About Dollar General: An Introduction
Dollar General is among the leading retail brands in the United States with a store count of above 17,000 in 2021.
The company has sharply expanded its footprint in the United States in recent years and operates its stores across 46 states in the US.
Dollar General also experienced a sharp improvement in its financial performance during 2020 driven by increased investment in technology, digital technology and a focus on marketing.
The US retail industry has grown highly competitive where a large number of big and small brands are competing aggressively for market share and customer base.
In the recent years, the use of digital shopping channels in the US and other countries has increased a lot leading to almost all leading retailers adopting an omnichannel retailing strategy and serving customers through both digital and physical channels.
Dollar General has also increased its focus on digital commerce and technological innovation to strengthen its competitive edge.
It is operating in a hypercompetitive environment where there are several tougher rivals with much stronger financial and other capabilities.
The company focuses on a smaller product assortment compared to Walmart, Costco or other leading retail players. However, its pricing strategy resembles that of Walmart and the company also sells a wide range of products that are available for one dollar or less.
Dollar General is experiencing intense competition from rivals of all sizes including large and international brands with a global footprint and other smaller players that operate with a smaller geographical footprint.
Like many other leading retail brands in the US, Dollar General also offers its customers a nice range of private label brands as much competitive prices compared to the national brands.
Here are some of the leading competitors of Dollar General is the US retail sector. The list of the competitors of Dollar General is quite long including leading players like Walmart, Costco, Target, Kroger, Walgreens, CVS and several more US based players apart from international brands like Aldi. Some of the direct competitors of Dollar General also include Family Dollar, Rite Aid, Big Lots, and 99 Cents only.
Main competitors of Dollar General:-
Walmart:
Walmart is the largest physical retailer in the United States with a strong international presence and a growing presence in online retail in the US as well as some other markets.
Walmart has stronger financial and digital capabilities compared to most other players in the US retail industry.
The number of Walmart stores in the US is much lower compared to Dollar General. However, Walmart generally uses large store formats compared to Dollar General. It sells a much larger assortment of products and is also much more aggressive in terms of competitive pricing.
Walmart also offers a nice range of products under its private label brand Sam’s Club.
The number of Walmart stores in the US at the beginning of 2021 was 5,342 compared to Dollar General’s more than 17,000. However, its customer base is much bigger compared to Dollar General’s.
Costco:
Costco is also among the leading retailers based in the United States with a significant international presence.
Costco Wholesale operates a chain of membership-based warehouses.
It is a leading name in the retail industry that also offers a large assortment of products at competitive prices to US based customers and in some other markets.
Compared to Walmart, Costco has a smaller international footprint. However, Costco also enjoys very high popularity and offers a nice range of products under its private label brand Kirkland.
While the overall number of warehouses operated by Costco is much smaller compared to Dollar General stores, the company’s net revenue is much higher.
Costco operated 815 warehouses globally in 2021 of which 564 were operational across 46 states in the United States. It generated net revenues worth $195.93 billion in fiscal 2021.
Target Corporation:
Target is also a leading US-based retail player that deals in a larger range of products compared to Dollar General.
However, Target Corporation enjoys very strong brand awareness and is compared with the largest players like Walmart and Costco.
Target also has an impressive footprint in the US market.
As of January 2021, the company operated 1,897 stores throughout the US in 50 states.
Its footprint is smaller compared to Dollar General in the United States but the company’s net sales have been much higher.
In fiscal 2020, Target corporation generated net sales worth $93.6 billion.
Amazon:
The world’s largest ecommerce brand has a strong presence in both the US and international markets.
Apart from being a leading player in the e-commerce industry, Amazon is also a leading player in the cloud industry.
Compared to another retailer in the world. Amazon has much stronger digital commerce capabilities and attracts the largest portion of online sales in the retail sector worldwide.
While the US based physical retailers like Walmart, Costco, Target or Dollar General are also investing in building digital capabilities, Amazon is still years ahead of all the others in terms of technological capabilities and innovation.
The total net revenues of Amazon in 2021 which includes revenues from its ecommerce operations AWS, digital subscriptions and other sources equalled $469.8 billion. The company is also the biggest R&D spender in the world with its R&D spending in 2021 being higher than $56 billion.
Kroger:
Founded in 1883, The Kroger Co is among the largest retailers in the US and the world based on annual net sales. It is also among the largest food retailers in the United States.
As of January 2021, the company operated 2,742 super market stores in the United States. Kroger also sells products online and offers home delivery as well as instore pick-up services for its customers.
The company offers a vast range of private label brands that includes more than 15,000 private label items.
It sells a much larger range of products compared to Dollar General including but not limited to food products, grocery items, apparel, home furnishing products, pharmacy products, electronics and several more categories.
In fiscal 2020, the net sales of the company were $132 billion.
Aldi:
Aldi is an international retail brand focusing mainly on food and grocery and some other home essentials.
The retail company was founded in Germany in 1961. Its US operations include more than 2000 stores across 36 states. The company has its US headquarters at Batavia, Illinois.
The retailer offers a large range of food and grocery products at everyday lower prices.
More than 90 percent of the grocery products it offers its customers in the US are from its own exclusive brands.
Aldi is also among the leading competitors of Dollar General.
Walgreens Boots Alliance :
Walgreens is the largest retail pharmacy brand in the United States and Europe.
It sells across 9 countries and employs more than 315 K people.
The company operates around 13,000 stores in the United States, Europe and Latin America.
Apart from the physical operations, the company also sells pharmacy products to its customers through digital channels.
The alliance includes three brands which are Walgreens, Duane Reade and Boots.
It offers global health and beauty brands including s No7, NICE!, Soap & Glory, Finest Nutrition, Liz Earle, Botanics, Sleek MakeUP and YourGoodSkin.
The net sales of the Walgreens Boots Alliance was $132.5 billion in 2021.
CVS Health:
CVS Health is a leading health care solutions provider based in the United States.
The company operates more than 9,900 locations across 49 states of the United States, the district of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Its net revenues for 2020 remained $268.7 billion.
Rite Aid:
Rite Aid is one of the leading drug store chains in the US with a strong footprint across several US states.
The company had 2,500 stores in 17 states of the United States.
It had been founded in 1962. With a strong presence in the US, the company caters to the health related needs of the US consumers.
Family Dollar:
Family Dollar is among the direct competitors of Dollar General.
With a strong presence in the United States, the company serves a large customer base through its Family Dolla, Dollar Tree and Dollar Tree Canada brand stores.
The company operated 15,685 discount variety retail stores in January 2021.
Just Like Dollar General, Dollar Tree also offers a large range of merchandise at the fixed price point of $1.
The Dollar Tree stores sell approximately 7500 items including everyday consumables, household items and seasonal goods.
The Family dollar Stores sell merchandise that generally lie within the price range of $1 to $10.
Big Lots:
Big Lots is also one of the direct competitors of Dollar General with a significant footprint in the United States.
It offers its customers in the United States an omnichannel experience.
Apart from its 1,408 stores operating in the United States in 47 states, the company also operates an ecommerce website.
The merchandise categories sold by Big Lots include furniture; seasonal; soft Home; food; consumables; hard home; and electronics, toys, & accessories.
In fiscal 2020, the company generated net revenues worth $6.2 billion.
99 cents only:
99 Cents Only is also among the direct competitors of Dollar General. However, its footprint in the US is considerable smaller compared to Dollar General.
It operates 391 stores in the US across four states including California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
The company sells fresh produce and a wide assortment of quality products from household items to a large range of seasonal and party merchandise.