City Journal:
About 20 years ago, academic researchers began describing poor urban neighborhoods without supermarkets as “food deserts.” The term captured the attention of elected officials, activists, and the media. They mapped these nutritional wastelands, blamed them on the rise of suburban shopping centers and the decline of mass transit, linked them to chronic health problems suffered by the poor, and encouraged government subsidies to lure food stores to these communities. Despite these efforts, which led to hundreds of new stores opening around the country, community health outcomes haven’t changed significantly, and activists think that they know why. The culprits, they say, are the dollar-discount stores in poor neighborhoods that—or so they claim—drive out supermarkets and sell junk food. Never mind that compelling research suggests a lack of supermarkets isn’t the problem—let alone the popularity of discount stores.
This latest front in the food wars has emerged over the last few years. Communities like Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Fort Worth, Birmingham, and Georgia’s DeKalb County have passed restrictions on dollar stores, prompting numerous other communities to consider similar curbs. New laws and zoning regulations limit how many of these stores can open, and some require those already in place to sell fresh food. Behind the sudden disdain for these retailers—typically discount variety stores smaller than 10,000 square feet—are claims by advocacy groups that they saturate poor neighborhoods with cheap, over-processed food, undercutting other retailers and lowering the quality of offerings in poorer communities. An analyst for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, for instance, argues that, “When you have so many dollar stores in one neighborhood, there’s no incentive for a full-service grocery store to come in.” Other critics, like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, go further, contending that dollar stores, led by the giant Dollar Tree and Dollar General chains, sustain poverty by making neighborhoods seem run-down. “It’s a recipe for locking in poverty rather than reducing it,” an institute representative told the Washington Post early this year. read more
And it has NOTHING to do with all the shoplifting, that drives grocery stores out of business! 🙄
The state of a political subdivision’s problems are ALWAYS caused by some other entity, and not the political “leaders” in office. And as political “leaders” they will pass resolutions and laws designed to punish the alleged problem-makers, all the while exacerbating the problem, to which the political “leaders” will find another scapegoat to punish, and the swirling flush cycle continues until the political subdivision is beyond repair and control.
More likely some corporate company is looking to eliminate competition, and democrat politicians are taking payoffs.
Is there anything the retarded left won’t bitch about?🥴
“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”
“Let them die and decrease the surplus population.”
Since not even the vaunted Federal Government can accurately detail a proper nutritional diet (remember the Food Pyramid) why not let the discount stores take a crack at it!
Dollar stores have no ‘deals’ in them. Well, very little. If you look at the package count /pricing versus the package county/prices at regular grocery stores, you’re getting ripped off. I guess peoples eyes glaze when they see $1 price tags on everything. 😀
MJA is correct. What you’re buying, at best, is not value but convenience when WM is 5 miles away while DG is up the street. Still, I’d much rather they be around than not.
For the Leftist, everything has to be blamed on something other than the people involved in the problem.
Convincing people they are victims who have no responsibility for the results of their actions is how they get their support.
Oh please. Your ignorance and bias is showing. You can find plenty of items that are in the big chains that are way cheaper. I spend $300 a month there that would cost me $400 or more at the big chains.
I got in touch with my inner self last week. It is the last time I buy single ply toilet paper from a dollar store.
Scum Lefties.
Ban what little that was left that was fun or good,
open the cells and release the murderers and crimially insane while holding back the cops. They are already bad.
Soon the cities will be all “Escape From New York”
places Not to be.
Scum Lefties.
Ban what little that was left that was fun or good,
open the cells and release the murderers and crimially insane while holding back the cops. They are already bad.
Soon the cities will be all “Escape From New York”
places Not to be.
BTW. I like dollar stores for a variety of things
that are better, cheaper and more available than
the big markets. It demends on what dollar store
you shop.
DG isn’t the place to go grocery shopping, at least the ones I have shopped, unless you just need a few items and you do it for the convenience.
I do buy other item like toilet paper, detergent, and like items, because they tend to have lower prices for those items.
The dollar stores around me in this very small town (with a WM and two grocery stores) do sell food items that can be used to create healthy meals (nothing fresh, because they’d lose their shirts if they tried to compete with grocery stores). The problem is that many of those who have poor diets do so by choice, because they’d rather go to an early grave than cook something for themselves or their families.
“DG isn’t the place to go grocery shopping, at least the ones I have shopped, unless you just need a few items and you do it for the convenience.
I do buy other item like toilet paper, detergent, and like items, because they tend to have lower prices for those items.”
I was thinking the same thing. Savings on paper goods and some supplies, yes. Food though… are they kidding?
Dollar stores are better than nothing. Really don’t think these stores were ever meant as primary food sources, instead they are convenient stores. “Convenient” being the operative word. So yeah, you pay more for it.
There are bargains sometimes available at stores like Dollar General. The product quality is very good. I have bought frozen fruit and vegetables 16 oz bags at the Dollar Store, a different franchise, for a dollar and they were delicious and fresh. Also, there was a decent variety to choose from.
BTW, There are is no such thing as “food deserts” in this country. That’s another manipulating lie from the left. The “poor” are not starving in the United States of America. They have amenities – federal welfare programs, sometimes jobs, homes, smart phones, lots of clothing, cars and plenty of food, the real poor in the rest of the world could only dream they had.
I go to DG once in a while because its 1 mile away. Grocery chain store is 8 miles away. Simple maths.
Dollar stores are a symptom of societal problems, not a cause. That said, if people want to shop there, it’s their right to choose. The only parts of a dollar store operation the government should be involved with are issuing the construction permit and collecting sales tax.
From what I see in my area is Dollar General stores popping up everywhere, even in the middle of nowhere. Don’t see it as a very intelligent business model as its gotten to the point that there are so many and so close to each other that they are literally competing with themselves.
Trump had the right idea with the ‘box of commodities’ rather than EBT cards. If someone is not hungry enough to eat grains and beans, they are not needy enough to get EBT (sprouts can provide greens). Learning how to cook cheap stuff like that would be valuable for people trying to get out of poverty – QUIT BUYING JUNK/ LEARN TO DO THINGS!
The only meat provided should be Spam – if your religion forbids it, you’re not hungry enough. Fraudsters would not likely be willing to take boxes of grains and beans due to storage and handling problems. And who would want to buy 2nd hand commodities from angry blacks and moslems? The street value would be just about 0.
So the leftist rats want to take the decisions of where to grocery shop out of the hands of citizens by limiting the number of Dollar Family stores in an area. The assumption, I guess, is that big stores will move in to fill the void, like Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart probably can compete based on it’s low prices and greater choices. So if it moves into these areas, can we expect the liberals to stop bitching about Wal-Mart?
Or would they prefer to have a high-price chain like Vons in Southern California set up stores in those places? Then the poor slobs will end up with fewer choices because they won’t be able to pay the high prices for a lot of items.
To get a liberal to see reality takes a bullet in his head.
Also the commodities could be stamped with a code. If some stuff given to you is found in a restaraunt/ bar/ moslem run convenience store – you are not hungry enough.
I heard that one opend up inside a Starbucks…
Instead of removing people’s choices whatever they may be. How about putting your own dollars in play and open up the store of your choice. Stop taking people’s freedom. The idea of free market is a better product for less money if you can’t do that leave other people alone. I’m tired of this, don’t get me started on the paper bag plastic bag thing, good lord of all the problems to want to solve. Does anybody think this is going to matter when the derivatives and unfunded liabilities crash? Probably somewhere around 700 trillion dollars? Fix that first.
Dollar GEn & Family Dollar are better than the 7-11 type convenience stores for food, which is what they should be compared to. Picture yourself poor, without access to transportation, and Wal-Mart/Vons/Safeway is 5 miles away but Dollar General is 3 blocks. In that way it’s at least a choice over the corner gas station/quicki-mart 1 block away.
“Oh please. Your ignorance and bias is showing. You can find plenty of items that are in the big chains that are way cheaper. I spend $300 a month there that would cost me $400 or more at the big chains.:”
Ignorance and bias? woah woah woah… Take it easy, Chachi! I didn’t say I NEVER GO TO THOSE DOLLAR STORES!!! 11!! Again. Look at the price points and then look at the quality and the quantity of the items you are buying compared to other places (walmart, target) Try it in all the different dollar chains. Or don’t. IDGAF. Next time you’re in a dollar store, buy some faux-lax to help the stick fall out of your ass. You are way too uptight. lol
I’m not here to forbid a motherfucker to go anywhere. Shit.
Have a nice day.
Poor diets?
Yet we have the most obese “poor people” in the world.
Dem schools apparently also don’t teach proper nutrition, among many other things.