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Dollar General Corp. is a chain of variety stores operating in 35 U.S. states. The chain operates over 9,000 stores and its headquarters is located in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. The stores were founded in 1939 by Cal Turner in Scottsville, Kentucky as J.L. Turner & Son, Inc. In 1968 they changed the name to Dollar General Corporation.[1] As of the third fiscal quarter of 2007, the company was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & CO (KKR), a private equity firm, who took the company public in 2009.[2][dead link]

Dollar General stores are typically in small shopping plazas or strip malls in local neighborhoods. The company acquired the 280 stores of the P.N. Hirsh Division of Interco, Inc. (now Furniture Brands International, Inc.) in 1983 and in 1985 added 206 stores and a warehouse from Eagle Family Discount Stores, also from Interco, Inc. In recent years, the chain has started constructing more stand-alone stores, typically in areas not served by another general-merchandise retailer. In some cases, stores are within a few city blocks of each other.

Dollar General offers both name brand and generic merchandise — including off-brand goods and closeouts of name-brand items — in the same store, often on the same shelf.

Although it has the word "dollar" in the name, Dollar General is not technically a dollar store because it has some goods that are priced at more than a dollar. However, goods are usually sold at set price points of penny items and up to the range of 50 to 60 dollars, not counting phone cards and loadable store gift cards.

Dollar General typically serves communities that are too small for Wal-Marts. It competes in the dollar store format with national chains Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, regional chains such as Fred's in the southeast, and numerous independently owned stores.

Since the turn of the century, Dollar General has experimented with stores that carry a greater selection of grocery items. These stores (similar to the Wal-Mart Supercenter, but much smaller) operate under the name "Dollar General Market".

Recently, Dollar General began selling produce, meat, and baked goods in new stores called "Dollar General Market" in former supermarket locations, even though this idea is similar to the Dollar General Market


Strengths

* Privately owned - no bias for short term thinking to satisfy Wall Street
* The value proposition: price and convenience
* Targeted shopper base
* Financial health relatively good; low debt
* Large scale, centrally managed

Weaknesses

* High turnover / labor challenges
* Increasing operating cost structure
* In-store execution very inconsistent
* Inconsistent sales/store

Opportunities

* Improving sales productivity of existing buildings
* Optimize supply chain, inventory levels, and in-store execution
* Dollar General Market
* Improving supply chain and efficiency
* New stores: nowhere near format saturation

Threats

* Increasing proportion of consumables has significant margin impact
* Economic pressures on core customers (fuel, unemployment)
* Wal-Mart overlap
* Global sourcing under pressure with exchange rate fluctuations
 
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