this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Not from the US and not super familiar with dollar stores, so/but this was a fascinating watch. Terrible how they drive independent grocers out of business in small towns and their role in urban food deserts is interesting and horrifying.
I can't imagine having no access to fresh food. I live in a European city and in a 500 meter radius I probably have ten places where I can buy some sort of vegetable, fruit, dairy product, fresh bread, etc. Not to mention countless restaurants where I can also eat.
What I did wonder: in poor urban areas in the US, are there no small shops catering mostly to immigrants? In most places I've lived there are quite a few smaller shops that have products (including produce) from specific regions where many residents of the area are from. So like a Turkish bakery or some shop run by Colombians I sometimes go to that has plantains and queso fresco and stuff. I would think that especially in the US with so many immigrants you would have loads of those kinds of shops.
I think one thing to keep in mind is how absolutely MASSIVE the US is -- even the smallest state in the US is larger than a handful of European countries.
It's very common for people to live a 30+ minute drive from cities and/or their workplace, and in these more rural areas, it can be unsustainable to open small shops, because of reduced traffic...and people are shopping at the "super centers" in the city.
Yeah that's a fair point and I understand this is the case in more rural areas, but what about Atlanta like discussed in the video? There you would have loads of people living in a certain area and although they might not have a lot of money, wouldn't their desire to buy the foods and products of where they're from be a lifeline for these small shops?
In many European cities there are supermarkets but also smaller greengrocers, also (or even especially) in poorer neighbourhoods with a high immigrant population.
I don't understand why the economics for those shops would be different in the US and why you wouldn't have them in less economically developed areas in cities such as Atlanta. Perhaps because dollar stores don't really exist here, but here they need to compete with bigger supermarket chains that do operate in all parts of the city.
I'm in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota and have at least four different small grocers within 500m. At 2km, I have at least four supermarkets and dozens of smaller options. Minnesota is also weird in how much fresh produce gas stations have because no one wants to make two stops in winter. Overall, Dollar General is actually pretty uncompetitive comparatively.
Atlanta is an outlier because of low population density. Additionally, the poor in Atlanta are brutally poor. Income disparity is pretty crazy. $5.15 is the state minimum wage.
Not that it really matters because both are obscenely low, but national minimum wage is like 7.35, so that's the lowest it can be.
Only for employers subject to FLSA. Tipped employee minimum wage is $2.13.
Yeah, but anything short of the 7.35 has to be made up by the employer.