Dollar Stores Are Hurting Financial Health of Chicago’s Urban Communities

*Dollar Tree and Dollar General stores are hurting the financial health of Chicago’s South and West sides, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

Despite being convenient, such stores aren’t Black-owned, which means the money spent by locals doesn’t stay in the neighborhood. Full-service grocery stores are severely lacking in these same areas.

“[Those stores] take resources out of the community and don’t give us an opportunity to circulate the dollar within the community,” Tonya Trice, the executive director of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, told Crain’s Chicago Business. “That money leaves our community as soon as it is spent.”

Check out the video report above titled “How Dollar Stores Quietly Consumed America.”

Meanwhile, here’s more from Crain’s Chicago Business:

A lack of retail variety also forces neighborhood residents to spend their money elsewhere — a heightened concern for a community trying to reverse decades of economic distress. All told, $200 million in retail spending leaves South Shore annually, according to a 2020 city study of the corridor. 

Two streets, 75th and 79th, that run through South Shore were once historically significant retail corridors. Today, where no dollar store or other small businesses exist along East 79th Street, entire blocks are filled with empty storefronts.

The composition of retailers in a community directly affects the health of its economy and its residents. A grocery store might stay away from an area if several dollar stores create too much competition, meaning residents have access only to the processed snacks sold there. Without a grocery store, other retailers might not see the area as worth investing in, which results in lower home values and a weakened tax base.

Many believe dollar stores fill a void in communities with limited retail options.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Andee Harris, an adjunct lecturer of entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, per Crain’s Chicago Business.

Dollar General said in a statement that customers nationwide rely on its stores for “convenient access to affordable household essentials.”

“We believe our purpose-driven mission of serving others and our intense customer focus differentiate Dollar General from other seemingly similar retailers,” the statement said, per Crains. We invest “in communities where other retailers cannot or will not serve.”

READ MORE: Family Dollar Recalls Products After Rodent Infestation, Closes 400 Stores [VIDEO]

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