With a massive store footprint and a focus on discount offerings, Dollar General is one of the largest and most influential retailers in the industry.
The company boasts a small-box store fleet of 16,368 across 45 states — as of the end of 2020 — and is known for offering low prices on a broad range of products, including cleaning supplies, consumables, and apparel, with offerings typically retailing for less than $10.
The dollar store chain is by no means a new player to the retail landscape, having been founded in 1939 as J.L. Turner and Son before rebranding as Dollar General in 1955. In 2019, Dollar General marked three consecutive decades of annual positive same-store sales growth.
In recent months, the company has doubled down on embracing the selling of perishable products with its DG Fresh initiative, launching a new, more affluent store concept called Popshelf, and continuing to expand into underserved communities — especially in rural areas — that lack convenient and affordable retailers to purchase goods from.
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The brand's ascension beyond direct rivals like Dollar Tree with new offerings and a growing store footprint has prompted some throughout the industry to compare Dollar General's keen focus on low prices and unyielding expansion to the rise of its big-box competitor, Walmart.
Foot traffic analytics firm Placer.ai even found that Dollar General's "cross-shopping" visits from Walmart customers spiked in 2020 by 24.2% between May and July. That's compared to the 19.4% of Walmart shoppers that also swung by a Dollar General store over the same period in 2019.
Insider connected with Dollar General to learn more about the executives working on the brand's biggest initiatives. Four Dollar General executives, including CEO Todd Vasos, spoke with Insider about the future of the dollar store chain. Several others featured also initially joined the company as store workers or managers, over a decade ago.
When 2021 comes to a close, these executives will account for a combined total of 176 years of experience at Dollar General.
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Here's a look at the top power players at the dollar-store powerhouse:
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