual local farm goods and is a blessing on our community) so the poor are making that trip instead. But here is where I vary from the writer:
When you fill shelves with penny items, people don’t save to get those items anymore.
I have this thing with my wife. She is a “cheap clothing” person and I am ... certainly not. She thinks I think I’m a celebrity with my $100 shoes and $80 pants. The key is that I have fiscal discipline and will compare a $5 pair of pants (which is how much, tops, one should pay for Levis) to a $20 pair of designer jeans that last me far longer. I’ve been wearing my Bloomingdales / Macys clothes for well over a decade where the cheaper stuff seems to last about a year.
So she is on the “Go to where its cheaper” side and I am “I’ll save up and get something that will last” sort. The world is not as rich as it was when I was being raised, and now kids are being taught that penny-pinching is saving. Dollar general is the result.
I worked at a grocery store back in the food stamp days. The abuse is real by some.
That said there were some very legit cases of need.
Dollar Tree is a great store!
I dont live in a poor part of town by any means, and I would love to have one nearby.
This is why we need the government to take control of food production and distribution. /ussr
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