Despite the recent news that Family Dollar would be closing nearly 1,000 of their 8,000 American locations, dollar stores are spreading across the country at a staggering rate. Since 2011, the number of dollar stores nationwide has climbed from 20,000 to over 30,000, meaning there are now more dollar stores than Walmart and McDonald’s combined, according to a report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Though they rarely carry fresh fruit, vegetables and meat — and despite likely exacerbating American food deserts — dollar stores are actually the fastest-growing food retailers in the United States, according to a 2023 study from experts at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health.
