In 1939, the Turners started a general wholesale dry goods business in Scottsville Kentucky. Inexpensive clothing was in need back then just like it is today. Dollar General has grown over the decades and has provided a niche retail service that Walmart used to service. Dollar General has expanded their store to include groceries as well has small electronics and automotive supplies. The business model is to provide retail stores in rural, small town U.S.A. that larger retailers simply ignore. Dollar General has steadily increased their business model, while Walmart went with the fancier larger retail stores in bigger consumer populated markets. Statements have been made by Walmart executives, that perhaps not sticking to the original small town model that Mr. Walton started was a bad idea. I guess time will tell to see if Dollar General out performs Walmart in the long run.
With the down turn in employment (different than the fudged government statistics) and frozen salaries for almost two decades now, dollar stores are booming. The only problem is the "Dollar" stores are not so much dollar anymore. I have noticed that prices of food items in these stores has risen to upwards of 20% to 29% increase within the last 4 months. That is 29% inflation. How many people realize this?
Inflation has started and it can be seen even in the cheap "Dollar" stores. Has anyone's wages increased 20 % in the last 4 months? Mine has not. Once inflation starts, it is almost impossible to stop or curtail. I am convinced inflation will only get worse. What can you and I do about it? Really nothing. The wheels are already set in motion with regards to inflation. About the only thing we can do, is try and preserve our purchasing power.
How do you preserve purchasing power? Ask those in Venezuela and Argentina. The citizens of these countries know the importance of physical precious metals and key crypto currencies like Bitcoin. These money assets are outside of the traditional banking fiat money system and are not controlled by governments. How important is this? Once again ask anyone that is currently experiencing hyper inflation. Notice how President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey asked the citizens to turn in their gold for the Turkish Lira? This is because gold is still an international recognized currency. It is one of the few "life rafts" during times of inflation.
The point is this. Global inflation is here. It is only going to grow and magnify. The time to preserve your purchasing power is now. How you do this is up to you. I hope you have started to preserve your savings. Just imagine a Mello Yello soda may have been 0.99 cents three months ago but is now $1.29 but could easily be $1.99 by the first of the new year. Multiply this by gasoline prices, utility costs, clothing, healthcare and you get the picture. Our wages are NOT rising but everything else is. Some form of strategy needs to be adopted now or else you could have very hard times facing you in the near future.
image from: thestreet.com