A dollar goes a long way…sometimes all the way to hell. The dollar stores in the US sell varieties of household goods for a dollar—a lifesaver to millions of low-income families. But investigations reveal the underbelly of dollar chain stores during hard times—from worker exploitation to unhygienic conditions. The warehouse of the Family Dollar Store in Arkansas was infested with rats, mice and birds: breakfast cereal and sunflower seeds spilled on the floor mixing with rat faeces, bird droppings on chocolate protein shakes and baby wipes stained with urine. Local authorities fined the store $42 million. After the warehouse was fumigated and closed, 1,270 dead rodents were found. The store relocated this year to Oklahoma. It is up and ailing.
Economic experts say dollar chains have become real-time indicators of the financial stress—or wellbeing—of American low-earners. They are sort of emblematic of the “state of the union”. In good times, they thrive. Over the past decade, dollar chains added 12,500 new stores—more than Walmart, Target, Costco and other big supermarket chains put together. In bad times, sometimes they thrive even more—as financially stressed Americans who were slightly higher on the income ladder struggle to make their dollar go further.
Different chains of dollar stores dot poorer urban neighbourhoods, weary suburbs and dreary countryside. Over 40 per cent of dollar store customers live on welfare—part of the 42 million citizens receiving doles that cost the US government $1.1 trillion annually. Data shows 90 per cent of Americans drop into dollar and Walmart stores.
Dollar stores popped up 70 years ago offering cheap items for a dollar—toiletries, housewares, popcorn. Over the years, most chains increased prices marginally, some just to $1.25, while others offered plastic plants, candles and frozen pizza for a few dollars more.
Covid was stressful for the dollar chains. Many workers, especially women, quit to look after at-home children. Short-staffed stores had one employee to run the cash register and restock shelves. Safety inspectors found mounds of merchandise blocking emergency exits, electrical panels and fire extinguishers. They fined Dollar General $12 million. Acute staff-shortage forced some stores to unman shop floors and introduce self-checkout. Shop-lifting exploded.
Still, Covid-stimulus doles swelled customers’pockets and dollar chains’profits soared. Their share prices surged. All was well until Covid ended and the doles stopped. Inflation and rising interest rates increased house mortgages and car loans. Precarious finances meant using credit card to buy food—emblematic of America’s huge and unsustainable national debt. Household debt alone totals an unprecedented $17 trillion. Stores now face higher purchase prices and dwindling customers. Profits and share prices have plummeted.
How the working classes feel about the economy will tip the scales in November’s presidential elections. Dollar store customers traditionally voted for Democrats. Not anymore. Some veer to Donald Trump, others to cynicism—“why vote?”Above all, dollar stores symbolise American inequality. Low-earners have no money to buy proper food as basic healthy items like fruit and vegetables are unaffordable. “We eat cheap popcorn—every day,”says Elvira Gomez, a Hispanic hotel worker. The Bulgarian economist Ivan Krastev once said, “The poor do not fear the end of the world. They fear the end of the month.”
Retail businessman Adam Ifshin, who leases properties to dollar stores, says, “You cannot overstate the importance of these types of chains to a household that lives pay cheque to pay cheque.”The Almighty dollar can take you to heaven or to hell. It all depends on your pay cheque.
Pratap is an author and journalist.