{"id":11631,"date":"2019-08-13T14:26:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T18:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countertools.wpengine.com\/?p=11631"},"modified":"2020-05-20T14:42:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T18:42:54","slug":"generally-unhealthy-a-look-at-national-chains-using-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/blog\/generally-unhealthy-a-look-at-national-chains-using-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Generally Unhealthy: A Look at National Chains Using Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every morning, I scroll through LinkedIn\u2019s Daily Rundown, an easy-to-digest recap of trending \u201cprofessional news,\u201d while enjoying my first sips of coffee. I don\u2019t know if the content is tailored to me by an algorithm, but back in January, this headline caught my eye:<\/p>\n

Dollar General\u2019s secret to success, why scooters are taking off in Israel, and more top insights from Clay Christensen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scooters are fun, I guess, but that\u2019s not what piqued my interest. It was the Dollar General mention. So I scrolled down to find this blurb:<\/p>\n

More locations than McDonald\u2019s or Starbucks:\u00a0As retailers across the U.S. close brick and mortar stores,\u00a0Dollar General opened more than 2,000 new locations in 2017 and 2018, with plans to open 975 in 2019. What gives? The company has nailed what my team calls the customer\u2019s\u00a0\u201cJob to Be Done.\u201d Dollar General\u2019s smaller footprint offers customers a quick and convenient way to get the essentials \u2014 at extremely low prices. Rather than endure a mile-long journey through a superstore, customers enjoy a seamless experience on every visit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was shocked by the positive spin on Dollar General\u2019s strategy. Here\u2019s why: Dollar General is not an example of a healthy retailer. They sell inexpensive tobacco products, calorie- but not nutrient-dense food, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Sure, most grocery stores have tobacco and junk food too, but they also have fresh produce, lean protein, and healthier snacks and prepared food options. When you visit Dollar General\u2019s website, the products images in the \u201cfresh food\u201d category are for cheese, packaged deli turkey, and Cool Whip. Unfortunately, for many people in neighborhoods where a Dollar General is their go-to outlet for the \u201cessentials at extremely low prices,\u201d they could be paying the price in poor health outcomes down the road.<\/p>\n

And the fact that Dollar General has more locations than McDonald\u2019s or Starbucks is cause for concern because it tells us that the density of these stores is high, meaning they could be easily-accessible and highly visible in some communities.<\/p>\n

GIS Nuggets<\/h3>\n

When we train on the importance of mapping for public health, we often share the work of Stephen Von Worley and his quest to map all of the McDonald\u2019s locations in the continental US in order to find the \u201cMcFarthest Spot\u201d (the spot farthest away from a McDonald\u2019s\u2014it\u2019s in northwestern NV). Here\u2019s the map from his 2018 update<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a map I found of all of the Starbucks locations in the US in 2018 from the Red Lion Data blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

Fun fact: According to this Quartz article<\/a> from 2014, it is possible to travel from Boston to Philadelphia and never be more than 10 miles from a Starbucks.<\/p>\n

Finally, here\u2019s one from ScrapeHero<\/a> of all of the Dollar General locations in the US as of mid-July 2019:<\/p>\n

\"Dollar<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s and Starbucks each have over 14,000 stores in the US while Dollar General has nearly 16,000. That\u2019s one Dollar General for every 20,000 Americans or so. But we know that this isn\u2019t how density works, because it\u2019s not like those 20,000 Americans are clustered in the same region. And according to their website, most of their stores are located in \u201csmall to mid-size communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humor Me<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s pretend that Dollar General has exclusive rights to sell tobacco products and no other store can sell them. The map above is showing a nation where tobacco products are easy to find, especially in the eastern half of the country, thanks to Dollar General\u2019s density. But the chain is only one of many retailers\u2014including chains and independent stores\u2014that sell tobacco. Imagine a map with a dot for every tobacco retailer across the nation, or even just in your community.*<\/p>\n

Now imagine if instead of representing tobacco retailers, those dots represented stores where food that\u2019s good for you is available, fresh, and reasonably priced, and tobacco products are nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

Imagine the kind of public health impact Dollar General would have if the blurb in my Daily Rundown read like this instead:<\/p>\n

More locations than McDonald\u2019s or Starbucks:\u00a0As retailers across the U.S. close brick and mortar stores,\u00a0Dollar General opened more than 2,000 new locations in 2017 and 2018, with plans to open 975 in 2019. What gives? The company has nailed what my team calls the customer\u2019s\u00a0\u201cJob to Be Done.\u201d Dollar General\u2019s smaller footprint offers customers a quick and convenient way to get the essentials for a healthy life\u2014at prices they can afford. Rather than endure a mile-long journey through a superstore, customers enjoy a seamless experience that they can feel good about on every visit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Doesn\u2019t seem that outlandish to me.<\/p>\n

*Counter Tools can help create maps of tobacco retailers in your community. Learn more about what we do.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every morning, I scroll through LinkedIn\u2019s Daily Rundown, an easy-to-digest recap of trending \u201cprofessional news,\u201d while enjoying my first sips of coffee. I don\u2019t know if the content is tailored to me by an algorithm, but back in January, this headline caught my eye: Dollar General\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data","category-health-equity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/countertools.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}