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Dollar General is expanding its offerings to include home furnishings, kitchenware and party supplies, in a bid to attract wealthier customers.
Roughly 75 percent of the bargain chain’s $25 billion in sales comes from such low-margin items as food; cleaning and household supplies; and personal-care products, but these have been squeezing the profit margin, reports CNN. So over the past year, Dollar General has been introducing such items as home decorations, pillows and candles. These will be on the shelves in roughly 2,500 Dollar General stores by year-end — about 15 percent of the chain's 15,000 units nationwide.
Dollar General is also opening produce sections offering healthier snacks, as well as a private-label cosmetics brand, CNN reports. To boost its traffic still more, Dollar General has forged alliances with FedEx for package deliveries and dropoffs, and also with Western Union for wire transfers.
The Goodlettsville, Tenn.–based chain is also in the midst of an $825 million campaign this year to open nearly 1,000 new stores, on top of remodeling about that many mature stores and relocating roughly 100 others.
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT