Dollar General to open new chain targeting wealthy, suburban shoppers

Dollar General, the prolific retail chain known for low prices and dollar-deals—and for preying on food-insecure neighborhoods, making it harder for full-service grocery stores to compete, and limiting access to healthy foods for poorer communities—will open a new chain marketed to wealthier, suburban shoppers. The company will open its first two Popshelf stores later this month outside Nashville, Tennessee, with plans to open 30 more by the end of 2020. Unlike Dollar General, Popshelf will offer a range of home and beauty items, most of which will be priced around $5, and target female suburbanites with incomes between $50,000 and $125,000 a year, CNN Business reports. The Popshelf chain is opening at the same time many brick-and-mortar stores are shuttering as a result of the pandemic. But if its sister chain is any indication (Dollar Stores were deemed essential businesses and have remained open through the pandemic), Popshelf bargains won’t be tough to sell to recession-phobic shoppers.