Dollar General Corp Stock

Dollar General Corporation operates as a discount retailer in in the southern, southwestern, midwestern, and eastern United States.

The company offers a broad selection of merchandise, including consumable items, seasonal items, home products and apparel. The company’s merchandise includes national brands from leading manufacturers, as well as its own private brand selections with prices at substantial discounts to national brands. The company offers its customers these national brand and private brand products at everyday low prices (typically $10 or less) in its convenient small-box locations.

Merchandise

The company offers a focused assortment of everyday necessities, which helps to drive frequent customer visits, and key items in a broad range of general merchandise categories. The company’s product assortment provides the opportunity for its customers to address most of their basic shopping needs with one trip. The company offers a wide selection of nationally advertised brands from leading manufacturers. Additionally, the company’s private brand products offer even greater value with options to purchase both products that are of comparable quality to national brands, as well as opening price point items, each at substantial discounts to the national brands.

Consumables is the company’s largest merchandise category and includes paper and cleaning products (such as paper towels, bath tissue, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry); packaged food (such as cereals, pasta, canned soups, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar and flour); perishables (such as milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, wine and produce); snacks (such as candy, cookies, crackers, salty snacks and carbonated beverages); health and beauty (such as over-the-counter medicines and personal care products, including soap, body wash, shampoo, cosmetics, dental hygiene and foot care products); pet (such as pet supplies and pet food); and tobacco products.

Seasonal products include holiday items, toys, batteries, small electronics, greeting cards, stationery, prepaid phones and accessories, gardening supplies, hardware, automotive and home office supplies.

Home products include kitchen supplies, cookware, small appliances, light bulbs, storage containers, frames, candles, craft supplies and kitchen, bed and bath soft goods.

Apparel includes casual everyday apparel for infants, toddlers, girls, boys, women and men, as well as socks, underwear, disposable diapers, shoes and accessories.

Customers

The company’s customers seek value and convenience. Depending on their financial situation and geographic proximity, customers’ reliance on Dollar General varies from fill-in shopping, to making periodic trips to stock up on household items, to making weekly or more frequent trips to meet most essential needs. The company generally locates its stores and plans its merchandise selections to best serve the needs of its core customers, the low and fixed income households often underserved by other retailers (including grocers), and it focuses on helping them make the most of their spending dollars.

Distribution and Transportation

The company’s stores are supported by distribution centers for both refrigerated and non-refrigerated merchandise located strategically throughout its geographic footprint. The company leases additional temporary warehouse space as necessary to support its distribution needs. In addition to its traditional distribution centers, the company operates multiple temperature-controlled distribution facilities in support of DG Fresh, its strategic, multi-phased shift to self-distribution of frozen and refrigerated goods, such as dairy, deli and frozen products. The company regularly analyzes and rebalances the network with a goal of ensuring that it remains efficient and provides the service levels its stores require.

Most of the company’s merchandise flows through its distribution centers and is delivered to its stores by its private fleet and by third-party trucking firms, utilizing its trailers. In addition, vendors or third-party distributors deliver or ship certain food items and other merchandise directly to its stores.

In the second half of 2022, the company experienced a temporary shortage of available warehouse capacity, primarily due to delays in opening temporary warehouse space.

Intellectual Property

The company owns marks that are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and are protected under applicable intellectual property laws, including, without limitation, Dollar General, DG, Clover Valley, trueliving, and pOpshelf along with variations and formatives of these trademarks. The company holds an exclusive license to the Rexall brand through at least March 5, 2029 and the Believe Beauty brand through at least March 18, 2025.

Seasonality

The nature of the company’s business is somewhat seasonal. Generally, the company’s operating profit has been greater in the fourth quarter (November, December and January), which includes the Christmas selling season, as compared with operating profit in each of the first three quarters of its fiscal year (year ended February 3, 2023).

Competition

The company’s direct competitors include Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Big Lots, 99 Cents Only and various local, independent operators, as well as Walmart, Target, Kroger, Aldi, Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid, among others.

History

The company was founded in 1939 by J.L. Turner as J.L. Turner and Son, Wholesale. It was incorporated as a Kentucky corporation under the name J.L. Turner & Son, Inc. in 1955. The company changed its name to Dollar General Corporation in 1968 and reincorporated in 1998 as a Tennessee corporation.