News Site Is Surprised That “Well-to-Do Millennials” Shop at Dollar Stores

Today in LOLreads, we have an article on shopping at dollar stores even when you aren’t poor or whatever, OMG:

Guess who’s shopping at dollar stores? Well-to-do millennials

Victoria Marin, a 35-year old author and educator, used to spend hundreds of dollars at large party-goods retailers on supplies that ended up in the trash can.

But a visit to the neighborhood Dollar General store, mainly to stock up on cheaper paper napkins and plastic cups, completely changed the way she shopped.

The Reuters article includes tidbits like Local Man Discovers Dollar Store Cotton Swabs Are Just As Good As Q-Tips, and literally includes the words “They do not need to shop at dollar stores.”

Really, Reuters? Who made you the arbiter of who “needs” to shop at dollar stores? If dollar store purchases by people under 35 have increased by 7.1 percent since 2012, there’s probably a good reason behind it. Maybe it’s the cost of childcare. Maybe we’re all trying to save more for retirement. Maybe we read The Millionaire Next Door, and figured that was aspirational as long as we didn’t adjust for inflation. Maybe it’s simply that the Dollar Store cotton swabs are just as good as Q-Tips, and why spend extra if you don’t have to?

Unless this is a gentrification thing, where people with more money are taking options away from people with less money—and the article doesn’t mention anything about the Dollar Store shelves being emptied out by these “well-to-do Millennials”—just let them buy their cotton swabs, okay?

Hat tip to Consumerist for initially posting about this hilarious article, and including this stat: “market research shows that about 25% of the money spent in [dollar stores] came from [Millennials].”

I’m not surprised. Are you?

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