So I did a quick map of the West Warwick/Coventry "Dollar Tour"

Starting at the Dollar Tree in Cowesett Ave WW one can visit four Family Dollars, three Dollar Trees, and three Dollar Generals in just over 30 minutes and ~11 miles of driving.

Google map of "Dollar" stores WW/Coventry

Gotta be Caesar Brito's house on Hope Street, right at the light of Hope and Gooding Ave (the one with the letters CB on the fence). That's pretty much what I know about him. That house has always been perfectly landscaped.

Yes because Rhode Islanders are low income, we are a welfare state, so there us go!

…and you’re not going to see a dollar store in Tiverton Four Corners.

I think a big part of it is the fact that there’s no big box store serving the URI population, except for the Walmart up by Wickford Junction which is still 15-20 minutes away

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Elizabeth Farmhouse in Putnam?

Banks appeared as a result of all the consolidation. Back in the 1990s, for instance, you had Fleet, Bank of Boston, Shawmut, BayBank and Bank of New England all on corners around RI. Every single one of those institutions is now Bank of America. Citizens filled the vacuum to an extent, Chase is launching a major market entry, and smaller banks and credit unions have come back to challenge B of A for share.

But we likely have fewer bank branches and choices in banking than our parents in the area had.

Funny you should mention Chase. It’s definitely a bougie banking brand (outside of NYC, where they have branches even in lower income neighborhoods).

They’re definitely present in higher-income places. There’s a brand new Dollar General in South Kingstown, and Smithfield has had a Dollar Tree for years.

>“The business model for these stores is built on saturation,” said Julia McCarthy, senior policy associate at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest and a critic of dollar stores. “When you have so many dollar stores in one neighborhood, there’s no incentive for a full-service grocery store to come in.”

sauce

the government created the affordability crisis by stealing from us via inflation. this is the product of deficit spending. maybe if people voted for fiscally responsible leaders, this wouldn’t happen.

Elizabeth’s in CT

Great paper; thanks for sharing!

The family that lives in that median 500k Lincoln house has never stepped foot inside a Dollar Tree.

This

It's expensive to be poor. A product sold at these discounters, when measured by cost/weight or cost/volume, is always more expensive than the same brand at a major retailer. These stores are essentially the corporate equivalent of breaking up a pack of cigarettes to sell loosies.

New Wave Kitchen is insanely good and their sourcing is top notch. Certified organic pork from Wild Harmony Farm, mushrooms from High Tide Mushroom Farm, veggies from Luckyfoot Ranch, eggs from Cedar Valley Farm, kombucha from Fully Rooted, etc. Not insanely expensive, surprisingly.

The chef at Newport Vineyards is also brilliant so that's also a great experience with local sourcing.

And +1 for Matunuck Oyster Bar

Considering when I was on a weekend getaway in bumfuck NH and it was the only store around, I’d say yes.

Persimmon on Hope Street in Providence. Delicious, a little pricey.

I swear I just heard something like this in Providence a few minutes ago. Got on the sub to see if anyone else heard something weird. Sound volume went in and out while it seemed to stay in one place for 5-10 minutes. Very weird.

I feel like 15 years ago gas stations were popping up everywhere and like7 years ago banks started popping up everywhere. Now I'd say for the last 3 year dollar store type stores are popping up everywhere. I'm sure in 5 years it will be something else

So dollar stores are one of the "type" stores to look for in real estate investing when you're trying to determine the class of rental/tenant in a neighborhood. Having one near a place doesn't automatically make that area have an abundance of the class of rental associated with them, but it is rather looked at as a whole. On one block is there a dollar store, a check cashing place, a laundromat, and a payday loans center? You're probably looking at Class C. Panera bread, Lululemon, a Starbucks, and a Chase Bank? You're probably in a Class A neighborhood/maybe upper Class B if it's all in a shopping center.

E.g. https://morrisinvest.com/blog/2016/12/2/whats-the-difference-between-and-a-b-and-c-neighborhood/

There are many other factors though, and again it's looked at as a whole not just as "dollar general is in the neighborhood guess it's class C now" or something like that.

There are two Dollar Generals in Tiverton now, about five miles apart from each other.

True