– 1000s Of ‘Dollar Stores’ Clustered In Swing States May Offer New Insights Into Voter Sentiment:
Dollar General and Dollar Tree, with over 19,000 stores and nearly 16,800 US stores, respectively, delivered some alarming news in the past week about their crumbling core customer bases battered by elevated inflation and high interest rates—consequences of failed Bidenomics. The extensive nationwide footprint these two discount retailers have could give political strategists a glimpse into even gloomier consumer sentiment on a state-by-state basis, even potentially capturing some consumer sentiment in critical battleground states.
Last Thursday, Dollar General shares crashed the most on record after earnings underwhelmed for the second quarter, and the sales outlook for the full year was slashed on what management warned its core customers “feel financially constrained.”
About one week later, on Wednesday, Dollar Tree shares plunged after second-quarter earnings fell short of Wall Street expectations. The discount retailer also cut its full-year outlook, pointing to mounting financial pressures on middle-income and higher-income customers.
Dollar Tree Chief Financial Officer Jeff Davis wrote in a statement that the “increasing effect of macro pressures on the purchasing behavior of Dollar Tree’s middle- and higher-income customers” was the main driver in reducing its full-year sales forecast.
Given that Dollar General and Dollar Tree have a combined footprint of over 36,000 stores, primarily centered in the eastern half of the US, the warnings from both management teams about faltering low/mid-tier customer bases provide political strategists with deeper insight into how consumers feel ahead of the elections this fall and what topics dominate at the dinner table. We suspect Biden-Harris’ inflation storm is the most dominant topic as folks can barely afford discount retailer junk food.
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