Dollar General Fresh Food Fast for Less

There was a time that legacy grocery store executives brushed off the Dollar store sector as non-relevant, no-competition, and as passing fad.  That day has come and gone.  While Aldi, Lidl, and WinCo continue to gobble up market share from legacy grocery stores the Dollar store sector has not been standing still and according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Dollar General continues to gobble market share from legacy grocery stores by expanding fresh food offerings. 

Dollar General Corp. has been carrying fresh produce as part of the retailer’s wider strategy of expanding its perishable offering, and according to the team at Foodservice Solutions® expanding consternation for legacy grocery stores.

Todd Vasos, CEO Dollar General  stated “The remodeling of about 300 traditional stores based on lessons learned from the conversion of acquired sites last year is on track,” noted “The remodels include increasing the cooler set to 34 doors, an increase of about a 160 percent on average from the existing cooler footprint for these locations. This allows for a greater perishable assortment, which helps drive trips and basket size. Additionally, across about a third of these locations, we are testing an assortment of fresh produce. While it’s still very early, initial remodels are yielding strong same-store sales improvements.”

Why is this so important?  Dollar General operates 13,601 stores in 44 states and that alone make them a competitive force much larger than Aldi, Lidl, and WinCo combined.  Dollar General reported for the company’s first quarter of fiscal 2017 ended May 5, it reported a net sales increase of 6.5 percent to $5.61 billion, compared with $5.27 billion in year-ago period.

If Dollar General elects too they could become the low cost grocery leader in the US.  If success does leave clues and it does Dollar General is the fresh food retailer that everyone should be keeping an eye on. 

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant