Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America

As Dollar General opens stores at the rate of three a day across the US, often in the heart of 'food deserts', some see Dollar General as an admission that a town is failing.

It moves into places not even Walmart will go, targeting rural towns and damaged inner-city neighbourhoods with basic goods at basic prices - a strategy described by a former chief executive of the chain as "we went where they ain't".

The chain now has more outlets across the country than McDonald's has restaurants, and its profits have surged past some of the grand old names of American retail. The company estimates that three-quarters of the population lives within five miles of one of its stores, which stock everything from groceries and household cleaners to clothes and tools.

Continued here