Dollar General and Family Dollar are not "dollar stores". A "dollar store" is like Dollar Tree, where everything is a dollar. This article conflates the two.
I think the issue is rural areas aren’t viable, even tourism is proving too labor intensive.
I’m “summering” in a rural part of NY and Dollar General is a bigger messier version of a sundries shop. They don’t have the value-size packages of items but they do have various price points of trash bags for instance.
Probably due to competition from big box stores at the distributor level it’s expensive/competitive to get product across vast depopulated areas to stores so there are few of them. And the local economy can’t support enough stores to cover the land mass.
Dollar General tackles this and prices it in but also cuts the overhead of a full-service grocers like a deli counter, butchers and produce.
There are a few full-service grocers for the affluent business owners, tourists and people at their lakehouses. They’re usually near a few fine dining restaurants and a weekly farmer’s market.
Propane delivery companies probably look predatory if you look at the areas they serve. No telling how fast they will consolidate nationally like retail has.
