Dollar General Confirms Major Changes for Maine Shoppers

Based on these upcoming shifts, our shopping experience at the local Dollar General could change very soon.

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Unfortunately, it has become commonplace nowadays to hear of businesses closing hundreds and thousands of nationwide locations, with big businesses and chains like Walmart, Walgreens, Macy’s, and even oil and fuel providers like Shell announcing closures across the country.

Even 'dollar' stores aren’t immune to this trend, with Family Dollar and Dollar Tree jointly announcing hundreds of upcoming closures.

Well, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree’s biggest business competitor, Dollar General, has recently announced changes of its own.

Dollar General, the Tennessee-based big-box store, has announced changes to its business model that will potentially change the way we experience, well, Dollar General.

Dollar General is shifting away from relying heavily on self-checkout technology, with CEO Todd Vasos stating that it should be used as a secondary, not primary, checkout option.

Despite having added self-checkout stations to over half of its 19,000 stores and piloted cashier-less stores, the company is reassigning workers to improve customer service and reduce shrink, which includes shoplifting and other factors. This change in strategy aims to boost sales and reduce merchandise losses.

Vasos explained that having employees at the front of stores to meet, greet, and ring up customers helps both on the sales and shrink fronts, as it provides constant monitoring of the checkout area. Retailers have been facing growing shrink issues, partly due to self-checkout.

Self-checkout leads to more potential sales losses compared to full-service cashiers, as it increases the risk of both intentional shoplifting and unintentional errors by customers.

Dollar General has locations in 48 states, The District of Columbia, and Mexico, and employs approximately 158,000 people.

As of a count in January 2023, Maine has over 60 Dollar Generals across the Pine Tree State.