The Economy

When things stop working. ... They had a "terrible business plan."

So when business was booming on the back of how artificially overstimulated the "economy" was for a bunch of quarters, apparently they had a great business plan?

People are shopping at Dollar General. They are buying much less. So yes, people are more and more cash strapped. This is obvious from looking at all kinds of other things. And no, it's not that they have stopped shopping at dollar stores alltogether. It's that they are buying less overall.

Throughout 2023, business was booming for Dollar General, and those rural stores they made their focus were doing great.

As recently as earlier this year, their stores were still doing way better than things look right now, even if the handwriting was on the wall that the overstimulation of the country was winding down. ... they were reporting then that people were starting to buy less, even if they still shopped there. And they were starting with promotional markdowns.

What changed isn't that they suddenly shifted to a terrible business plan. That's Monday Morning Quarterbacking. What changed is that people who were buying a lot in their stores are not buying as much now.

 

Dude, despite the same old bullshit you are going to do, I’m not cheerleading for dollar stores or whether the world is better off for them.

I simply know that they cater to lower end consumers, their business was booming and now they are not seeing people buy as much as they were. You told me it makes no sense, because you extrapolated that people just stopped going to dollar stores, like they are still spending but taking it somewhere else. That’s what I am responding to. It’s clear that spending was robust for several years, up and down the spectrum of people. It’s equally clear that places that were killing it are no longer. Same deal with Home Depot now. All the stimulus checks from even people with home equity that turned into home improvement projects have run through. We are still overstimulated on government spending, but we got a serious sugar high that looks to be wearing off. It made prices soar, expanding the number of people on the lower end of the spectrum in this country, and now they are finding it very tough to get by. It’s just reality.