Dollar Store Sector Garners a Larger Share of Stomach

Battle for Share of Stomach

Just in case you were not paying attention Dollar General with 15,597 stores has one of the largest store footprints in the US. Restaurants, Convenience stores, need to pay attention, to the fact that rival discount chains Dollar General and Dollar Tree each reported quarterly results that indicate improving sales trends due in part to stores evolving to meet a larger percentage of their customer’s shopping needs through food. 

Clearly, the grocery store sector has been the hurt the most from the growth of the Dollar store sector but now as regular readers of this blog know Dollar Stores are selling more and more grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food as Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has been reporting.

Here you go just look at this numbers; Dollar General said sales during its fiscal quarter ending May 3 increased by a robust 8.3%, paced by new store openings and same-store sales gains of 3.8%. Officials said remodeled stores—including an increasing number that have added fresh produce offerings in addition to more cold and frozen items—were outpacing the comp growth overall, with fresh produce offerings at its DGTP models experiencing comps near 15%.

Not to be left out Dollar Tree, which operates the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar banners, said sales in its first quarter ending May 4 increased by 4.6% to $5.8 billion and that comps improved by 2.2% overall.

Looking for a reason to worry? At Dollar General, the addition of food at stores continues to be the chain’s “most impactful merchandising initiative,” CEO Todd Vasos said in a conference call.  The chain’s steady increase in cooler doors since 2013 is also providing the sales volume for the company’s announced move to self-distribution. “In addition to being a great traffic and ticket driver, our success in expanding our cooler footprint has provided the scale necessary to initiate DG Fresh.” The chain added 12,000 cooler doors in the first quarter alone.  Is your restaurant, C-store, or grocery store prepared for this success?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869