--- title: "Dollar General Is Rallying, but Are Investors Overlooking This Vital Growth Story?" description: "Dollar General's stock has risen 15% despite a flat S&P 500, attracting investor interest due to its low-price model targeting underserved markets. However, the company's sales are increasingly relian" type: "news" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/240716685.md" published_at: "2025-05-18T18:17:33.000Z" --- # Dollar General Is Rallying, but Are Investors Overlooking This Vital Growth Story? > Dollar General's stock has risen 15% despite a flat S&P 500, attracting investor interest due to its low-price model targeting underserved markets. However, the company's sales are increasingly reliant on lower-margin consumer staples, which now account for 82.2% of sales, leading to declining profit margins. While seen as a safe investment amid economic uncertainty, Dollar General is facing challenges and is working on a turnaround by cutting costs and upgrading stores. Investors should be cautious, as the growth story may not be as favorable as it appears. The **S&P 500** (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has basically gone nowhere so far in 2025, but it has done it in an exciting way. The market's correction, however, didn't seem to have an impact on **Dollar General** (DG 0.59%) shares, which rose while the S&P 500 index was falling. At the time of this writing, Dollar General is up around 15% while the market is flat. Before you rush out and buy outperforming Dollar General stock, you need to understand this one overlooked "growth" story. ## What does Dollar General do? Dollar General is, from a big-picture perspective, a retailer. But it is focused on selling products at low price points. Further, it targets less affluent markets that are underserved by larger retailers, notably big-box stores like **Walmart** and **Target**. The goal is to provide a mix of convenience and low price points for consumers. Image source: Getty Images. That said, it is important for investors to understand that low price points don't necessarily mean low prices. For example, at Dollar General, a person can buy a roll of toilet paper for a low price point. But each roll of toilet paper in a mega-pack from a big-box store might actually end up being a cheaper alternative. Dollar General is basically targeting customers who either can't afford the mega-pack, don't want to travel the extra distance to a big-box store, or both. Right now, Dollar General's business model is in favor on Wall Street. That's because its low price point model tends to do relatively well during periods of economic weakness. There have been concerns that the U.S. economy could fall into a recession in 2025 thanks to geopolitical and tariff issues. SPY data by YCharts ## How does Dollar General make the most money? In many ways, it is understandable that investors would be interested in Dollar General right now. Its core lower-income customers will likely need to continue shopping at the store, while higher-income customers might trade down in the face of economic concerns. But there's an interesting story when you dig a bit deeper into Dollar General's business. The core of what Dollar General sells are, effectively, consumer staples items -- things like personal hygiene products, paper products, and food. In 2024, this category accounted for 82.2% of sales. The rest of sales came from seasonal goods, home products, and clothing, which accounted for 10%, 5.1%, and 2.7% of sales, respectively. This trio of categories is vitally important to Dollar General's bottom line because they have higher margins than the consumer staples products it sells. DG data by YCharts This is where the "growth" problem comes in. Consumer staples as a percentage of sales has increased from 79.7% in 2022 to the current level of 82.2%. The other three higher-margin categories have all fallen steadily over that time. This may seem like a small change, but retailers often live on very tight margins. And that's particularly true for a retailer selling to lower-income customers with a low-price point model. Dollar General's consumer staples sales have been growing, but because of this, its profit margins have been falling. The stock has followed along for the ride, as the chart highlights. ## Dollar General is working on a turnaround Investors have turned to Dollar General as a safe-haven investment in a time of economic uncertainty, which makes sense. However, there are deeper issues here, as the company looks to turn its business around. It is cutting costs, focusing on adjusting its product mix, and upgrading its stores, all in an effort to improve performance. This is a long-term investment opportunity for the right kind of investor. But if you only own Dollar General because you think it will perform well in a recession, you might be missing the underlying "growth" story (increasing sales of lower-margin products) that is actually acting as a business headwind. ### Related Stocks - [DG.US - Dollar General](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DG.US.md) - [TGT.US - Target](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TGT.US.md) - [COST.US - Costco Wholesale](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/COST.US.md) - [KR.US - Kroger](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/KR.US.md) ## Related News & Research | Title | Description | URL | |-------|-------------|-----| | 09:03 ETSCRUBBING BUBBLES® EASY CLEAN PRODUCT LINE WINS 2026 PRODUCT OF THE YEAR USA AWARD | The Scrubbing Bubbles® Easy Clean product line has won the 2026 Product of the Year USA Award in the Bathroom Cleaning C | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276450501.md) | | Target to test contextual ads in ChatGPT, including through Roundel | Target will pilot contextual ads in ChatGPT, promoting its business and brand partners through its Roundel retail media | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276008317.md) | | 09:08 ETMighty Morphin Power Rangers and Godzilla Collide in New "Kaiju Power Rangers" Action Figure Line | Playmates Toys is launching a new action figure line called "Kaiju Power Rangers," merging the Mighty Morphin Power Rang | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275981696.md) | | 06:00 ETBattat Joins the World of Collectibles | Maison Battat Inc. has announced a global distribution partnership with ToyCity to introduce collectible characters Laur | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275976038.md) | | Costco Ties European Delivery Push To Tighter Membership Food Court Perks | Costco Wholesale has expanded same-day delivery to France and Spain via Instacart, while tightening food court access fo | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275753279.md) | --- > **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.