From April 6-12, the NPR affiliate station WBHM reported on the rapid expansion of dollar stores across the American South. Across three segments, reporter Stephan Bisha interviewed ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell and Senior Researcher Kennedy Smith and cited ILSR’s recent report, The Dollar Store Invasion.
Links to all three segments, as well as an excerpt from the April 10 broadcast, follow:
With ‘dollar stores in every direction,’ some communities are saying enough
Dollar stores are everywhere in the South. These 5 charts explain what’s behind their growth
Advocates warn of a ‘dollar store invasion.’ Researchers are still figuring out the consequences
…
Forcing out mom-and-pop stores. Providing fewer jobs while paying less. Harming public health. These are just a few problems caused by dollar stores, according to a recent report from the Institute for Local Self–Reliance.
The report presents the dollar chains as a disease spreading across America, stripping communities of wealth while offering little-to-no fresh food and giving back dangerous, low-paying jobs. Other voices have been joining the anti-dollar store crescendo, with at least 75 communities rejecting the stores since 2019…
…ILSR says waiting years for more studies isn’t an option as the rising dollar store expansion marches forward. After all, Dollar General alone opens about three stores a day.
“If we allow the dollar chains to keep multiplying at this pace, we’re going to look back in 10 years and be very sorry that we did that,” Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the ILSR, said.
…
