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# makes you wanna holler - Doctors Without Boredom
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/matthewloftus-2018-12-13-makes-wanna-holler/
- Published: 2018-12-13T09:23:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-22T16:41:29.000Z
- Description: This report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (an organization doing more than any other, I think, to highlight where and how people can be working for the localism we like to talk about) highlights how dollar stores deliver low-quality goods […]
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Matthew Loftus, History, Economics

[This report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance](https://ilsr.org/dollar-stores-target-cities-towns-one-fights-back/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) (an organization doing more than any other, I think, to highlight where and how people can be working for the localism we like to talk about) highlights how dollar stores deliver low-quality goods at higher prices, parasitically feeding off some of the most vulnerable places:

> “Essentially what the dollar stores are betting on in a large way is that we are going to have a permanent underclass in America,” Garrick Brown, a researcher with the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, [told *Bloomberg*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-11/dollar-general-hits-a-gold-mine-in-rural-america?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) last year.  
>  
> Alongside urban black neighborhoods, another place the dollar chains think they will find enduring poverty is rural America. Small towns have been [battered by corporate consolidation](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmiller1/democrats-win-rural-america-but-what-broke-it?ref=mereorthodoxy.com). Mergers have triggered plant closures. Agribusiness giants have slashed farmers’ incomes. As a result, rural communities have experienced little in the way of new business and job growth during the current economic recovery, [new data show](https://eig.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/recoverygrowthreport.pdf?ref=mereorthodoxy.com).  
>  
> [](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7b/0b/7b0bd699-d78f-4472-8d29-233bd333f048/content/images/2026/04/ghost-upload-1776876086520-630008-Dollar%5FStore%5FGrowth%5FChart-FINAL%5F2.png?ref=mereorthodoxy.com)This follows two decades in which Walmart’s super-charged growth left small-town retail in shambles. By building massive, oversized supercenters in larger towns, Walmart found it could attract customers from a wide radius. Smaller towns in the vicinity often suffered the brunt of its impact as their Main Street retailers weakened and, in many cases, closed.  
>  
> Today the dollar chains are capitalizing on these conditions, much like an invasive species advancing on a compromised ecosystem.