Democrats Continue War on Poor People: Talks of Banning Dollar Stores

[Half-Life]

I was watching Fox News and they were talking about how out of touch the Democrats are with this idea. They were saying, "These rich elite Democrats might have all this money to buy their Kale from expensive grocery stores like Whole Foods, but poor people don't have that option. A poor family on a tight budget needs to get food from a dollar store in order to survive. Talks of banning this would only make the poor starve even worse than they are now."

I agree with this. This is a horrible idea. The poor needs cheap options for themselves. You can't just expect them to go to Whole Foods and buy a $15 sandwich for dinner for their family. Going to the dollar store and getting a huge box of Mac&Cheese gives you more food for your buck.

I hope the poor people wake up and realize that the Dems never cared about them.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/19/business/dollar-general-opposition/index.html

"Advocates of tighter controls on dollar stores say the big chains intentionally cluster multiple stores in low-income areas. That strategy discourages supermarkets from opening and it threatens existing mom-and-pop grocers, critics say."

Oh no! Dollar stores provide food for people at an affordable price! In the words of Greta Thunberg, "How dare you!"

 

[Derec]

My county has just put a moratorium on those stores.
DeKalb County imposes moratorium on dollar stores

It is correct, but also obvious, that these stores would cluster in poorer areas. For example, there are two Family Dollars on Glenwood Rd. (kind of a hood) a couple of miles from each other.

I can see the real issue behind some criticism, that they do not sell any fresh food and thus supposedly contribute to "food deserts". However, it is supply and demand. If there was demand for real grocery stores, they would be built. I am far from Glenwood Rd. but there is a dollar store within 4 miles of my house. The thing is, it is in the same strip mall as a real grocery store with fresh food. So I am not convinced banning dollar stores will do anything as mere existence of them is not the reason why grocery stores are not thriving in those neighborhoods.

 

[Patooka]

Learn about 19th century plutocracies and then come back to me about the virtues of deregulating large chain oligopolies, for fuck's sake.

 

[Derec]

Learn about 19th century plutocracies and then come back to me about the virtues of deregulating large chain oligopolies, for fuck's sake.

What do 19th century "plutocracies" have to do with 21st century stores?

 

[Half-Life]

Learn about 19th century plutocracies and then come back to me about the virtues of deregulating large chain oligopolies, for fuck's sake.

Are you saying that banning the dollar stores are a GOOD THING?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

My county has just put a moratorium on those stores.
DeKalb County imposes moratorium on dollar stores

It is correct, but also obvious, that these stores would cluster in poorer areas. For example, there are two Family Dollars on Glenwood Rd. (kind of a hood) a couple of miles from each other.

I can see the real issue behind some criticism, that they do not sell any fresh food and thus supposedly contribute to "food deserts". However, it is supply and demand. If there was demand for real grocery stores, they would be built. I am far from Glenwood Rd. but there is a dollar store within 4 miles of my house. The thing is, it is in the same strip mall as a real grocery store with fresh food. So I am not convinced banning dollar stores will do anything as mere existence of them is not the reason why grocery stores are not thriving in those neighborhoods.

Exactly. Low-effort food sells well in poor areas. If fresh food sold well to poor people the dollar stores would carry it.

 

[southernhybrid]

There are so many dollar store in my small city, that I doubt poor people or anyone else will be denied the convenience of shopping at them. Plus, some dollar stores now do offer fresh fruit and vegetables. I can't remember the name of the large one about 25 miles from where I live, but my former patients always loved going on shopping trips to that store. It's not just poor people that love dollar stores. I live in a city of about 25,000 and there are at least 6 or 7 dollars stores in town. Maybe that's enough, don't ya think?

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

What's wrong with Dollar Stores? I use them frequently. I can buy lots of basic stuff there. Didn't even know they sold food.

 

[TV and credit cards]

And then when they’re all showing up at the Emergency Room with obesity related illnesses you’ll be pissing and moaning about having to pay for their healthcare, complaining there’s no reason they shouldn’t exercise. Exercise is free. They should be jogging. Then when the cops shoot them for running from the law you’ll say, serves them right. They were running. Must have done something wrong.

 

[ZiprHead]

What's wrong with Dollar Stores? I use them frequently. I can buy lots of basic stuff there. Didn't even know they sold food.

If you didn't know they sold food, you've never been in a dollar store.

 

[Half-Life]

What's wrong with Dollar Stores? I use them frequently. I can buy lots of basic stuff there. Didn't even know they sold food.

There's nothing wrong with them. They just think they can close all dollar stores and the poor can just go shop at Whole Foods instead!

They can't fathom people actually NOT having the money to do that. They probably think if poor people need money, they can just go to the ATM like they do.

 

[Half-Life]

And then when they’re all showing up at the Emergency Room with obesity related illnesses you’ll be pissing and moaning about having to pay for their healthcare, complaining there’s no reason they shouldn’t exercise. Exercise is free. They should be jogging. Then when the cops shoot them for running from the law you’ll say, serves them right. They were running. Must have done something wrong.

Just because you can buy food at a dollar store doesn't mean you have to eat like a glutton.

Go there and buy 1 can of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. It doesn't mean you have to eat 6 cans for dinner.

 

[Derec]

Then when the cops shoot them for running from the law you’ll say, serves them right. They were running. Must have done something wrong.

You don't see a difference between running for exercise and running for police after committing some crime? And never mind that police don't shoot people simply for running from them, but do so when they think the running person may be armed and pose a threat.

As in this case, where the "jogger" had a gun and had committed armed robbery before the encounter.

Exactly the same as getting some exercise, right?

If Half-Life is Underseer's parody sock puppet, I wonder if you may be dismal's.

 

[southernhybrid]

What's wrong with Dollar Stores? I use them frequently. I can buy lots of basic stuff there. Didn't even know they sold food.

There's nothing wrong with them and nobody is going to close them. Don't listen to Halfie's lies. Most people buy at least some things at dollar stores. Some of them only sell junk food, but there are some larger ones, at least in Georgia, that have small grocery sections where they sell vegetables and fruit.

 

[Half-Life]

What's wrong with Dollar Stores? I use them frequently. I can buy lots of basic stuff there. Didn't even know they sold food.

There's nothing wrong with them and nobody is going to close them. Don't listen to Halfie's lies. Most people buy at least some things at dollar stores. Some of them only sell junk food, but there are some larger ones, at least in Georgia, that have small grocery sections where they sell vegetables and fruit.

I didn't write the article I linked in the OP.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

What's wrong with Dollar Stores? I use them frequently. I can buy lots of basic stuff there. Didn't even know they sold food.

There's nothing wrong with them and nobody is going to close them. Don't listen to Halfie's lies. Most people buy at least some things at dollar stores. Some of them only sell junk food, but there are some larger ones, at least in Georgia, that have small grocery sections where they sell vegetables and fruit.

I have been to plenty of dollar stores. The most food there I've seen is a small aisle for candy and chips, put alongside the may rows of various cheap household stuff like soap and lightbulbs etc.

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

What's wrong with Dollar Stores? I use them frequently. I can buy lots of basic stuff there. Didn't even know they sold food.

There's nothing wrong with them and nobody is going to close them. Don't listen to Halfie's lies. Most people buy at least some things at dollar stores. Some of them only sell junk food, but there are some larger ones, at least in Georgia, that have small grocery sections where they sell vegetables and fruit.

I didn't write the article I linked in the OP.

Nor did you read it, apparently. If you had, you would have noted the ACTUAL issue being addressed (emphasis mine):

Advocates of tighter controls on dollar stores say the big chains intentionally cluster multiple stores in low-income areas. That strategy discourages supermarkets from opening and it threatens existing mom-and-pop grocers, critics say.

"The business model for these stores is built on saturation," said Julia McCarthy, senior policy associate at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest and a critic of dollar stores. "When you have so many dollar stores in one neighborhood, there's no incentive for a full-service grocery store to come in."
...
But lawmakers around the country are pushing back.

Last week, the city council in Birmingham, Alabama, unanimously approved legislation that would prohibit new dollar stores from opening within a mile of their existing locations.
...
Other local residents and business leaders worry that dollar stores' concentration in urban areas deter grocery stores, which offer a wide range of produce and healthy options, from opening.

"There are almost 100 dollar-type stores in a ten-mile radius," said Fort Worth Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray. "They are heavily located in low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods, which makes their presence feel predatory."

100 in a ten-mile radius? Fucking hell. That's approaching Starbucks saturation.

By the way, what makes you think "business leaders" in these communities that are the ones evidently pushing the local legislatures to stop the clustering are all Democrats? Are all "moms and pops" small business owners just axiomatically Democrats in your fevered imagination?

 

[Derec]

100 in a ten-mile radius? Fucking hell. That's approaching Starbucks saturation.

100 in a 10 mile radius is less than a third of a dollar store per square mile. Doesn't seem that dense. According to your link, peak Starbucks saturation is >2 per square mile. So it's not really approaching in any sense of the word. Note also that Starbucks is a single company while dollar stores is a type of store, with multiple companies in the segment.

 

[zorq]

Half-Life's whole argument depends on the false dichotomy that people can only buy groceries from dollar stores OR Whole Foods, exclusively. Of course we all know that, as with all the arguments that Half-Life proposes, the internal logical fallacies defeat them before any of us even need to respond. To be clear to any dense readers who can't identify a false-dichotomy, lots of grocery stores are less expensive than Whole Foods, and they aren't dollar stores.

But what about the underlying premise that dollar stores are an affordable option compared to grocery stores? Well it turns out that's BS as well. Just as my instincts have told me, shopping in a larger chain grocery store is usually more affordable than what is on offer at a dollar store. Here's an article confirming it.

Dollar Stores are Ripping People Off- The Guardian

So which party is in a war against poor people?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There are so many dollar store in my small city, that I doubt poor people or anyone else will be denied the convenience of shopping at them. Plus, some dollar stores now do offer fresh fruit and vegetables. I can't remember the name of the large one about 25 miles from where I live, but my former patients always loved going on shopping trips to that store. It's not just poor people that love dollar stores. I live in a city of about 25,000 and there are at least 6 or 7 dollars stores in town. Maybe that's enough, don't ya think?

I periodically see an ad from a local one in the ad pack in Sunday's paper, they always have some fruit offerings.