Dollar General - FedEx

[Worth]

I've been in a few Dollar General stores in my time and things really aren't much cheaper for careful shoppers. The quality of most items is often suspect as well. One benefit is that Amscot is usually right next door for high interest pre payday loans. I agree with The Elephant.

[sweaty]

Dollar stores are popping up in the upper middle class communities in our area. Most retail offers mediocre products at high prices and the market is weeding them out. I believe only 1 percent of the products at all stores (high, middle, and low market) are worth buying. Consumers must use judgement or they get ripped off.

[bloke]

DG and HF are both OK, if you follow the same rule:
Mostly, avoid buying anything from these places that feature moving parts.
Yes, cat food rattles, but each part is an individual entity, so that doesn’t count.
——-
DG has the best price on FedEx package drop off, just for what it’s worth.

[the elephant]

I have never seen FedEx drop-off at any DG. This must be a local-to-you franchiser add-on. If you have franchised stores (IDK if DG has a franchise system) this could explain why yours are so unusually clean and offer pet food that is not toxic, unlike such stores pretty much everywhere else.

And that Chinese toothpaste is like using lapping compound on your teeth. It was part of a national scandal about dollar stores in general about ten years ago. I actually use a tube of that stuff in the shop as a polish. It works better than Brasso but not as well as Simichrome. And hey! it whitens the teeth until it you hit the nerve.

Much like GPX in small towns, a DG drop-off would involve every customer having to trip over boxes dumped by the door outside the store. Our GPX point in Yazoo City is the local retail king called "Beer 'N Butts" and packages sit outside in the rain and frequently seem to sprout legs and walk off all by themselves. DG would be even worse.

The "Family Dollar" ON MY STREET has had the front windows shot out or "driven out" by the "smash-and-dash" crowd at least ten times in the last twelve years. I live in a low crime area that is very quiet most of the time. Stores using this business model seem to attract the "quality" crowd in just about every case I have seen in about ten states. They are a real societal magnet, with employees who are on work release from the local federal prison. Nothing like having a convicted drug dealer helping you choose your next bottle of shampoo...

The manager of our DG is named Ayn. How bout dat?

[bloke]

Yeah...
To me, it is MIRACULOUS that BOTH Walgreens (though 25 minutes away) AND DG are accepting FedEx drop-offs.
FOR SEVERAL YEARS (after a "Pak-Mail" place went belly-up) there were NO... (N...O...) UPS/FedEx drop-offs ANYWHERE in this county (over 700 sq. mi., yet only 42K souls), and I had to sneak in to Maim-fuss to drop them off (and I had to drive PAST the first two FedEx locations because the manager-people at the eastern-most-suburban locations were... (almost rhymes with "issues"), who would ALWAYS find some excuse to NOT accept my perfectly-packed and perfectly-protective cartons for shipping.

Miraculously (particularly considering that I was just admitted to D.E.N.S.A. ) I shoehorned (with a reasonable level of assessed risk, in order to get BOTH bodies in an under-130" and BOTH bells into another under-130" carton) TWO recording-belled King 1240 tubas into only TWO FedExGround-able boxes (the strategy being to save the buyer $250 over the cost of shipping both tubas strapped to a pallet via common carrier, as well as saving me at least three hours of common carrier humbug).

After taping up the boxes (and taping up some of the interior packing materials), I'm COMPLETELY OUT of 2" clear packing tape.
I ONLY need a little bit more tape (to tape up the ends of the stretch-wrap, and to tape on the shipping labels).

I COULD do a 1-hour r/t to Walgreens - to buy their wildly-expensive and stingy-sized roll of "SCOTCH"-brand tape, and to drop off the two cartons, or I COULD drive 6 minutes r/t to DG, buy some $2 tape, and drop off the two cartons.

(I would - of course, ONLY head to a Walgreens - if I had to - in THIS county. Over in Maimfuss, addicts with guns - again: customers of gangs - gangs which subcontract drug distribution for the Cosa Nostra - do not distinguish between Walgreens and DG...and the added attraction of Walgreens - well - is the opioids contained within.)

yeah...I feel quite blessed that I do not live in Shelby County, TN nor Hinds County, MS (the northern and southern capitals of the crime-ridden Mississippi River delta region), nor anywhere within that geographically-defined region (not Southaven, not Clarksdale, not Greenville, not any of it.)

[the elephant]

I have to eat at least *some* of my words now. For the first time ever, I saw a FedEx van at a DG. It was an hour from my house, but it was definitely picking up stuff. Still can't do this in the Yazoo City and Benton locations that I might have access to, but at least this service is available within a hundred miles of me…

I actually stopped to ask, and the driver said that DG location had been added to his route about four months into the pandemic, so that would have been about a year ago. I never stop in that town, so I had no idea. Maybe Yazoo City will join you all in the 21st century soon, now that we have had over two decades to warm up to the idea…

[bloke]

If would be handy for you, I suspect.

[the elephant]

What would?

That location? It is more than an hour roundtrip drive, so not handy.

That service? My local DGs do not offer it at all.

They barely offer stuff to sell. They mostly offer dirty, opened packages that are missing some of the contents and a selection of items available directly from alibaba.com — I have never seen a brand name item in these stores. Just copies from China. (Don't ever eat the food they sell…)

[Three Valves]

At least the crow is Made in USA!!

[bloke]

These platforms need to become voice and in real time…
Hours go by with misinterpretations - due to the weaknesses of the English language.

I meant for “would“ to imply “IF”, such as “IF” the DG store a few blocks from your house offered/s the service…“

I agree about the risks of entering brick and mortar stores, gas stations/convenience stores, car washes, and eating establishments in these post-Orwellian times…but there are still very very large regions - way over 90% of the country, geographically (you know) where almost everyone behaves themselves, most criminals get caught, and where murders and robberies are actually newsworthy. Between first and sixth grade - from 1961 through 1967, I spent a lot of time in the five-and-dime that was a block from my parents’ house. The ladies who worked in there never hung over me suspiciously, nor over anyone else. No one stole anything, and certainly no one would ever think of pointing a gun at anyone in a five-and-dime store. Today, if I enter into that city anywhere, I try to not arrive more than ten minutes early, and to not leave more than five minutes after my business is concluded (“moving target” theorem).
tangential topic:
I scratch my head at those who chide people who move to places where and murders and robberies are quite uncommon, and where earnings and holdings confiscation is low. (To the contrary, a citizenry which tolerates large numbers of criminals in their midst tends to be the same type of citizenry which elects criminal rulers who confiscate private property...as people tend to pay high tax rates to live in high crime metropolises.). ...I tend to wonder whether it is jealousy, confusion, or a bit of both.

[bloke]

@the elephant
A local TV station - that still covers crime (rather than promoting nonsense and narratives) - reported four of those little stores - all: about seventy miles east of Memphis, and in a semicircular geographic pattern - being hit, yesterday.
I tend to suspect that those were all hit by the same people. I checked out all of the locations, and they are all located in places where roads “spider“ away from the locations, unlike the one that’s a mile from my house.
It seems as though some of those “Buford Pusser-ish” counties - along with a couple of adjacent ones that border the Tennessee River - have always been (and maybe always will be...??) crime-ridden (think: “Holly Bobo”)...and this predates all of the nationwide societal decay, which begin to occur in the mid-to-late 1970s, and has since snowballed.
All of that having been said, I suspect that corporate policies prohibiting employees from carrying are a huge factor. Sure, I understand the possible consequences for people defending themselves, but what we are seeing is the consequences of people not defending themselves. Once firearms are brandished, the risks are already present.
The likely good news with these is that (with these small-town robberies) the perpetrators are nearly always caught, and small-town judges take it personally, and dish out hard sentences.

[kingrob76]

Someone remind me why this thread isn't in The Lounge.

[groovlow]

Some of my tuba earnings go to my favorite of these stores Family Dollar.
I save time... and if you're discriminating shopper many things are less expensive + better quality,
paper products, OTC drugs, spring curtain rods, some of the food stuff, and cleaning
products. A way better shopping experience than the BIG box stores.
Duh remember customer service?
Spending TUBA dollars wisely,
Joe H

[Yorkboy]

All of that having been said, I suspect that corporate policies prohibiting employees from carrying are a huge factor. Sure, I understand the possible consequences for people defending themselves, but what we are seeing is the consequences of people not defending themselves.

Reminds me of a quote I heard some time ago:

“It’s better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6”

[bloke]

Right this minute...
It's because two tubas that I dropped off a the Dollar General - around the corner from my house - on the 17th are ONLY showing up on "tracking" as having been "dropped off at Dollar General".
I guess I have to drag my tired @$$ over there and see if those two cartons are STILL sitting outside the restrooms' hallway.

Someone remind me why this thread isn't in The Lounge.

[LargeTuba]

At my local Dollar General the guy working there is always stoned out of his mind. I have had a couple funny interactions with him.

[kingrob76]

Painting with a different set of oils here... where I live in Northern VA, the nearest Dollar General is 13.69 miles away. For Fedex locations that offer shipping assistance - not drop boxes - there are 20 less than 9 miles away. If I include drop boxes, there are 73 within 6 miles.

I recently had a 188 shipped from Pasadena, CA to my house via FedEx - the shipping itself was less than $130 for a 24x24x48 box clocking in at 57 pounds, so I've become quite the fan of them in the past two months. It took a week to cross the country and I was able to track the package and have it delivered to my doorstep (I decided to have it held at a location mid-way through the trip, which was was just as easy for me in terms of pick up). Both FedEx and UPS are doing all they can to expand their footprints and make their services easier to use, which generally benefits the consumer.

[bloke]

I CONTACTED FRED SMITH'S OFFICE, AND HIS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY ROOTED OUT THE ISSUE.
(yes, really !!!)

- ALL of the employees at this Dollar General (including the manager) - around the corner from me - had PREVIOUSLY worked at OTHER Dollar General Stores that are APPROVED for FedEx drop-off.
- The FedEx "app" is loaded on ALL DG scanner guns.
- The employees ASSUMED that their store is an approved pick-up location (as - again - the "app" is loaded on their gun), but this store has NOT YET been completely approved/hooked up for FedEx pick-ups.
- They would "scan" my stuff in (official "BEEP" sound), but NO NOTIFICATION would go to FedEx...so my stuff would ONLY be picked up when FedEx brought stuff to THEM, the employees would remember that my stuff was there, and would say to the driver "HEY...Aren't you going to take this stuff...!?!?"

...so I'm now taking my stuff to an 8-miles-away DG OR to a 15-miles-away Walgreens...UNTIL the DG around the corner is officially "hooked up".

I can't really say that anyone is to "blame", here...
It really canNOT be said that the DG store employees were in-the-least negligent.

[Furguson11]

You guys actually shop at DG? omg…

That place is a haven for crime and drug sales, they get held up or burglarized regularly, and they are ABSOLUTELY FILTHY inside.

My experience is that it kind of depends on the neighborhood it's in, like Aldi's. My other observation is that I can tell the quality of the neighborhood by if the local McDonalds leaves the salt and pepper packets out.

[Furguson11]

double post