The short answer is no.
The longer, more complicated answer is that dollar stores could contribute positively to food desert communities, but this would require changes in store operations, government policy, zoning, health inspections, SNAP enforcement, and other areas.
Dollar stores would not provide an adequate replacement for a community having at least one quality grocery store. At least as they operate currently, dollar stores do not solve food desert conditions. In fact, in many cases, they can worsen them. Chain dollar stores can compete with independent and quality grocers, contribute to an imbalanced retail environment, and bring down the overall shopping tone of a neighborhood.
Chain dollar stores describe themselves as affordable, convenient, and nimble. They can quickly fill vacant retail spaces, and dollar stores are now almost everywhere. Dollar General, for example, has more than 21,000 stores nationally.
We are invited into many policy conversations about dollar stores and the fact that access to one, or many, does not automatically mean access to healthy food. In fact, dollar stores often provide mostly unhealthy food options high in salt, fat, and sugar and low in nutrients.
Most dollar stores are fringe food stores. Learn more about how we define mainstream and fringe food stores in our FAQ.
These are serious problems.
We have firsthand witnessed chain dollar stores with spoiled milk and other spoiled products. In our inspections, it is not uncommon to find busted coolers and freezers, dripping foods that were once frozen, and store employees who say repairs can take months, if they happen at all.
During one of our inspections, an employee told me, “This hurts us [employees], too, we have nowhere else to shop.”
Stores can be shabby, with outdated food items and cases of product stacked haphazardly on aisle floors. Often, trash litters the exteriors, and sometimes broken windows are simply boarded up rather than fixed.
Dollar stores and grocery stores also operate very differently. They are not interchangeable, even if they sometimes appear to fill similar gaps on the surface.
Grocery stores have higher-skilled workers, such as butchers, and often offer better pay, benefits, and opportunities to move up the ladder into good-paying careers. Mainstream grocers also sell a wide range of fresh and healthy foods that support different dietary and nutrition needs. They can attract other quality food stores and retailers, strengthening the broader market.
The majority of people reading this blog likely have access to at least one quality grocery store, if not many. But imagine if your only local options for in-person grocery shopping were a Dollar General and perhaps a gas station convenience store.
But here’s the real question:
Can Dollar Stores Do better?
We say yes and we’re willing to help.
Why It’s Critical to Help Dollar Stores Improve & Be Part of a Lasting Solution
For decades, I’ve studied neighborhood retail. Neighborhood shopping districts that are declining will continue to decline unless concerted effort is made to right the course.
Markets that are saturated with dollar stores can continue to dominate and bring the market down. One reason we need to help dollar stores improve is simple: they are here, and they are likely here to stay.
Dollar stores have expanded rapidly across the United States, particularly in communities where supermarkets have closed or attracting new grocery investment has proven difficult. If we help them improve, we help the communities they are in, and markets everywhere.
I have also studied food access patterns for decades. One thing that consistently gets overlooked is this: not all food retailers serve the same function in a community.
Some improve the market; fringe food stores that dominate can bring it down.
There is room for diverse market players, but striking the right balance is key.
It might seem counterintuitive that food stores can do better when there is healthy competition for the food dollar, but it’s true. When different food stores agglomerate, each store must sharpen its competitive advantage to survive, and the collection of these stores can attract shoppers when the overall retail environment is positive.
This mix can certainly include a dollar store. But, again, dollar stores should not dominate the market. Diversity in food store options that includes high-quality grocery stores can help those grocery stores and other food retailers, too.
Read more about why grocery competition can benefit consumers, municipalities, and the market.
Customers are not brand loyal, nor are they completely store loyal. They shop at different food stores for specific items. This trend has been growing since the 1980s but is especially true today.
Dollar stores also exist in higher-income markets, often near many kinds of quality food stores. People of different income levels shop at dollar stores for different reasons and purchase specific goods.
Dollar stores have carved out a niche for inexpensive, although often unhealthy, foods and other items. For many residents, these stores provide convenient access to household goods, packaged foods, cleaning supplies, and everyday necessities.
Yes, items might be “off brand,” but a greeting card, packet of plastic cups, an oversized box of Milk Duds, and a can of soup can be purchased in most cases for just a dollar or two. Dollar stores participate in SNAP, even in some cases when they do not meet the program standards.
From a convenience standpoint, they absolutely provide value. That accessibility matters.
What Dollar Stores Do Well
Issues aside, dollar stores often help communities by providing:
- Convenient neighborhood shopping
- Affordable packaged foods
- Household essentials
- The ability to utilize SNAP benefits
- Employment opportunities, although typically part-time with limited benefits
- Reuse of vacant commercial buildings
Dollar stores have many nagging negatives, but their positive aspects should not be overlooked. In many communities, they meet immediate needs that residents would otherwise have difficulty accessing.
And they certainly understand how to work the market and turn a good profit.
The question isn’t whether dollar stores have any value. It’s how they could have more value in a way that lifts the market and community up.
Where Dollar Stores Fall Short & How to Fix It
In my research, I distinguish between mainstream food stores and fringe food retailers because they offer very different levels of access to healthy food.
Dollar stores are mostly fringe. In food desert communities, mainstream food store options are absent but sorely needed.
A quality grocery store, which we code as mainstream, acts as a community anchor by offering:
- Fresh fruits and vegetables
- Meat and seafood
- Dairy products
- A broader range of staple groceries
- Employment opportunities
- Additional retail attraction
A food desert community can become a food oasis and support both. But this requires policy, program, food safety, and public health compliance.
Dollar stores sometimes break the rules and get away with it. This is because no one makes them do otherwise. SNAP officials need to make dollar stores, and all SNAP-authorized retailers, comply with the rules of the program.
The standards themselves are already low. We should raise the standards and enforce them.
Some will argue that certain communities only have these retailers and therefore they should not be removed. But if non-compliant retailers are required to comply, or are removed from the program, other retailers can fill the niche.
I would rather have fewer SNAP-authorized stores that actually comply with program requirements than a saturation of fringe stores that do not provide healthy food options.
Local health departments also have an important role to play. Food stores with spoiled, expired, or otherwise unsafe products should be cited and required to correct those conditions.
Most dollar stores don’t offer the full range of fresh, healthy, and balanced grocery options that households rely on week after week. If they improve their healthy food offerings, food environment, store conditions, and workforce practices, they can fill a meaningful void.
A family cannot always purchase everything needed for balanced, affordable weekly meals in one trip.
As a result, residents may still need to travel elsewhere for healthy food, creating additional transportation costs and barriers, particularly for older adults, families without reliable transportation, and individuals with mobility challenges.
More friction just to complete basic grocery shopping.
That’s an important distinction when we talk about “solving” food deserts. Simply increasing the number of food retailers does not necessarily improve the quality of a neighborhood’s food environment.
How Can Dollar Stores Be Encouraged to Improve?
In short: carrots and sticks.
From their perspective, the market is already working well for dollar stores. Communities should not simply sit back and watch the damage unfold. They can take action to encourage better practices, stronger food access, and healthier neighborhood retail environments.
Here are some of the ways we help communities, cities, and counties:
- Evaluate all food stores. We code food retailers as mainstream or fringe and examine their distribution patterns across the community.
- Assess mainstream grocers at risk of closing. We identify the causes of decline and develop strategies to proactively address them.
- Work directly with grocers. We can confidentially discuss challenges with individual grocers and identify ways to support the retention and, when appropriate, expansion of mainstream food options.
- Assess the commercial tone of the market. We provide professional analysis of whether dollar stores and other fringe food retailers are dominating, or trending toward dominating, a local market.
- Analyze potential health impacts. We can statistically assess whether the absence of enough mainstream grocers and the presence of too many fringe food stores may be associated with diet-related health impacts.
- Develop an action plan. When fringe food stores are contributing to negative market conditions, we can help communities develop strategies to strengthen the local market and expand healthy, affordable grocery options.
- Engage the community. We can survey residents about their concerns and interests and organize town halls to present research findings and facilitate community input.
Communities can also consider additional policy and regulatory strategies, including:
- Enforcing SNAP retailer requirements. Many fringe retailers do not comply with the program’s existing standards. Communities can support stronger enforcement and the removal of non-compliant retailers from SNAP.
- Increasing health and food safety enforcement. Local health departments and other agencies can monitor stores for spoiled, expired, and otherwise unsafe food and enforce applicable requirements.
- Reviewing minimum-distance or density rules. Communities can consider whether there should be limits on the concentration of dollar stores in a particular area. In one rural Mississippi County of approximately 19,000 people that we assisted, there were only two quality grocery stores, both near the county border, compared with seven dollar stores across the rest of the county. Our field assessment also found spoiled products, broken freezers and coolers, and expired food at one of the dollar stores.
- Reviewing zoning policies. Local governments can examine whether existing zoning rules support or undermine a balanced retail environment.
- Considering temporary moratoria. Short-term holds, ranging from roughly 100 days to 18 months, on new permits can give communities time to review and potentially update municipal plans and codes.
- Mapping vulnerable areas. Communities can identify food deserts and other vulnerable districts and develop corresponding strategies to address their specific needs.
The goal should not simply be to have more food retailers.
The goal is to create a healthier, more balanced retail environment in which food stores contribute positively to the community.
And yes, dollar stores can be part of that solution, but only if they improve, comply with applicable standards, and contribute to a stronger local food environment.
Why Grocery Stores and Dollar Stores Serve Different Roles
This is where I think a lot of conversations oversimplify the issue.
Grocery stores and dollar stores should not be viewed as interchangeable. They serve different functions within a healthy retail ecosystem.
Dollar stores provide convenience, supplemental purchases, and value-oriented shopping.
Quality grocery stores provide a broader range of fresh and healthy foods, support regular household food needs, and can serve as important anchors for other retail.
Healthy communities can benefit from both, rather than expecting one retailer to perform the role of the other.
This distinction becomes especially important when local officials evaluate food access policies or recruit new retail investment.
The Best Solution Is a Balanced Retail Environment
There is rarely a single solution to food deserts.
Successful communities focus on creating balanced retail environments that include quality grocery stores, complementary retailers, pharmacies, transportation access, and supportive neighborhood conditions.
Strong retail also tends to attract additional investment. This is a concept I frequently discuss in my research through neighborhood retail dynamics and long-term market sustainability.
Rather than asking whether dollar stores should replace grocery stores, communities should ask:
How can every retailer contribute to a stronger neighborhood food system?
That shift in thinking often leads to more sustainable solutions.
About Mari Gallagher
Mari Gallagher is the founder and principal of Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group and a nationally recognized expert in food access, grocery market analysis, hyperlocal data modeling, and community health. Her groundbreaking food desert research helped shape national conversations about equitable food access and continues to influence public policy, community development, and market-based solutions nationwide.
Work With Mari Gallagher
For more than two decades, I’ve helped communities, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and government agencies better understand neighborhood food access through research, market analysis, and hyperlocal data.
Whether you’re evaluating grocery recruitment, food deserts, pharmacy deserts, or the Meal Deficit Metric, my work is grounded in helping communities make informed, evidence-based decisions.
If your organization is looking for data-driven strategies to strengthen access to healthy food, I’d love to connect.
Contact Mari Gallagher to learn how research, mapping, and market analysis can support your community’s goals.
