Dollar General: Serving Others

Dollar General Corporation has been
delivering value to shoppers for over 75 years. 

During the Great Depression (1939-1949) J.L. Turner began buying bankrupt general stores and liquidating each store’s stock. In October 1939, J.L. and his son, Cal Sr., each invested $5,000 and opened J.L. Turner and Son Wholesale. The company quickly moved from wholesaling to retailing, resulting in annual sales above $2 million by the early 1950s.

Dollar General’s 14,805 Store Locations

J.L. Turner and his son Cal Turner Sr. opened the first Dollar General store in Springfield, Kentucky on June 1, 1955. Their plan was that every item in the store would sell for one dollar or less. The idea took off like wild fire and J.L. and Cal quickly converted their other stores to Dollar Generals. By 1957, Dollar General‘s annual sales had reached $5 million.

J.L. Turner passed away in 1964.

In 1968, Dollar General Corporation went public, posting annual sales of more than $40 million and a net income in excess of $1.5 million.

Cal Turner, Jr., joined the company in 1965 and in 1977 he succeeded his father as president of Dollar General. He stayed on as head of the company until his retirement in 2002. Over the course of his presidency, Dollar General grew to more than 6,000 stores and $6 billion in sales.

Today, Dollar General is a leading discount retailer
with 14,805 stores in 44 states.

The yellow Dollar General store sign is a popular symbol of value.

Over the years, and through all of its success, the company has remained true to its ethics of everyday low prices, hard work and friendly customer service. About a quarter of Dollar General‘s merchandise still sells for a dollar or less.

Dollar General‘s small neighborhood stores carry the items that we need every day, such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, soap, shampoo, dish washing soap, garbage bags, garden tools, craft supplies, kitchenware, paint brushes, candy bars, greeting cards, gift wrap and so much more.

You’ll find all the top brands on Dollar General‘s shelves:
Clorox, Energizer, Procter & Gamble, Hanes, Coca-Cola, Mars, Unilever, Nestlé, Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg’s, General Mills, and PepsiCo.

In addition to popular brands, Dollar General also stocks their own private brands which include Clover Valley®, true living®, DG Home®, DG baby®, DG Health®, DG Office®, Comfort Bay®, Bobbie Brooks®, Smart and Simple® and more.

Here are some fun and interesting facts about Dollar General

14,805 retail locations
$23.5 billion in sales in fiscal 2017
10,000 – 12,000 total stock keeping units (SKUs) per store
15 distribution centers
135,000 employees (approximately)

Ranked #123 on the Fortune 500 list as of May 2018

Gloria Sauvé
Communications and Marketing

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