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Should city governments dictate where you can shop for food? If your neighbors see a need for a store, and happily patronize it, should outsiders shut down that option?<\/p>\n
These are the battle lines of the emerging movement against dollar stores. Tulsa, Oklahoma<\/a>, Mesquite, Texas<\/a>, Dekalb County, Georgia<\/a>, New Orleans, Louisiana<\/a>, and other municipalities nationwide are trying to limit the number of dollar stores that can serve their population.<\/p>\n The people who actually shop at dollar stores love them. The most frequent customers are seniors on fixed incomes, cash-strapped students, and busy parents. If you don\u2019t have a car or access to public transit, there\u2019s probably one within five miles of your house. If you drive, there\u2019s a dollar store on your way to just about anywhere.<\/p>\n Only Dollar Tree still prices all its goods at $1, but Family Dollar and Dollar General might have 10,000 products for that price, and reasonable deals on $2-$10 goods. It\u2019s a place where almost anyone on any budget can splurge a little on treating themselves.<\/p>\n Sixty-two percent of adults surveyed by brand intelligence firm Morning Consult say Dollar Tree \u201chas a positive effect on my community<\/a>\u201d (compared to 51 percent for Starbucks and 59 percent for Target).<\/p>\n People who can afford more choices\u2014driving out to a big-box store, buying in bulk, ordering online, patronizing a farmer\u2019s market\u2014simply can\u2019t see the perspective of someone for whom the dollar store is the most practical option.<\/p>\n Relatively wealthy dollar store detractors exhibit the obliviousness of an out-of-touch aristocracy. According to legend, Marie Antoinette, queen of France, when told that her subjects were going hungry for want of bread, responded blithely, \u201cLet them eat cake.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, politicians and middle-class activists seek to ban sources of $1 bread with an unspoken, \u201cLet them eat Whole Foods.\u201d<\/p>\n Opponents of dollar stores often contradict each other or even themselves.<\/p>\n Critics objected<\/a> when suburban growth sent stores running for whiter, more affluent suburbs. But dollar stores\u2019 explicit attempts to reverse this trend\u2014to set up affordable retail options in poorer, underserved neighborhoods\u2014are somehow also the target of scorn.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also hear critics claim dollar stores engage in \u201cpredatory\u201d behavior by offering prices that are simultaneously too low<\/a> (undercutting potential competitors) and also too high<\/a> (as compared to a per-unit cost at the Costco 15 miles away).<\/p>\n Haters complain retail jobs offered by dollar stores are \u201clow quality and low-wage<\/a>\u201d but also that dollar stores don\u2019t create enough<\/a> of these low-quality, undesirable jobs. One is reminded of the Woody Allen line complaining about a restaurant\u2019s \u201cterrible food…and such small portions!\u201d<\/p>\n A Tulsa councilwoman begrudgingly confirmed that dollar retailers offer essentials like toothpaste and school supplies, bread and eggs, in areas where supermarkets \u201chave consistently failed<\/a>.\u201d Why this is condemnable, rather than laudable, she does not explain.<\/p>\n With backward economic thinking<\/a>, CNN claimed<\/a> dollar stores \u201climit poor communities\u2019 access to healthy food,\u201d blaming low-cost retailers for the gaps they try to fill.<\/p>\n Bans on walkable, ultra-affordable stores do nothing to increase the availability of fresh food; they merely stamp out the only existing option.<\/p>\n So if not those surface-level concerns, what\u2019s really driving dollar-store bans? Could it be a simple lack of empathy?<\/p>\n In the neighborhoods and rural areas where dollar retailers are most popular, they offer affordable groceries to those with tight budgets, packed schedules, and limited mobility.<\/p>\n These laws are proposed by people who don\u2019t shop in dollar stores and can\u2019t understand why anyone would want to.<\/p>\n A planner and architect<\/a> from Baltimore said dollar stores<\/a> were popping up in poorer neighborhoods, \u201clike a parasite.\u201d Bill Torpy, columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitu<\/em>tion said County Commissioners were right to be \u201cdisgusted\u201d as dollar stores moved in (the headline has since been changed to \u201crightly sees little value in\u201d).<\/p>\n Residents of Chester, Vermont, rejected a proposed dollar store because residents feared \u201cthe beginning of the end for Chester\u2019s Vermontiness<\/a>.\u201d Dollar store skeptics nationwide say they value \u201ccommunity character\u201d and reject the \u201cunsightliness\u201d of dollar store signage.<\/p>\n For people with cars, free time, and disposable income, \u201cjust drive two miles to the grocery store\u201d may seem like benign advice. But for people just getting by, it\u2019s dismissive of their real challenges.<\/p>\n If the same work had been done by a food bank\u201430,000 locations providing ultra-affordable, shelf-stable groceries, concentrated in areas with the most need\u2014would we applaud it?<\/p>\n Perhaps, but only if the signage were subtle and they weren\u2019t close enough that people could walk to them. We wouldn\u2019t want to look like the kind of neighborhood that needs those.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not wrong to care about community character or beautiful streets. But it\u2019s an injustice to care about them so much that you\u2019ll use government power to block (other) people\u2019s access to affordable bread, pencils, and toilet paper. And it adds condescending insult to injury to claim to be doing so \u201cfor their own good.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Laura Williams\u00a0 teaches communication strategy to undergraduates and executives. She is a passionate advocate for critical thinking, individual liberties, and the Oxford Comma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cTerrible food…and such small portions!\u201d<\/h2>\n
A Failure to Relate<\/h2>\n
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\nLaura Williams
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