Dollar Stores: The Last, and Not So Healthy Eating Choice, Before the Food Lines

[marmar]

Edited to include link



AlterNet / By Habiba Alcindor

Dollar Stores: The Last, and Not So Healthy Eating Choice, Before the Food Lines
Dollar stores may be places to nab a bargain but for many they are the only place to buy food -- the rock-bottom of the food chain, the last stop before the food pantry.

January 30, 2010 |


Dollar stores have proliferated like algae on a pool of stagflation. The 50-year-old Family Dollar chain marked the opening of its 500th store in 1982. By 2004 there were 5,000 Family Dollar outlets throughout America. In a statement for an article published that year in the Baltimore Daily Record, Retail Forward called dollar stores the "hottest and highest growth sectors of retailing." Currently nearly 20,000 dollar stores of every variety dot the landscape. Just last week, the Family Dollar (which has grown by 1,665 outlets in the past six years) reported a 13 percent increase in its stock.

You can find almost any common household item in dollar stores: flimsy but colorful wrapping paper and Christmas decorations, novelty cosmetics and overstock cleaning agents, exotic knick-knacks and discontinued toys. Shoppers from all walks of life are drawn to these places: some to relax, some to stumble upon a bargain, others to cut a few strategic corners that will enable them to splash out on luxuries elsewhere. But a growing number of people shop at dollar stores because they can't afford to shop anywhere else -- and one of the things they really can't afford is food.

Food prices aren't uniformly cheaper in dollar stores; often the same items can be found elsewhere on sale for less. The quiddity of the dollar store is its promise of a single, low price. Psychologically, customers seem willing to accept that they will be overcharged occasionally in exchange for never being overcharged very much while at the same time snagging mostly bargains. Accessing these bargains doesn't require buying in bulk, waiting for a sale or, in some cases, traveling to the outskirts of the city or to suburbs where major supermarkets are often located. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/food/145422/dollar_stores%3A_the_last%2C_and_not_so_healthy_eating_choice%2C_before_the_food_lines

[msongs]

1. our local dollar type s tores sell a lot of fresh fruit and veggies nt

[Dhalgren]

3. Poor folks buy where they can afford to buy;

it isn't the store or the food it is the system that forces this shit. stop the system and health improves; continue the system and health deteriorates...simple, really...

[bobbolink]

19. Thank you for understanding.

I appreciate your sane answer.

I get soooo tired off the pompous, arrogant looking-down-the-nose attitudes of some "progressives" here who insist in stereotyping poor folk as "stupid".

People are just trying to survive the best way they can.

[marshall]

7. I do a lot of my shopping at the dollar stores

I don't consider it a step down or a step to the food pantry or food stamp line. I consider it smart shopping. If they have a product I like and that is cheaper I buy it there.

I also shopped at thrift stores long before Gore recommended it as a way to help the environment.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. You and me both.

Basic things like brand name condiments, sugar, milk, light bulbs, TP, household items,
bread, rice, beans, dog and cat food are cheaper than the grocery store.
and our Dollar store is 3 blocks away. The grocery store is 2 miles away.
Dollar Store has been a staple in the South for as long as I can remember.
Carries no negative connotation for me.

[Kalyke]

23. I agree with you to a degree.

No negative connotation and great for most of the products you list with the exception of bread. I rarely find bread at the Dollar Store than isn't packed with HFCS.

However, I can get good, whole-grain bread at Big Lots, which is Dollar Store that's more "department-story."

[marshall]

26. And you don't have to get dressed up!

A funny anecdote about dollar stores--in one of the local freebie newspapers there was an article about the benefits of shopping there. One woman was quoted as saying "I love to shop at the dollar store--you don't have to get dressed up like you do when you go to Wal Mart."

Who knew Wal Mart was so high class?

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Judging by some of the people I see on the wal-mart people site..

I would hate to see what Dollar Store dressing down would look like.
:rofl:

[robcon]

2. Hurrah for the Dollar Stores.

They fill a need.

[Fire1]

4. They do come in handy. The food stuff, from what I've seen

is extremely limited. I love their pop corn, though.

[LeftyMom]

9. Depends on the chain.

We have two near me, a Dollar Tree and a 99 Cents Only. The former has very little food, just canned food, snacks, candy and bread, almost none of very good quality from what I can tell. The latter has a refrigerator and freezer section, fresh produce, some organics, as well as a lot of name brands.

I've bought a fair amount of food at the latter, at the former I might get a soda from the cooler while I'm in the checkout line, but that's it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. You can also find non food item bargains at Dollar Tree.

[tanyev]

8. Still wildly overpriced. :)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. Minus-Graham's-Number would still be overpriced for THOSE. -nt

[Jkid]

17. I actually found Dude, Where's My Country

...at a dollar store, for three bucks each. Plus they're hardcover versions.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. How could they cost $3 at a Dollar Store?

:rofl:

[Spirochete]

33. So did I

for a dollar. I also got one of Franken's books there too, both were in hardcover

[blueamy66]

6. I love the 99 cent

reading glasses.

And there are soooo many good finds at those stores!

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. The glasses are awesome

Last summer I lost my glasses and I bought a great pair of reading glasses to tide me over till I got my new glasses.

[blueamy66]

27. 1 pair?

I think that I have about 20 pair strewn about my house. :-)

[Skittles]

30. same here

I have 'em all over the place :D

[SoCalDem]

10. I like their 50-cent paper gift bags.. I am always looking for those things

and the cheap tissue paper.. I always give gifts to my helpers, and have to come up with 10-15 bags..all alike, but color coded..and they always have a nice selection..

and often they do have discontinued items that we like.. My husband loved a type of sugar free hard candy that the stores stopped carrying, and we found them there for a buck..

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. I buy most of my school supplies at Dollar Tree

Best pencil bargain ever.

[Dulcinea]

35. Same here.

Every year I have to buy a boatload of school supplies. The dollar store is the way to go!

[Doremus]

11. Be careful buying food at dollar stores. Read your labels faithfully.

Dollar stores are the dumping grounds for a lot of garbage.

[jpak]

12. If you do some label reading, you can put together pretty nutritious meals at dollar stores

but there are a lot of items produced in China I would avoid if possible....

[Jane Austin]

14. Dollar General seems to have a lot of things made in Canada.

I feel pretty safe with those!

[TomClash]

16. For the most part, food should be free, fresh and natural

This is yet another example of the cheap culture the US has become.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

18. Rec'ing this for the comments at the end.

The article is condescending and doesn't address the growing
number of people that can't afford to eat. Also, crappy food
can be found anywhere including Whole foods.

[Mari333]

24. dollar store 1/2 block from me, and this winter

with 4 feet of snow piled up at my door, that place was handy as hell. I go there to buy cat food, tuna for the cats, eggs for the bird, bones for the dog, kitty litter, soap stuff, laundry stuff..all name brands and low low prices.
fuck it, if I took in all these little critters Im going to have to shell out some money, and thats where I go.
I go to Sav a Lot for myself, and hit the farmers market in the summer.
hell, this is a town of 5000 people most of the yr, we dont HAVE a fucking whole foods or trader joes. This is Michigan, where the going wage is 7.25 an hour and most people are poor.
Nothing worse then Food Snobs.

[HippieCowgirl]

25. Read the ingredients & check expiration dates before you buy

But there's nothing wrong with teh food at Family Dollar, Big Lots, or any other number of discount groceries.

[old mark]

28. We found some Del Monte canned pasta sauce at a dollar store - for a dollar!

Bought it later elsewhere for 88 cents...it's OK if you add other good ingredients.


mark

[varelse]

31. It's a vicious spiral

The ethic behind dollar stores is both pervasive and perverse. Employers who seek to maximize their profit margins by slashing wages hire people who in turn attempt to stretch their diminishing dollars by purchasing discount items. Such items come from other companies that compete by slashing their wages, creating yet a lower social strata of consumers.

[knitter4democracy]

32. I prefer Aldi.

I've really looked at prices at Dollar Tree (the better dollar store in our area), Meijer on sale, and Aldi, and Aldi is usually the cheapest. I get the best deals there. Meijer still has the cheaper prices on my personal favorite brands when they put them on sale, beating the dollar store hands-down, but when I don't care about the brand, Aldi's the cheapest. They have saved my food budget and helped me keep feeding my kids healthy stuff (and saved Christmas this year) this year. They're much better than the dollar stores.

[nemo137]

34. Yes, but where I used to live, the Aldi was way out in the boonies

I think they finally added a bus route out there this year, but it was still pretty inaccessible.