--- title: Here's Why Dollar General Is Booming Amid the Retail Apocalypse description: There is no retail apocalypse for Dollar General, or dollar stores overall. Dollar General stores keep increasing, as new stores open. authors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2019-12-09T18:09:14.000Z' modified: '2024-05-17T04:29:14.000Z' section: Business tags: - dollar stores - Retail word_count: 357 canonical: https://money.com/dollar-general-sales-store-openings/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![US-WEATHER-ENVIORNMENT](https://img.money.com/2019/12/dollar-general-sales-increase-1155289802.jpg) Apparently, everybody still loves shopping for [deals at the dollar store](https://money.com/dollar-stores-best-deals/). Dollar General continues to shine even as its retail brethren [close stores](https://money.com/sears-stores-closing-kmart/) at record levels. The discount variety store just [posted sales](https://investor.dollargeneral.com/news-releases/news-release-details/dollar-general-corporation-reports-strong-third-quarter-2019) of about $7 billion for its fiscal third quarter, up 9% year-over-year. “The quarter was highlighted by our best customer traffic and same-store sales increases in nearly five years," CEO Todd Vasos said [in an earnings call](https://seekingalpha.com/article/4310839-dollar-general-corporation-dg-ceo-todd-vasos-on-q3-2019-results-earnings-call-transcript) on Thursday. Dollar General plans to open roughly 1,000 new stores throughout 2020, Vasos said, in addition to opening hundreds of new stores in 2019. The last decade has been one long victory lap for Dollar General, which has grown profits and opened thousands of stores as dozens of other U.S. retailers fall victim to the "retail apocalypse." Dollar General stock is up roughly 600% over the past 10 years. As *Money* previously reported, Americans significantly increased spending more of their hard-earned dollars at discount chains during the 2007-2009 recession, which devastated bank accounts and forced consumers to lead less expensive lifestyles. According to [one widely-referenced study](http://business.time.com/2011/12/09/are-there-really-more-dollar-stores-than-drugstores-in-the-u-s/ "(opens new window)"), there have been more U.S. dollar stores than drugstores since 2011. Today, about 75% of Americans like within five miles of a Dollar General, but the bulk of the company's locations are in small towns with few other places to shop, [NBC News reports.](https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/thousands-retail-stores-are-closing-so-how-dollar-general-opening-n1095791) The majority of Dollar General customers earn less than $40,000 per household. “The economy is continuing to create more of our core customer,” [Vasos told the *Wall Street Journal* in 2017](https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-dollar-general-became-rural-americas-store-of-choice-1512401992). “We are putting stores today \[in areas\] that perhaps five years ago were just on the cusp of probably not being our demographic...and it has now turned to being our demographic.” Dollar General currently has more than 16,000 stores in the United States, and it's rapidly expanding. Compare that to stores like Forever 21, Payless, and other once-thriving shopping staples that have recently filed for bankruptcy or gone out of business entirely. As of this writing, U.S. retailers have announced more than 9,300 store closures in 2019, according to [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/stores-closing-in-2019-list-2019-3). Experts [predict tens of thousands more](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/10/retail-apocalypse-now-analysts-say-more-us-stores-could-be-doomed/) stores to shutter within the next five years. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/dollar-general-sales-store-openings/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Retail", "item": "https://money.com/retail/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's Why Dollar General Is Booming Amid the Retail Apocalypse" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/dollar-general-sales-store-openings/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/dollar-general-sales-store-openings/", "name": "Here's Why Dollar General Is Booming Amid the Retail Apocalypse", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2019-12-09T18:09:14.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/dollar-general-sales-store-openings/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/dollar-general-sales-store-openings/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-17T04:29:14.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Here's Why Dollar General Is Booming Amid the Retail Apocalypse", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2019/12/dollar-general-sales-increase-1155289802.jpg", "width": 4774, "height": 3183, "caption": "US-WEATHER-ENVIORNMENT" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristen Bahler", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/#author", "description": "Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. 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