2021 Retailer of the Year: Dollar General

Reimagining the Box and Beyond

Serving others is a phrase used often at Dollar General. It guides the company’s philosophy of delivering convenience and value to lower-income shoppers. It’s also a mindset that causes Vasos and other leaders to look around and question where else the “serving others” philosophy can be put into action.

That led Dollar General to the world of health care, and the intriguing possibilities of how the company can leverage its footprint and technology to help customers live healthier and gain easier access to such services when needed.

“More and more, our consumer is telling us they want some basic health care opportunities in rural America especially, and small-town America, where, again, I use the word ‘desert’ a lot, but there’s a lot of health care deserts out there,” Vasos observes.

He points to new technologies that could make vision checkups and other optometry services possible in a small footprint inside Dollar General’s larger prototype. The same could be possible with basic doctor visits conducted over the internet.

“Telehealth is here to stay, but in rural America, having a wifi connection can be as hard as finding a grocery store,” Vasos says. “We have that ability in our stores so we can deliver that to the consumer where they can feel comfortable to come to us. Think of prescription drugs. Not that we’re going to have a pharmacist on staff, but what if in certain states, we’re able to have a central fill delivered into our stores once a day for the consumer to pick up? In rural America, I think it will be a big advantage and could cut off as much as two to three days on a prescription.”

Dollar General plans to move fast with health care, which is a core component of many grocers’ value proposition, but Vasos cautions that it will take time to find the right approach.

“This is a real long-term initiative, but one I believe will benefit not only our core consumer, but also the shareholders and our employees,” he asserts.

The company has already taken steps from a product standpoint, bolstering assortments of health and beauty care items in advance of introducing more service-oriented offerings.

“We know health care is an opportunity for our customer to be better served, with better access and more affordable solutions,” explained Taylor, “and because of our extensive footprint in a lot of areas that are underserved today, it puts us in a great position to help our customers. That’s very exciting as it relates to merchandising within the store.”