The Dollar Store Shopping

There are three big chains of dollar store out there out of which one is the true dollar store and the rest includes items priced more than one dollar. Besides the chains there are thousands of 99 cents store which should not be called as such since these stores have items which are more than 99 cents now than they were before. Most of the individual stores are mom and pop and they survive on the volume and the traffic of people coming into the store. But to tell you the truth, the margin is not there in the case of dollar stores. You have to sell a lot of stuff in order to just make a little bit of money and since they are not great money makers, you won’t see any advertisement of these stores on television.

Once you enter into these stores, you will see that most of the stuff is made in China (it is rare that you see stuff that is made in Europe or in the U.S.). And it is a safe refuge for low income people, especially now when the recession has given rise to much joblessness. Although now the stuff which a few years ago cost 99 cents cost more than a dollar (due to overhead and higher Chinese prices) but still it is a cost saving store if you know what you have to buy. There maybe some stuff which are cheaper to buy and some not so cheap. Brand names are still there but not that much. And people tend to overspend in these stores, but since the variety and quality is low key, the overspending is not that much to bust your budget. All in all you should try once in a while to visit these stores just to save some money.