Been a DG in the small town (pop. 900) nearest my cabin in rural north central PA, for over ten years.
Mentally-challenged girl torched it several years ago, while it was open for business. Started a fire in the stock room. DG built a new one on the site, doubled the size of the store. Family Dollar had just opened a store, other end of town, not long before the arson job. Local humor was that FD gave the girl a free candy bar to light up the DG. Locals prefer the DG over the FD by a huge margin.
One grocery store in that town and no other grocery within 20 miles. Owner sold out to a half assed regional chain that everyone hates. They only have chain branded frozen veggies, etc. Pretty much everyone now shops for such at the DG, because they have national brand frozen foods at lower prices. Same brand of bread at DG is a buck cheaper than at the grocery..Same delivery truck delivers bread to both places. DG has a larger choice of OTC medications than the grocery and at lower prices.
In the past few years, now a DG about every 15-20 miles or so across that area. Mom and pop stores had already disappeared in most of those small towns, years ago. One village 13 miles to the west, fought like hell to keep DG from building over there. Then their crappy local grocery closed up and suddenly the opposition disappeared.
