It’s the oldest adage in real estate, and it’s proving true once again in the showdown between low price retailers Dollar General and Family Dollar. 

"Dollar General said last month it plans to add about 800 new stores this year, bringing its total to nearly 21,000. As the largest dollar-store operator in the country, its stores are located predominantly in rural areas where they usually face little competition,” reports The Wall Street Journal. "Dollar Tree, by contrast, recently said it would close 600 of its Family Dollar
 stores by early August. That discount chain, which Dollar Tree acquired in 2015, offers similar products at roughly similar prices to its main competitor. But its stores are concentrated in more expensive urban and suburban areas, where a variety of discounters compete for market share.”

Dollar General’s largely rural footprint also brings it tremendous property-related savings. The company’s real-estate occupancy cost is nearly a third lower than at Family Dollar, said Mark Sigal, chief executive officer of Datex Property Solutions, which tracks rent payments from shopping centers and retailers nationwide, according to the report. 

"Dollar General and Dollar Tree are expected to reach a combined $83.1 billion in annual revenues by 2027, which would be a nearly 26% increase from 2022, according to Coresight Research’s analysis of estimates by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Customer appetite remains strong for dollar stores, said Naveen Jaggi, president of retail advisory services in the Americas for real-estate firm JLL. 

“Just because the economy is getting better doesn’t mean they’ll want to pay more for paper towels,” he said in the report.