The pandemic isn’t slowing down Aldi’s or Dollar General’s ambitions in the grocery space. How would you assess the unique threats from Aldi and Dollar General to traditional grocers and big box stores in the grocery category?

Dollar stores appear to have outperformed essential retail in the first quarter and are poised to benefit as the economy struggles in the months ahead. Do you agree that dollar stores are now better positioned to gain market share in the months ahead?

Scenes of panic buying in grocery stores have become a fixture of daily life in the midst of the global coronavirus outbreak. For the elderly, navigating such instances can be uncomfortable, difficult and even dangerous. Should other American retailers set aside specific hours for the elderly and disabled to shop?

Last week on his company’s fourth-quarter conference call, Todd Vasos, CEO at Dollar General, said he expects his chain’s proximity to consumers to be beneficial should calls for social distancing continue amid the coronavirus outbreak. Which retail channel and retailers appear best positioned to withstand the impact of the coronavirus outbreak?

One driving force behind the recent waves of brick-and-mortar store closures has been the need to trim unprofitable locations in an overstored retail landscape. One retailer, however, is going full tilt with a physical retail expansion in 2020. Will Dollar General see value from its expanding store base in the coming years?

In coming months, Dollar General will become the first dollar store chain to test BOPIS at select stores. The service will initially be offered through the DG GO! mobile app. Will BOPIS offer much appeal to the dollar store shopper?

Grocery Outlet has kept its customers happy with low priced groceries for more than 70 years. Now the chain will see if it can please Wall Street, as well. What challenges will Grocery Outlet face as it goes public and works to significantly grow its store footprint?

Building on its fresh foods initiatives, Dollar General is plotting a multi-phase shift to self-distribution of perishable goods, primarily fresh and frozen. Do you see more benefits than risks with Dollar General’s shift to self-distribution of perishables?

A New York hedge fund, which recently took a small stake in Dollar Tree, is pushing the company to sell its Family Dollar business and is seeking seats on the board to make sure the deal is done quickly. Should Dollar Tree sell Family Dollar?

Dollar stores may have good prices, but they’re developing a bad reputation. Customers and municipalities alike are no longer so enamored with the popular retail format, according to a new study. Are dollar stores as bad for cities as opponents claim?

A big dollar store chain that’s been described as “taking over rural America” is now upping its urban presence with a new store concept tailored specifically to the city. What will DGX have to do to compete in urban markets?

Target is introducing a new line of toiletries and household cleaning products with the goal of attracting budget-conscious shoppers to its stores and target.com. Will the new line be successful in keeping a greater percentage of its budget-conscious shoppers from going to rivalsl?

The latest grocer to try curbside pickup isn’t one that is generally associated with offering fancy amenities. Discount grocer Aldi has decided to launch a pilot of the service in the U.S. Will services such as curbside pickup and home delivery prove popular with Aldi’s customers?

Dollar General has become the latest retailer and the first dollar store to introduce a scan & go app. Does scan & go checkout technology make sense for the Dollar General shopping experience?

Business Insider states, “Dollar stores’ sales grow as more Americans struggle economically, with retailers betting on a ‘permanent underclass in America.’” Should more retailers start to target America’s poorest consumers given the uneven progression of economic recovery?

J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Sears have been closing stores in large numbers in an acknowledgment that there is simply not enough business to support their continued operation. Other channels have also shuttered stores in large numbers. Are grocery stores next? Are there too many stores selling groceries in the U.S.?

Dollar General continues its push into groceries. On the chain’s latest earnings call, CEO Todd Vasos said they have begun testing sales of fresh produce in its traditional dollar stores and early results suggest that a wider pilot may be warranted. Do you see the addition of produce to Dollar General’s traditional stores as a viable tactic for growth going forward?

While Dollar General had succeeded in gaining market share in the most recent quarter, the chain is taking aggressive steps to address price cuts made by Walmart and others. Can Dollar General afford to be in an intensified price competition with Walmart?

Dollar General isn’t always just about opening new stores. In some cases, it’s about closing existing stores to move into better digs in the same market. What is your reaction to Dollar General acquiring 41 former Walmart Express locations?

Anecdotal accounts of shoppers driving their Mercedes to dollar stores to save a few bucks have made for good copy over the years. Do you think the shopping base of dollar stores will skew more affluent in the years to come?

It’s been more than a decade since former Walmart CEO David Glass identified dollar stores as the biggest threat facing Walmart. Since then, Walmart has been rumored as a potential suitor in the market, and looked at creating its own dollar concept. Do you see Dollar General as a bigger competitive threat to Walmart than other rivals?

Dollar General may have lost out to Dollar Tree in its bid to acquire Family Dollar, but that’s the only place the company’s management plans to lose to its rivals. How long do you think Dollar General and its rivals will be able to keep up the pace of new store openings?

Dollar General has introduced a smaller-sized format to reach more densely populated metro areas as well as smaller rural ones. What challenges do you see ahead for Dollar General’s smaller store format in metro cities? Do you see lessons in the chain’s strategy for other discount chains?

Annual sales at dollar stores are approaching $55 billion, with compound annual growth rates averaging 6.5 percent since 2000 — well above the four percent recorded by conventional grocery. Do you see any reason dollar stores won’t be making strong gains in grocery share in the years ahead?

Dollar General will be rolling out a new prototype for all its stores in 2016 with attention on speedier checkouts and a greater focus on perishables and health & beauty. Are quick fill-ups on perishables and health & beauty how Dollar General should be positioning itself for the future?

What else can a chain that has lost market share in the discount space do but lower its prices? That appears to be the scenario set up for Family Dollar as the company awaits the closing of its merger with Dollar Tree. Do you expect to see Family Dollar lower its prices following the completion of the merger with Dollar Tree?

Evidently there are people who think it would be a good idea for Walmart to throw its hat into an already crowded ring of parties looking to acquire Family Dollar. Do you think Walmart should be looking to expand its business through acquisitions in the U.S.?

Family Dollar surprised many by rejecting Dollar General’s merger offer based on the premise that the combination holds too much anti-trust risk. How would you assess the antitrust concerns of a potential Family Dollar/Dollar General merger? How should authorities view at the competitive landscape?

Dollar General has offered about $9.7 billion to buy Family Dollar, creating a bidding war by trumping an earlier offer made by Dollar Tree. Would Dollar General make a better fit for Family Dollar than Dollar Tree? What would a Dollar General/Family Dollar combination mean for retail’s competitive landscape?

Dollar Tree has reached an agreement to acquire rival Family Dollar Stores in a deal that will create the largest operator of dollar stores in North America. What do you expect from Dollar Tree’s acquisition of Family Dollar? What will the deal mean for Dollar General and other competitors to the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar chains?

Home Depot is not going to renew its sponsorship of Joe Gibbs Racing when its contract expires at the end of the NASCAR season, according to a report by SportsBusiness Journal. Are sports sponsorships becoming more or less important to retailer marketing efforts today than in the past?

What is a retailer to do when consumers are cutting back but its success depends on continued growth? For Dollar General, it means an increased focus on category management, planogram changes to highlight value purchases, a greater commitment to private label, and optimizing SKU assortment. Is affordability more important to retail success today than it has been in the past?

One of the typical perks of being a top executive at a publicly traded company is that shares of the company stock are part of the deal. On the downside, as a recent article on The Motley Fool website points out, investors can find it “nerve-racking” when a top executive sells shares in companies in which they are invested. What is your view on the use of shares as executive compensation?

Dollar General management thinks the chain has a SKU problem. “We actually believe we can do more in 2014, with less SKUs,” said Rick Dreiling, chairman and CEO of the dollar store chain, during last week’s earnings conference call with analysts. Do you think Dollar General’s SKU optimization and small store remodeling plans are winning strategies?

Market basket studies have been published showing Walmart or its dollar store competitors – alternately – with the lowest comparative prices. For companies with consumers so focused on stretching their dollars, the perception of having the lowest price is critically important. Can Walmart afford not to be viewed by consumers as the low price leader?

In good times and bad, Americans love a bargain. That’s what first led many to go shopping in dollar stores, and it’s what has kept them going back for everyday consumables as operators in the channel have added grocery goods to their mix. How do you expect the demand for cheap consumables to influence the development of dollar stores in the future?

Dollar General certainly isn’t the first retailer to attempt to drive more traffic to its stores using fuel pumps. But the fact that the nation’s largest dollar store chain is testing a gas station for the first time is significant. What are the implications for Dollar General and its competitors should the gas station test prove to be a success?

What would happen to the dollar store business if consumers searching for deals learned that they could get lower prices shopping in Walmart? Will dollar stores suffer as smaller Walmart stores move into the same neighborhoods?

The most-recent workforce management study from Retail Systems Research shows a bidirectional pull between meeting consumer demands for better service and a more enjoyable shopping experience, and pressure to reduce labor costs as a percent of sales. What should be the primary and secondary goals of any retailer looking to employ a workforce management solution?

It’s long been known that much of the theft at retail is an inside job. Employees, whether acting alone or as part of organized retail crime, have cost the industry billions. Should companies be able to identify former employees as thieves if they have not been convicted of a crime?

Recent stories pitched to RetailWire around the prospects for dollar stores have taken two angles. The first pitch posits that dollar stores have arrived at an over-stored state. The second suggests that dollar stores have achieved great growth largely due to the Great Recession. For how long do you expect dollar stores to continue riding the current wave of success?

Tesco may be considering its alternatives when it comes to doing business in the U.S., but the company’s Fresh & Easy division wants its shoppers to know there’s no reason for them to be looking elsewhere to shop. What do you make of Fresh & Easy’s e-mail to customers?

You know competition has to be tough when the nation’s largest dollar store chain announces it is looking at dropping prices to compete for market share during the Christmas holiday season. Do you think daily news coverage of the “fiscal cliff” is affecting the purchasing behavior of dollar store shoppers?

Even as the economy has begun to recover, dollar stores continue to pick up share from supermarkets and mass merchandisers. Do you expect the competitive threat posed by dollar stores to other food retailers to increase, decrease or remain the same over the next five years?

While participants in the September discussion on this site saw a modest opportunity online for Dollar General and others in its channel, a recent RetailSails blog concludes that the number of various discount retailers launching e-commerce sites could be a “game-changer.” Do you see opportunities for price-format retailers to change the game online?

Dollar General is no Walmart killer, but according to a recent piece on Forbes.com, the chain’s focus on convenience and price is helping it grab share from its big box rival. Do Dollar General and other dollar store chains represent a challenge to Walmart’s growth prospects?

Albeit 16 years after Amazon.com was first launched, Dollar General will finally introduce e-commerce capabilities on its website today in a bid to provide more convenience for consumers. What do you think of the e-commerce opportunity for Dollar General and other dollar store operators?

Dollar stores are facing new competition from big-boxers who are determined to downsize their way in by shoving small formats into previously unexplored urban and rural markets. How vulnerable are dollar stores to inflationary pressures as well as the rollout of smaller urban and rural formats from the big boxes?

The theory that the Great Recession has changed American consumers forever will be put to the test in the dollar store channel, which has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Do you subscribe to the “new normal” theory that says consumers have been permanently changed by the Great Recession?

It’s not likely that many individuals are going to spend $250 for the holidays on these items at Dollar General. There are individuals and organizations, however, engaged in toy drives that are looking to buy large quantities of toys at a low price. Will Dollar General build good will and sales with its bulk toy discount program?