Dollar General to add 5,000 jobs, open 600 stores

[Ghost in the Machine]

Dollar General to add 5,000 jobs, open 600 stores

Associated Press - February 4, 2010 2:35 PM ET

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Discount retailer Dollar General says it will add 5,000 jobs as it opens 600 new stores over the next 12 months.

Shoppers have flocked to discount stores during the recession as they look to spend less money on their purchases. During the first nine months of its fiscal year$, General's profit surged while revenue rose 13 percent to $8.61 billion.

The company, based in Goodlettsville, Tenn., says it will add job throughout its operations.

Dollar General says it added 4,000 jobs in 2009. It operates 8,800 stores with about 78,000 staffers.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11934259

[cutlassmama]

1. It's a good store. Like the old "five and dimes" there used to be.

[napi21]

2. I like DG. They opened one about 3 mins from my house about a year ago.

I've never gotten anything there that I was unhappy with. The only problem I see is that most of those 5,000 jobs will be low pay.

[Hannah Bell]

3. Privately held, just in time for Depression 2.0: by Goldman Sachs!

"Dollar General is no longer a publicly traded company. On July 6, 2007, all shares of Dollar General stock were acquired by private equity investors for $22.00 per share. An investment group consisting of affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), GS Capital Partners (an affiliate of Goldman Sachs), Citigroup Private Equity and other co-investors completed an acquisition of Dollar General Corporation for a total enterprise value of $7.3 billion."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_General

[MrModerate]

6. What do you consider the relevance (or implication, if you prefer) . . .

of DG being private at this point?

[Hannah Bell]

7. a good bet.

[MrModerate]

12. As in there'll be plenty of cash-strapped customers in the years ahead? n/t

[Hannah Bell]

15. as in they took it private right before the crash, & they're bringing it public at 10% UE,

when other retail outlets are failing.

[MrModerate]

41. Interesting, but not necessarily immoral . . .

Especially when compared to other KKR shenanigans.

[MrModerate]

4. This sounds good, but does anyone know about their employment practices?

Are these going to be McJobs, on which no adult can survive?

[Kat45]

5. Retail jobs usually are. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

16. i'd bet they're worse than typical retail.

[hfojvt]

10. according to one person I talked to there

they would be better off working at wal-mart, and turnover is fairly high there. I don't shop at the local one any more though, since they decided to treat me like a shoplifter.

[TwixVoy]

18. LOL

They are all full time jobs that pay at least $35,000 annually. They are complete with health care benefits and a pension plan.

They also have a strong union.

[Tunkamerica]

19. lol,

i doubt it, from working in retail for years and seeing the employees there. Maybe regionally they pay 35k; but here, with the help they have, 25k at most.

[TwixVoy]

21. I was being sarcastic

Minimum wage part time with no benefits.

[Tunkamerica]

22. thanks, missed that

[MrModerate]

42. Are you trying to tell me that you can pay workers a living wage . . .

And still make a decent profit? What are you, a Communist?

Happily, I note from your follow-up that it was pure fantasy.

[ddeclue]

8. They sell really terrible quality merchandise (and unhealthy food) at these places.

and this is a sign of a tanking economy. The only reason these stores are booming is that they are incredibly cheap, even cheaper than WallyWorld.

[ohheckyeah]

11. It's a great place to buy cleaning supplies, some

toiletries and generic over the counter drugs.

[Skink]

14. Or Chinese counterfit merchandise.

smuggled in cargo containers.

[Tunkamerica]

20. I'm sure you remeber the mexican toothpaste scare of last year.

these places are notorious for selling unsafe/unrecognized mechandise.

[ohheckyeah]

37. I buy mostly name brands except for

Ibuprofen, which is a generic brand. I've never had any problem with the products.

[JI7]

30. i don't think i would ever buy drugs at these type of places

[ohheckyeah]

36. Why not?

The quality of the generics is no different from the one's at drug stores or Walmart.

[ohheckyeah]

9. That reminded me to suggest

a location to them. It would be nice to have a DG close by. The closest thing to this rural area is over 30 minutes away and at the current time we only have convenience stores close by.

[Quantess]

13. Ah, good news. Some minimum wage jobs to tide us over.

It's better than nothing.

[proteus_lives]

17. More jobs are always good news.

:thumbsup:

[Hannah Bell]

23. sure, even if they're minimum wage, no benefits, displacing slightly over minimum + some benefits.

as better retail situations go under.

[proteus_lives]

26. I work two jobs.

And if I could add another minimum-wage job I would.

Work's work.

[Hannah Bell]

27. you'd probably prefer your third job to pay over minimum wage & have benefits.

i presume. unless you're some kind of masochist.

[proteus_lives]

28. Sure.

But if nothing else was available?

Real-life on line one.

[Hannah Bell]

31. beside the point. there's no cause to cheer when dollar stores are expanding

to take over the markets of traditional retail outlets that paid their workers better.

this development isn't an act of god, it's the result of deliberate policy choices.

[TexasObserver]

24. Recommend

[sandnsea]

25. That's depressing news

They wouldn't add actual stores if they didn't think there were several years of sales to be made. It was bound to happen sooner or later, the investor class and the peons who serve them. Welcome to peon nation.

[JI7]

29. these type of stores always make me feel sad

[TheWatcher]

32. While this will likely be spun as more signs of Economic Recovery by some

This is actually a big preview of what the Oligarchs have in mind for the future of most of the formerly Middle Class.

The New "Eat Cake" Economy.

Welcome To Hell, America.

THIS is your "Recovery."

[MrModerate]

43. Apparently you didn't get the memo about the use of "oligarchs" . . .

Your tinfoil hat with Glenn Beck's picture on it will arrive in the mail.

[TheWatcher]

45. Your "I'm an ignorant jack ass" T-shirt will arrive in the mail shortly as well.

As for your associating me with Beck, you are as mistaken as you are ignorant.

I have about as much in common with that blithering Nazi as you do with enlightenment.

Which is less than zero.

Welcome to my ignore list.

I'll file you under too stupid to think for himself.

On second thought, scratch that.

We'll just put you under too stupid to think.

[MrModerate]

48. Touchy, and gutless too . . .

Here's someone who tosses his credibility in the crapper by queeping on about oligarchs and when it's brought to his attention that he now shares mind-space with a notorious professional asshole, writes a scathing but completely off-target reply and puts me on his ignore list. Standard playground behavior: throw a mudball and run away.

Makes me proud to post.

On edit: should be "his/her." Wouldn't want to be accused of sexism.

[TheWatcher]

49. I'm sorry, did you say something?

:rofl:

[Sisaruus]

33. Product that used to be donated to food banks

is now diverted to the dollar store market.

[Obamanaut]

34. Don't they get a lot of 'made in China' stuff that wasn't selling well

in other stores?

If so, how is that a good thing?

WOuld it be better for the powers that be in Washington to make it such that the US isn't flooded with junk from everywhere?

[Mari333]

35. I have one 1/2 block from me

and in this michigan winter, it helped a lot to pull on some boots and trek down there for dog and cat supplies.
The dollar stores, at this point, are the difference for many people between eating and not eating. The food is atrocious. but it is food and I see a LOT of people in the store when I go in there.
Places like Aldi and Sav a Lot do well in this region also.
it is Michigan.

[BuelahWitch]

39. Aldi seems to pay their people better than most retail

I've seen several want ads where they are offering over $11 an hour plus health benefits (the local cable company starts at $9 for customer service work and their health insurance sucks). I got a nice sized bag of fruit there for $4, and love their ranch salad dressing. Their trash bags are better quality than store brand that are higher priced too.
I'd shop at Aldi's all the time if they offered a bit more merchandise.

[Initech]

38. Starting salary: $1

:evilgrin:

[HughBeaumont]

40. Low wage retail jobs selling cheap Chinese crap. YAY recovery!

Geeeeeeeeez . . . the corporatists will sell themselves the guns to shoot their feet with.

"Hey, here's a great ideee-ur! Let's send everything that made America a steady humming economy in the late 40s - early 70s to parts unknown, pay Americans the same inflation-adjusted wage for three decades, not tax thuh rich, fire workers until the cows come home, cripple unions and instead of rebuilding and retooling things, let's allocate the lion's share of our tax dollars into this great military of ours!! What could POSSIBLY go wrong??"

[jxnmsdemguy65]

44. My girlfriend bought some shampoo from a DG a while back....

it smelled horrible, and looking at the label, said 'Made in Turkey' ... Turkish shampoo???? I've since banned her from going to DG. Only use Avalon Organics from the health good store at $9/bottle. I won't compromise there.

[Neecy]

46. One opened down the street from me last month

I live in a small community of 1200. We have one grocery store, one drug store and one general merchandise store. All of them have sky-high prices because they're the only game in town unless you want to drive 30 minutes to a bigger town.

Dollar General built a brand-new building, hired people at more than the local retailers were paying, and their prices are good. A 15 pound bag of Pedigree dog food is $10 - less than half of what the grocery store charges. Paper towels, laundry detergent, aspirin - all cheaper. If nothing else, it'll stop our local merchants from soaking us. I'm glad they opened a store here.

[Therellas]

47. poison toothpaste for all my friends.

because we're worth it.