Dollar General Is Opening 450 New Stores—Everything We Know So Far
No matter how you cut it, the current state of the retail industry is relatively bleak. A change in customer habits coupled with higher inflation has made it difficult for even major players to perform as they did less than a decade ago—including many that are closing locations. But not everyone is scaling back their brick-and-mortar operations: In rare cases, some companies are actually feeling optimistic and expanding. One such retailer is Dollar General, which says it’s now planning on opening 450 new stores across the U.S. Read to find out everything we know so far about the move.
RELATED: 5 Self-Checkout Mistakes That Are Costing You Big, Experts Warn.
1. The company is targeting specific areas.
With roughly 21,000 locations across the U.S., there’s a decent chance you already have a Dollar General location (or one of its sister brands such as DGX, DG Market, or pOpshelf) in your area. But in a recent call, the company’s top brass said it was focusing its latest wave of store openings in sparsely populated areas around the country, Retail Touch Points reports.
“Looking ahead to 2026, we are uniquely positioned to serve an underserved customer in rural America, where approximately 80 percent of our current store base serves towns of 20,000 or fewer people,” Todd Vasos, CEO and director of Dollar General, said during a call discussing the company’s most recent quarterly financial results on Dec. 4.
Despite citing the types of areas they were targeting, the company didn’t specify exactly where new locations would be opening. However, they did say they planned to have all 450 of the new stores up and running by January 2027.
2. The stores could look different.
Even if you’re not getting a brand new store, you might notice some changes around your local Dollar General over the course of this year. During its expansion announcement, the company said it would also renovate and remodel 4,250 locations across the U.S. as part of its ongoing Project Renovate initiative, per Retail Touch Points. The company will also relocate 20 of its existing stores as part of the plan.
The move will bring the existing locations in line with the new planned layouts and offerings of the incoming wave of new locations. This will include more spacious store setups, with Vasos explaining on the call that “these larger footprint stores provide additional opportunities to serve our customers, including expanded cooler offerings and more health and beauty products,” per Yahoo Finance.
Beyond that, Vasos said the company also hopes to bring fresh produce to 200 more locations nationwide as part of the changes. This builds on the roughly 7,000 stores that already sell fresh fruit and vegetables.
RELATED: 4 New Target Shopping Changes Coming to Stores This Month.
3. They’re attracting new customers.
With so much on the shelves, it’s not hard to see why there’s more than one type of Dollar General shopper. However, research suggests that the bargain store might also be raking in more wealthy shoppers than before.
According to Seeking Alpha, Dollar General’s focus on rural areas has also come at a time when higher-paid remote employees are moving out of cities to take advantage of their work arrangement.
“These consumers include higher-income residents with remote jobs who don’t have anywhere else to shop. And this might help explain why Dollar General was still able to report strong results in the third quarter,” they write.
And it might not just be speculative: During the Dec. 4 call, Vasos revealed the company had not noticed this shift, too.
“We’re pleased to see growth once again in our total customer count, with disproportionate growth coming from higher-income households,” he told investors. “We remain focused on executing our proven playbook to retain a substantial portion of these customers, and with our unique combination of value and convenience, we believe we are well-positioned to increase market share with customers across all income brackets.”