| “Dollar stores often fill the gap when grocery stores exit communities. Critics say they make food inequity even worse.”
This is, of course, progressive tripe. Liberal elites might not appreciate a box of cheerios or a hammer for 99 cents, but low-income folks do. That’s why they spend money at bargain stores like Dollar General. In many small towns, these can be the only food stores within 25 miles of their home.
Now activists in Georgia, Ohio and other states are trying to shut down the stores because they don’t provide fresh fruit and vegetables and are apparently contributing to obesity and bad diets. One of the leading advocates for this movement is Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, a county commissioner in DeKalb County, Georgia, who complained that: “There are 41 dollar stores in my district” – which is predominantly black. But if these stores are located in “food deserts” – how does closing them down benefit anyone?
We suspect that the real agenda here is that the dollar stores – unlike the big grocery chains – aren’t unionized. (That’s one way they can keep their prices so low.) What is for sure is that shutting down dollar stores – like most of what the left does, will only hurt the poor. |
