Dollar General's rising popularity is hard to deny. Despite mounting pandemic and inflation pressures targeting most retailers, the discount chain has been growing steadily in recent years. By 2021, nearly one in every three new stores opening in the U.S. was a Dollar General, according to CNN. But while the company is doing many things to draw shoppers to its stores amid its expansion efforts, there is one move it's decidedly not making. Read on to find out what Dollar General has just confirmed it won't let shoppers do now.
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Dollar General has already announced a number of changes this year.
ShutterstockDollar General has made various adjustments recently in order to help support its rapid growth. Back in March, this discount chain started more heavily advertising and highlighting its $1 offerings to lure shoppers away from its competitor Dollar Tree—which made a very public move away from its traditional $1 prices earlier this year. Then two months later, Grocery Dive reported that Dollar General had also started testing self-checkout only locations. During a May 26 earnings call, COO Jeff Owen said 200 stores would start using this process in 2022.
A social media post recently claimed the retailer was changing its store hours.
iStockSome shoppers may have heard that Dollar General is getting ready to make another major change. A Facebook post from Aug. 14 claimed that the chain would soon expand its store hours, Snopes reported. According to the fact-checking website, a Facebook user posted a screenshot of an alleged news article that said: "Dollar General announces plans to convert all stores to 24 hours a day. Starting Monday, Aug. 22, all Dollar General stores will start to stay open around the clock and they will have some new expanded merchandise."
Dollar General says it's not converting to 24-hour service.
ShutterstockThe Facebook post was shared more than 14,000 times in less than two days, according to Snopes. And while it appears to have since been taken down, it's clear the belief has spread. "Now why they making Dollar General 24 hours," one Twitter user tweeted on Aug. 16. But unfortunately for shoppers potentially excited by the supposed change, the rumor is untrue. Dollar General confirmed to Snopes that the Facebook post and its information were false, noting that all of the company's store hours can be found on its official website. According to its store locator, most Dollar General locations across the U.S. appear to open each day at 7 or 8 a.m. and stay open anywhere from 9 to 11 p.m.
This is not the only retailer that has recently been hit with 24-hour rumors.
ShutterstockFraudulent information concerning 24-hour service might seem odd, but it's happened before. A viral Facebook post from Aug. 9—as well as other recent posts which have been shared tens of thousands of times on different social media platforms—similarly claimed that Walmart stores would be open 24 hours a day again, starting Aug. 14. But the big-box retailer said this is not the case.
"There are no plans at this time to return our Walmart stores to 24-hour-a-day operations," Walmart spokesperson Charles Crowson told USA Today in an Aug. 11 email. In its current guidelines, the company says that it is "closed overnight to enable enhanced cleaning and sanitizing in stores and clubs."
