The proliferation of dollar stores, usually Dollar Tree or Dollar General, across the United States was already on a furious pace before COVID. These stores put essentials into the hands of Americans at a low price - yes, often a dollar - and served as a critical lifeline during the COVID era shutdowns. They are coming out of the pandemic even stronger, with the number of stores massively expanding and 75 percent of Americans living within five miles of a dollar store. The Washington Post makes this abundantly clear, reporting that “a growing number of Americans are relying on dollar stores for everyday needs, especially groceries.”
A recent study suggests 88 percent of Americans visit these stores, drawn in by the combination of Walmart-like supply chains and 7/11-like ubiquity. But mostly, it’s the low prices. A consumer research firm indicates that almost 60 percent of Dollar General’s customers live in households earning less than $50,000 annually and half of those customers earn less than $25,000. That number is itself a few years old and you, the reader, know the government-caused economic pain and dislocation suffered since then.
Take all those numbers above and then consider the one that matters most: the recent widespread 25 percent price increase at Dollar Tree - following previous price increases at Dollar General - and how badly that hurts the exact people who can afford it the least. I’m from Western PA and I know the neighborhoods - rural, post-industrial, and urban alike - where a dollar store is the only game in town for essentials. That pain is felt directly, and immediately.
Why did prices increase? One big reason is that the Producer Price Index, a measure of the amount manufacturers receive for their goods, has risen 8.6 percent on the year. And the increase at Dollar Tree is a major one - again 25 percent - applying to a significant percentage of their household goods and food products. Nothing at the dollar store costs a dollar anymore, and we all see it and we all know why. The economic disruption and inflationary spending pursued by President Biden and his team of ideologues put us here. That they intend to double down on these policies with more spending in the face of sustained, hard-to-ignore evidence of failure is unacceptable.
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Dollar Tree was the last holdout, sticking to a $1 price point for 35 years, but unable to make it work in Biden’s economy. For years, we heard the Professional Left attack the broadly spread and roundly felt economic success of the Reagan years. They denounced trickle-down economics as elite-driven theory, yet here we are approaching 2022 and the Democrats could apply that same critique to themselves and their own brand of trickle-down economics.
The supposed benefits they extoll never seem to materialize and families at the lower ends of the income ladder are hit the hardest. Families and high school tour groups visit Washington and they see a downtown that doesn’t look very nice. What they don’t see are the thirty miles of McMansions in every direction hidden beneath the tree cover. There is a stark gap in America: you either bought a Peloton in the past year or you didn’t. Rest assured that the Biden administration are members of the Peloton Caucus.
Even in the era of massive and direct-into-your-checking account entitlements, the pace of price increases is leaving families desperate. There are a range of specific economic actions - well within the purview of the federal government - that the Biden administration could be taking to alleviate the inflation and supply chain issues ravaging the American consumer. But they won’t. Their ideology doesn’t allow them to, and no amount of marshaled evidence will shake them from their mistaken assumptions.
That leaves the ballot box, far away given the immediacy of the suffering, but our most powerful tool. And the voters will remember. The Dollar Tree shoppers, for whom this year has been a relentless cycle of frustration, will remember. And even as the news cycle fades and we exit the dollar store era forever, the American people, beset by the everyday indignity of inflation, will remember.
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