Dollar General Going Grocerant

Millennials are like the rest of us time starved, price conscious consumers will soon be welcoming a new entrant into the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food niche.  Dollar General announced this week that they will roll out a new prototype for all its stores in 2016.

Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos announced during an earnings call that the new store type will offer speedier checkouts, a greater focus on perishables and health and beauty, and a more customer-friendly shopping experience.

Vasos continued "The consumer will be able to and have faster, more convenient checkout, an attribute that is a high priority for our core consumer, We have value engineered the design to be capital efficient and easier to operate for our store teams."

Filling in with fresh, the goal of the prototype is to emphasize perishables and help moms find quick meal solutions or fill-in items, Dollar General will expand cooler penetration across store bases. This was prompted by research that shows a basket with a perishable item is nearly 50-percent higher than the chain average.

"This is a big opportunity that we know how to capitalize on, as we have already increased the cooler count on average by just over 50 percent since 2008," Vasos noted. Overall, consumables made up 75.7 percent of Dollar General's revenues last year, up from 63 percent a decade ago.

Dollar General is well positioned to capitalize on this trend given thier brand offerings and price relevance While restaurants and C-stores have been building sales momentum within the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food niche. Now that Dollar General has entered the mix the price, service, quality equilibrium will be resetting once again.  Are you prepared? Do you need outside eyes?

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