The US has already produced the mirror-double of Sam Walton’s peddler genius, namely Wal-Mart, founded in 1962, and his current family of multi-billionaires. The Waltons have grown richer than Croesus selling to the low-income while employing the poor for wages that qualified for government subsidies.
Wal-Mart’s predecessor Dollar General (founded in 1939) had additional competition from Family Dollar (1959) and Dollar Tree (1986), but is now reportedly pulling ahead, selling even cheaper crap to the have-nots. Dollar General now has 14,000 stores across the country and a $22 billion market value.
Like Wal-Mart, it targets (and that’s the word to use) US customers making $40,000 a year or less. A great many of them are women, who despite working their asses off have to settle for buying cheap crap.
Todd Vasos, the CEO of Dollar General (a store demoralizing even to enter) confessed to The Wall Street Journal why the picture is so sunny for his company, while other retailers are having to close their doors:
“The economy is continuing to create more of our core customer,” Vasos said. https://tinyurl.com/y89u59mk
So Happy Holiday, America, hohoho! The General plans to increase numbers of stores in the future, especially in poor rural areas, expected to grow poorer, creating more “core customers.” Meanwhile, Congress has just passed two versions of a tax bill that will further favor corporations, their write-offs, and their way-too-rich owners, while sticking a bigger share of our national tax bill to the poorest, least able to defend their shrinking resources.
As Dylan Scott just reported to VOX, economic inequality has been increasing for the same years that Wal-Mart and Dollar General found so profitable. https://tinyurl.com/y9wm6f6d
Tagged: Wal-Mart, Dollar General, poor, low-income, core customers, tax bill, VOX, Wall Street Journal, Dylan Scott
