Dive Brief:
- Dollar General is combining value and convenience, including through digital improvements, to prepare the company for economic uncertainty, according to executives on a Q1 2025 earnings call Tuesday.
- The off-price retailer expanded its DoorDash partnership to more than 16,000 stores and its own same-day delivery service to more than 3,000 stores, CEO Todd Vasos said. The company wants to “become the fastest delivery alternative for customers in our communities.”
- In-store customer service has improved in recent quarters, and customer satisfaction scores are rising in response, according to Vasos.
Dive Insight:
Neither price nor experience alone will be enough for Dollar General to succeed in the face of economic uncertainty and price-pressured consumers, according to Vasos.
“I think that's the key here,” Vasos said during the call. “In a tight economic environment that our consumers are facing, it's going to be that fine balance — and it always is — between value and convenience.”
Dollar General has been working to improve its experience for multiple quarters, and the effort is preparing it well for the near future, according to Vasos.
Changes include improving staffing at the front of the store and eliminating self-checkout at many locations. The pullback of self-service kiosks, as well as lower turnover among workers, is having a noticeable impact on shrink as well.
“Our store standards are much, much better than they've been in quite a long time, and every single quarter that goes by continues to get better and better,” Vasos said.
Dollar General’s overall performance reflected solid results. Same-store sales rose 2.4% year over year in the first quarter of 2025, while net sales increased 5.3% year over year to $10.4 billion, according to a company earnings report.
