Family Dollar cancels plan to buy small town's only supermarket

[Newsjock]

Source: Sacramento Bee

A handful of 60- and 70-year-olds vowed this week to throw the biggest party their tiny Amador County town of Pioneer has ever seen after the Family Dollar chain canceled plans to buy the community's only supermarket.

The residents' cheers concluded a protest that began in early April when they learned that the owner of Young's Payless Market, on Highway 88, had agreed to sell his store to Family Dollar, a North Carolina company with more than 7,400 stores nationwide.

The switch would have left nearly 6,000 residents of Pioneer and the surrounding foothills driving nine miles on a winding road to Pine Grove to buy fresh meat and produce. Residents launched a petition drive, amassing 4,000 signatures urging Family Dollar to stay away.

... Employee Bill Albers, who started working at the store in 1995 under a previous owner, said Young was pressured into selling because Family Dollar threatened to open across the street if he didn't.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/01/5462834/protests-in-amador-town-force.html

[customerserviceguy]

1. We'll see how that works

Family Dollar will build their own el cheapo shop across the street, and the Payless Market will lose a lot of money on all the stuff that FD undercuts them on. That meat and produce is going to have to get pretty expensive to make up for it, and a lot of the town residents will just stock up on those things when they hit the supermarkets on their trips to Pine Grove for other things they can't get in Pioneer.

In the end, all that will happen is that Young will have cut his own throat for these folks. Hope they flip him a Slim Jim when they leave Family Dollar, he'll probably need the food supplement.

[shanti]

3. not so fast

this is a local story here. apparently, the guy who owns the lot across the street from the market has refused to sell it to family dollar. also, family dollar prefers to buy preexisting locations, not empty lots. they decided to move on after the brouhaha.

the power of the pocketbook won here!

[sammytko]

6. Does family dollar sell meat and produce?

Last edited Sun Jun 2, 2013, 09:00 AM - Edit history (1)

Ours is next to the only grocery store in town and both are doing fine.

I don't shop there, though, I drive eight miles for more variety.

[LeftInTX]

7. Not the last time I was there!!

They sell old candy bars, cookies and that type of thing. Some of them have a small freezer where they sell popsicles. (Like the kind at the gas station) The stuff in the freezer is not discounted like the rest of their products.

[customerserviceguy]

9. No, and that was my point

Eventually FD will find a place to locate (they obviously targeted this town for some reason) and the locals will buy anything they can get from FD from that store, instead of buying at the existing store. Stores can lose a lot of money on perishable items like meats and produce, they make more of a solid markup on the packaged goods that FD sells.

When this store is faced with the choice of raising the prices of meat and produce, because they're not making the markup on packaged food items, or going out of business, they'll probably choose the former. Then, picking up extra meat and produce on from that store down the winding road doesn't seem like a bad thing to the residents of this town.

They'll have to drive the FD out of the town by boycotting it, and we've all seen how well that works with Wal-Mart. Sure, there's a lot of protest and handwringing by the local chamber of commerce, then the town's residents all shop at WM, driving the locally-owned business out of the market. Then, locals wonder why Wally World upped the prices.

[PM Martin]

2. It is up to people to decide this.

If the Dollar Store opens, the locals must not shop there, it is that simple.

[dembotoz]

4. or was it a failing grocery store that found a buyer and wanted out

small grocery stores are a tough business

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. someone is lying in this story

[LeftInTX]

8. I agree!

I think the grocery store is struggling.

Family Dollar denied the accusation. In an emailed statement, Winburn said the company decided to buy Young's store only after "learning the owner was planning on closing the business."

We've got lots and lots of those places around here. They take over distressed properties. Kind of a win-win because those stores fill a niche in low income areas. I don't think they would funnel much business from a grocery store. They're more likely to funnel business from Wal-Mart.