The Dollar Store Economy

[n2doc]

The Dollar-Store Economy
By JACK HITT
Published: August 18, 2011

Heather Mann writes a blog called Dollar Store Crafts, which evolved from her occasional trips to the extreme-discount dollar stores near her home in Salem, Ore. Her readers admire her gift for buying really cheap stuff and then making cool and beautiful things from the pile. Her knockoff “alien abduction lamp” is jury-rigged from a small light fixture, two plastic bowls (flying saucer), a clear acrylic tumbler (tractor beam) and a small plastic toy cow (abductee) — all purchased for about five bucks.


As we entered her favorite store, a Dollar Tree in Salem, Mann warned me that I’d have to hustle to keep up with her. “Look at these,” she said. “Cute.” Before I could even examine her find — a rack of smushy yellow chickens on sticks (plastic toy? Garden ornament? Edible peeps?) — she had ricocheted down another aisle, where I found her studying a prominent display garishly pushing a superabsorbent shammy. Mann noted that this was not the famously kitschy ShamWow! but a very cheap imitation called, merely, Wow. The display boasted, “As Seen on TV.”

“As in, you’ve seen the real ad on TV,” she said.

All around, the stacks of products and aisles of merchandise screamed a technicolor siren song. I found four AA batteries for my tape recorder for a dollar ($5.49 when I spotted them the next day at RadioShack), and dish towels that might have sold for $5 elsewhere were just a buck. Mann now brandished something called a “wineglass holder” the way Jacques Cousteau might have held up a starfish. It was a small aluminum device meant to clip onto your plastic picnic plate “for hands-free dining and socializing.” At a price of four for a dollar, it’s a good deal if your world is overrun with miserly wine connoisseurs.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/the-dollar-store-economy.html

[snagglepuss]

1. .

[Systematic Chaos]

2. The dollar stores (99-Cent stores to be precise) around here sell a LOT of groceries.

Including produce, some but definitely not all of which is pretty decent.

[Grrrfun]

5. dollar store food

We have a dollar store of some kind near us with a freezer and fridge section now.

A bag of broccoli caught my eye and I almost bought it but I thought, 'how can they sell 16oz of broccoli florets for a buck?'... flipped it over and read Product of China, and put it back on the shelf... bag of frozen vegs from the other side of the world was cheaper than a local farmer could sell his for.

The brand was one I see all the time TJ Farms I think. Mostly stuff made in the US but some from Mexico and Canada..

Dollar stores couldn't exist without China. I certainly wouldn't disparage the people, just our relationship with them at this time..

How the hell can they make money selling frozen vegetables in Ohio that came from China?

Read the label! as always...

[Systematic Chaos]

14. Oh, we do. And believe me sometimes the quality is 47 steps beneath absolute shit.

We got some frozen strawberries and blackberries from that store once, along with some bananas which we also peeled and froze, to make smoothies.

Both the blackberries and the strawberries had seeds as big and as teeth-breakingly hard as small rocks. It was DISGUSTING!! Not to mention that they were so horribly not sweet that even with a 3:1 ratio of banana to berry the sweetness was completely absent. I never dumped anything else down the sink that quickly in my life.

We get bags of potatoes, corn and peas only. And so far as I'm aware none of it comes from China.

[FirstLight]

3. the article misses something very important, IMO

the NEED for more stores of this type, since so many are struggling to stay afloat...

AND there is also a nasty side to the dollar stores - the makeup contains dangerous chemicals, the kids toys may be more likely to be full of cadmium...etc...i would personally NEVER buy anything food-like at one of those places.

While dollar stores are fun, you have to be careful...just like at grocery outlet, some of the items are dated.
the poor who rely on stores like these really get played on, when they think they are getting a deal, the quality of these things is either unhealthy or downright dangerous.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. I see dollar type stores in a more positive light than you do, perhaps.

There may be confusion in the term "dollar stores".
Down here in the South, there are different kinds of dollar stores.

In our teeny town we actually have:

2 Dollar General Stores,( a chain, all over the SE,)
one "Fred's Dollar Store" ( apparently a chain)
one "Dollar Tree" which I think is also a chain, dunno,

and a generically named "dollar store" which clearly is an outlet store for unsold durable grocery items,
and Made in China rejects, has huge bins of cleaning supplies, TP, last season's garden supplies, a small area of very cheaply made clothes and white goods.

The "Dollar Tree", at least in our town, sells paper and plastic type goods: seasonal wrappings, gift cards/wrappings, tape, essentially a "party store" type of place, has one shelf of reduced price toothpaste, candy, etc.

Fred's has canned food, soda, snacks, cheap clothes and some small furniture items all made in China.
I don't like the store here, rarely have gone in there, it "feels tacky" in a way I cannot explain. But it seems popular.

The Dollar General stores sell both "made in China" cheap stuff and brand name products, including brand name makeup,
brand name health and beauty supplies, etc.
I personally avoid all Dollar General brand food stuffs except for their sugar, but do save money on lots of other things that are twice as expensive in the grocery stores.
They have one store very close to my house, so it is convenient when needed.

Dollar stores are becoming more popular down here, with all types of shoppers.
Locally, our unemployment rate is over 20%.

[sammytko]

11. I found some awesome buys at our new Dollar General - large can of maxwell

coffe for 3.00. It was within a week of expiration, but i didn't care. Tanks tops for 2.00. Brand name cereal, milk, bread about same as military commissary prices. My beloved Libman mop replacement heads. I can only find them at wal-mart which is miles away. This store is just a few blocks from my house.

[jwirr]

9. I agree - have bought t a few things that were obviously old and stale.

My family has learned to use them for things like birthday decorations. Also my young grandson saves money so that he can buy Xmas gifts for all of us in the family - we take him to these stores to shop. He actually go me a beautiful winter hat last year. They are a way to save but you need to watch what you are buying.

[Tallulah]

4. You gotta laugh

Sometimes the articles sound like uppity people are just discovering the dollar stores for the very first time.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. My thoughts exactly

Where has this writer been?

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. I love the alien abduction lamp!

Wow - wish I was that creative. :D

[valerief]

7. It's adorable! nt

[MrMickeysMom]

12. I love it, too.

I hoped someone would post it!

[frogmarch]

15. Instructions for making the Alien Abduction lamp

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2009/03/alien-lamp/

They're for sale ready-made at various websites, and at one, they were priced at over $80! Wow!

[blue_onyx]

13. Dollar stores...

are really the only stores opening near me. Several new Family Dollars have opened within 3-4 minutes of my house.

[TheMightyFavog]

16. Is the dollar store really just the Five and Dime of the 21st century?

:shrug:

[lib2DaBone]

17. The "Dollar Store" song echoes this same sentiment...

Antsy McClain just notes the irony of our race to the bottom... (with tongue in cheek...) but true none the less.

All this while the MSM portrays the American Housewife in High Heels dancing with her Swiffer Mop....
---------------

Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours

"Everything's A Dollar"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA9ul4eixCI


"were in off-brand heaven...they're open until eleven and we're lettin it all soak in...