Wealthy towns don’t have many dollar stores.  A late friend was involved in politics for nearly 60 years.  Once, he explained he could tell the health of a community by the prominence of Family Dollars and Dollar Trees (by the way, Twin Falls has few when you consider the size of the city).

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But let’s be clear, poverty comes first.  The stores come later.  It’s how the market works and, yet.  Some politicians believe they need to regulate where constituents shop. 

She used the discount stores for cleaning supplies, explaining she saved considerable money by her choice.

A publication called Pacific Standard explains one Midwestern city is making life difficult for dollar store owners.  You can get all the details by clicking here.

I’m not a big dollar store shopper but sometimes I pop into Dollar Tree while driving home.  Great place for wrapping paper and sometimes a spaghetti strainer.  Many years ago I interviewed a guest who advised people on household spending.  She used the discount stores for cleaning supplies, explaining she saved considerable money by her choice.

Still, some people who believe they’re smarter than everyone else insist it’s a bad choice for you to drop into Family Dollar.  They want to pick what you eat and drink.  Or perhaps order you to eat the “right” foods.  Again, because they just know better.

A tasty tidbit from the Pacific Standard story.  Profits for dollar stores soared when Barack Obama expanded the food stamp program.  In many neighborhoods it’s because there’s no other option.  You can’t force Fred Meyer into a town where it can’t make a profit.  Stores not making profits go out of business and large chains must answer to shareholders.  And the politically correct won’t say it but in some neighborhoods there are tremendous “losses”.  When I worked in retail, this was called “theft”.

The dollar stores have business models designed to overcome these obstacles.  Property and product investments are lower and thanks to the previous President, they were given a large subsidy from taxpayers!

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