🌊 Inside Dollar General’s Takeover of America

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By Max Frost

Eastern Kentucky

For miles, we drove through the dense forests of Appalachian Kentucky, past the hollers and trailers, the former one-room schoolhouses, and the occasional Pentecostal church. 

There are few businesses in this remote country. Some people have to travel 40 miles for work or to see a doctor. But on the way to those places, you will inevitably see a towering yellow sign with two words: 

Dollar General. 

And if you keep driving, you’ll see another, and another. 

On this fact rests an empire: Dollar General has more retail stores in America than any other company. It has nearly five times as many locations as Walmart, 10,000 more US outlets than 7/11, and 7,000 more American stores than McDonald’s.

Is that good or bad?

“Campbell’s This and That” in Jackson, Kentucky, provides a glimpse of America sans Dollar General. The business has passed through generations of the Campbell family and is now owned by Kenneth Patrick and his wife, Joy, whose parents owned the business before her.

Inside is everything the Patricks can get their hands on: Workout equipment, calculators, Trump flags, DVDs, protein shakes, potato chips. It’s wall-to-wall with stuff people need or want. As goes their slogan, “It’s possible that [we] may have anything you need.”

While the demise of coal mining has hurt Jackson, the store has provided a foundation for the Patrick family. Both in their 40s, Kenneth and Joy were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary on the day we visited. They met as kids at the local community swimming pool, which no longer exists. 

Kenneth was recently elected as an independent to his first term on Jackson’s city council. His focus is on bringing jobs and a swimming pool to Jackson: 

“We’re trying to bring back more businesses,” Kenneth said. “I’ve got two daughters and I’d like to keep them here.” 

Kenneth’s competition is Dollar General. 

Dollar General claims to have a store within five miles of 75% of the American population. Soon, that figure will be even higher: Between February 19 and June, Dollar General was the best-performing company on the S&P 500. Its stock is up 43% so far this year, pushing the Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based business to a $24B market cap. It’s using its heft to expand rapidly, with plans to open 575 new stores in the US this year alone. 

Dollar General says that expansion is good for communities: “We believe each DG store and distribution center represents positive economic growth for our communities through the creation of local jobs, as well as opportunities for employee development and career advancement,” its website says. 

But there’s more to that story.

Beattyville, Kentucky has the unfortunate title of being the “poorest white town” in America. The demise of coal mining and a series of devastating floods have left the town’s 1,300 people with a median household income of just $12,341, slightly below Mexico’s per capita GDP. On the main strip is a joint Family Dollar/Dollar Tree. Just up the road is a Dollar General. 

In a corner parking lot, two seniors were selling fireworks out of a shipping container. They were being helped by their 15-year-old grandson, who seemed wise and intelligent beyond his years. When I asked what he planned to do after high school, he said he would follow his 21-year-old brother’s footsteps to become a welder and find work around the South. 

“Most of the cities around here don’t have a lot of jobs since the coal left…so I guess we all go out for jobs,” he said. The work that did exist, he said, was at Dollar General.

“There’s more of them than there are family-owned businesses. A lot of the family-owned businesses have been drove out by Family Dollar, because they can’t keep up with the prices and the product that they keep in the stores.”

“It happened real bad in Esther County,” he said. “We had a Family Dollar in Esther County, then the store across from them, Dollar General bought them, and the Family Dollar shut down within three months.”

“Dollar General, they come in, they have more product, they can keep product on the shelves longer, and everybody goes to them.”

Locals can’t compete with Dollar General’s ability to procure inventory, including produce. They also struggle to compete in finding and paying staff. “Campbell’s This and That,” for example, is operated by Kenneth and Joy, the owners. When they can’t work, the store can’t open. 

As one of their recent Facebook posts says: 

Regardless of whether mom or dad is undergoing radiation, Dollar General will be open.

In one remote holler, a man named Dellie told us that he regularly walks 11 miles to the Dollar General to get his groceries. He spoke of Dollar General the way a New Yorker may talk about the A-train or an Angeleno the 304 – a vital part of life that everyone knows intimately. 

And herein lies the dilemma: Dellie, like many other people in poor parts of rural America, can’t find work and can’t afford a car to travel to a job or a supermarket. Dollar General is his lifeline. 

Yet before Dollar General, people survived. There were mom and pop shops and businesses that supplied them. Inflation, competition, and labor shortages have put those businesses under tremendous pressure, forcing many, if not most, to close. 

“I heard they’re putting a Dollar General within five miles of every American,” Dellie said. If that were to happen, would any mom and pop shops be left?

Editor’s Note

We’re very curious to read your thoughts on today’s piece. Mom and pop stores have been declining for decades. Is Dollar General the problem or the solution? Let us know by replying to this email. 

We’ve got a number of other reports upcoming from Kentucky. We think you’ll enjoy them.

Also, if you missed any of this week’s stories, find them below: 

• America’s Most “Honest” Historian

• Free Speech Dies at the Pub

• The Robert Maxwell Story Pt. 3

• The Robert Maxwell Story Pt. 2

• The Robert Maxwell Story Pt. 1

Thanks for reading Roca, and enjoy your weekends.

—Max and Max