There were "five and dime" stores back when prices for the stuff they sold were that low. By the time I was shopping in Woolworth's and Newberry's in the '50s, "five and dime" was already way out of date due to inflation, although the term was still used by the older generation. And they had departments and regular stock that they ordered, unlike most of today's dollar stores. (Woolworth's had a terrific "notions" department, for instance--thread and needles and pins and yarn and hooks-and-eyes--including drawers and drawers full of Simplicity patterns for home sewers.)
I doubt dollar stores have ever made more of a profit than five-and-dimes. In most cases the dollar stores' goods are not "costlier" (and many of the stores, around here at least, are quite small, much smaller than the old five-and-dimes). I don't think you're taking inflation into account; the dollar stores' business model is very different than that of the five-and-dimes. There used to be "five and dime" stores too. Dollar stores probably arise out of the fact that bigger stores wanted to devote their precious shelf space to costlier hence more profitable items. It appears that Dollar Tree eliminates vendors coming in to stock the shelves so a Dollar Tree truck just delivers all the inventory. The companies who set up deals with Dollar Tree probably just send their truckload(s) to a central warehouse. This obviously eliminates a lot of cost. There also appear to be jobbers who supply the independent dollar stores in much the same way. Difference is that some of these stores will have additional items priced at more than a dollar. We just lost the nearby independent that just stocked dry goods not food like Dollar Tree. There was something said about the town council having something to do with pushing them out while a steak house went in to the location. More taxes from a steak house than a dollar store. On 01/16/2014 07:47 AM, Share Long wrote: Ann, I think dollar stores began with the idea that everything in the store cost one dollar. That idea has not been realized. Instead I think it's proved itself to be a clever marketing device to get people to come into the store and shop, thinking they're saving money. On Thursday, January 16, 2014 8:18 AM, "awoelflebater@..." mailto:awoelflebater@... <awoelflebater@...> mailto:awoelflebater@... wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <sharelong60@...> mailto:sharelong60@... wrote: Richard, I love the Dollar General in FF. The manager is really nice. We also have Family Dollar. But my favorite is Dollar Tree which we don't have in FF but there is one in Annapolis and I shop there when I'm visiting my family. These dollar stores are a new development in my life and I have NO idea what's going on with that! It always makes me laugh that these types of cheapo stores are called "Dollar" stores because any store that handles US or Canadian currency are technically "dollar" stores. On Wednesday, January 15, 2014 9:57 AM, Richard J. Williams <punditster@...> mailto:punditster@... wrote: On 1/15/2014 9:24 AM, Share Long wrote: > Richard, here's my debit card adventure, a card which I NEVER use. > Except I had to in order to purchase gifts cards from the grocery > store here. They wouldn't let me use my credit card! That didn't seem > right to me but I went along with it because I was eager to finish my > Christmas shopping! I think I'm a slave to convenience. > Yes, we used to use our debit card at stores and at the gas station. After reading about the the online hackers at Target and Neiman-Marcus we won't be using our debit cards there any more! Now, we just use the credit card at SAKS and get cash out of the ATM at the bank for shopping at the Dollar General, which is only a few blocks away. Go figure.
