Reply #28: The right kind of dollar store does well in a high-income area [View All]

[jmowreader]

There are dollar stores in Pinehurst, NC.

Pinehurst is basically a gated community with a zip code. Poor people can't afford to live there. But dollar stores thrive.

The reason is product selection. These dollar stores sell lots and lots of little decorative crap and little of the survival stuff your normal dollar store has. If someone wants to build a Christmas Village in their home, and doing so is popular in Pinehurst (they want to make their own little Biltmore House replicas), they can go to Carolina Pottery in Smithfield, spend $300 and come away with thirty little ceramic houses and some fake snow...or they can go to a dollar store, spend the same $300 and come away with enough ceramic houses and fake snow to fill the living room.

Dollar stores in rich neighborhoods are there because rich people like lots of cheap crap too.