As manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers continue to deal and cope with supply chain issues, the cost of goods has steadily increased. The era of a true dollar store has begun to phase out and value stores are becoming the norm.
One of the last remaining true dollar store chains, Dollar Tree, announced in November that they will begin raising their price point to $1.25. Where these stores are catching up, VMC has been ahead of the value curve for several years now. In December of 2018, VMC rebranded our dollar department to the More for Your Dollar department. This allowed us to keep our traditional dollar items while also expanding our offering to items with a slightly higher price point, such as $1.25 and $1.50, but still a great value to the customers. Offering a variety of cost-efficient products in grocery, general merchandise, and HBC is critical to making your store a destination for all shoppers.
VMC offers the most comprehensive dollar/value program in the grocery Industry. Executed in over 1,000 stores, VMC offers 144 linear feet of dollar foods planograms and 100 linear feet of GM/HBC POGs. The year-over-year sales growth at these retailers is between 5-8 percent.
The flexibility is there to tailor your needs by selecting category-specific items, top sellers or installing a complete dollar section. With more than 3,500 items available to you and your customers the VMC Dollar Program can help keep shoppers in your store that might otherwise visit a competing Dollar General, Dollar Tree or Family Dollar. With dollar stores being a $61.3 billion market with an expected sales growth of 18 percent over the next several years, it’s clear that dollar stores are not going away any time soon, which is why we are here to help.
A common concern for retailers is whether adding a dollar program will cannibalize sales of in-line items. The simple answer to that is no. By adding a segregated dollar section you are increasing the opportunity for incremental sales. An independent dollar section with proper signage can become a destination category for your store without having a negative impact on your more traditional categories. With 81 percent of consumers viewing dollar stores as a great place to get everyday non-essential items, you will be adding a category that consumers will otherwise seek out elsewhere. When you add a dollar store customer to your store you are increasing the likelihood that they add other traditional items to their basket as well.
There are several effective ways to implement a successful dollar program. As mentioned earlier, the dollar section needs to be separated as its own distinguishable area. The same impact will not be received if you try to integrate dollar items throughout your store. It is important to keep your dollar section planogrammed, organized and consistent. A disorganized dollar section is less appealing and more difficult to shop.
Having proper signage calling out your dollar section is amongst the most important factors to implementing a successful program. Customers need to know where the dollar section is located. On top of calling out the section, you need to make sure your items are marked appropriately with the correct retail. Proper shelf tags should call out items that are 4/$1, 3/$1, 2/$1, $1, $1.25 and $1.50. VMC offers a variety of More for Your Dollar signage on the Ecomm website (EComm.AWGInc.Com).
Make the decision as easy as possible for your customer with clearly designated sections and signage. Make sure to reach out to your VMC representative if you need help with your dollar section or need to create one.
