The outside of a general convenience store of the dollar on August 30, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty images
General dollar CEO Todd Vasos said Thursday that inflation continues to harm the discounter customers and that the macroeconomic environment will not improve this year.
When calling the company’s fourth quarter of the fourth, Vasos said that customers expect a “more than ever” convenience from the dollar store.
“Our customers continue to point out that their financial situation has worsened in the past year, because they have been negatively impacted by current inflation. Many of our customers report that they have only enough money for basic essentials, some noting that they had to sacrifice themselves even on the necessities,” said Vasos. “While we enter in 2025, we do not plan to improve the macro environment, especially for our main client.”
The basic consumer of Dollar General is “always tense” because of their economic status, but also of the company, said Vasos.
“We started to see where [our customer is] Get her sea legs, if you want, on the additional inflation which was very sticky there, and she begins to understand her budgets even more, “said Vasos.
Part of uncertainty, said Vasos, stems from the potential impact of President Donald Trump’s prices on the consumer.
When Trump imposed prices during his first term in 2018 and 2019, Dollar General had to increase certain prices in accordance with others in industry, said Vasos. But the general store was able to alleviate the impact at the time and is “well positioned” to do so again this year, he said.
“Given the already stressed financial situation of our main client, we closely monitor these and any other potential economic side, including changes in government law programs,” said Vasos.
Financial director Kelly Dilts said that the company’s orientation factors in 2025 in continuous economic pressure on the consumer, but does not take into account new changes in tariff policy or government initiatives such as the additional nutrition assistance program, which subsidizes food for low -income Americans.
For the fourth quarter, Dollar General said that sales growth at 1.2% comparable stores was fully driven by 2.3% growth in the average transaction. Customer traffic dropped 1.1% during the period, “affected by the continuous financial pressures of our principal consumer,” said Vasos.
In addition to his profits from the fourth quarter, Dollar General said Thursday that he would close the general stores of 96 dollars and 45 Popshelf stores and this year would convert six other Popshelf stores into a flagship banner. Popshelf mainly serves high income buyers with less expensive products.
Dollar General’s shares increased almost 7% on Thursday.