Dollar General Gets Ready for Christmas

Dollar General Corp. (DG)

NYSE

After-Hours Snapshot:

10/27/2010 04:24 PM EDT

27.72

Dollar General Makes Holiday Planning Easy

Plan and Shop for the holidays now at Dollar General

Dollar General is making it easy for shoppers to get a head-start on preparing for the holidays. Dollar General stores are now brimming with holiday goodies, gifts, home décor and a variety of merchandise to make the holidays bright.
"Customers will be excited about the assortment of merchandise filling our shelves this holiday season," said Rick Dreiling, Dollar General's chairman and CEO. "We believe customers will enjoy shopping with us throughout the holidays for everything on their list. And, by getting an early start to the season, we hope to make it easier for customers to plan ahead and manage their holiday budget."
Dollar General's team of holiday experts has been working year-round to bring customers the best merchandise at the greatest value this holiday season. Customers will find the gifts, holiday décor, gift wrap and ingredients they need, all in one location at Dollar General. The discount retailer is making the holidays simple and affordable for everyone. Here are a few examples of what shoppers will find at Dollar General for the holidays.
Home for the Holidays
Get ready for the holidays with Dollar General's wide assortment of home décor, Christmas tree decorations and lighting. Find Christmas ornaments for every style of tree, starting at $1. Choose from a variety of ornaments including traditional, inspirational, retro toys, as well as Dollar General's exclusive ornament collections, Through the Woods and Sweet Treats.
Deck the halls with stockings for only $2 - $3 or build a holiday village with a variety of lighted Christmas Village pieces for only $5 each. And, don't forget lights for brightening banisters, mantels, decorative wreaths and the Christmas tree. Dollar General offers an assortment of lights, starting at $1.50.
Toys for Less
Dollar General is the place to fill kids' wish lists without breaking the bank. More than 350 toys are priced at $5 or less. Some favorites this year include Batman^(R) character figures, Barbie^(R) mini-pet sets, Disney Princess^(R) art set, Hot Wheels^(R) truck, Cars^(R) tire match game and handheld LCD games. Shoppers will find an expanded holiday toy section featuring toys for children of all ages, including art, games, puzzles, activity sets, plush animals, licensed toys and much more.
Gifts for Everyone
Give family and friends gifts that they won't only love, but will use frequently. Jeans are always popular, and Dollar General's revamped bobbie brooks^(R) jeans for women and Open Trails^(R) jeans for men will quickly become favorites. bobbie brooks^(R) jeans start at only $12 and Open Trails^(R) jeans start at only $10. Dollar General also offers a wide selection of jewelry and accessories, starting at $3.
Give the gift of warmth and comfort with Dollar General's line of slippers, which start at $3, and pajamas, starting at $10. Sleepwear and slippers are available for men, women and kids.
Bake something special
Find all the ingredients needed for holiday baking and cooking at Dollar General. The discount retailer has expanded its food aisles to help shoppers save time and money on cooking and baking. Shoppers will save even more this holiday season by trying Clover Valley, Dollar General's high-quality, private brand of food and beverages.
They all start earlier and earlier every year but your dollar really does further at this store than others.  Especially for younger children.  Parents would be smart to shop at Dollar General for those babies and toddlers for Christmas and for less money get a lot more for Santa.

Very Interesting

I just discovered an article that got my attention written by Lynn Cowan at Dow Jones and published in the Wall Street Journal.  Titled "Investors Flock to Dollar General, Rue 21.  I had never seen any article that lumped these two together and since I have been working with Brittni and she was blogging Rue 21 it only sparked more interest.  The comparison is strange and said that both companies are plays on nervous consumers, producing strong sales growth throughout the worst of the recession as shoppers shifted their spending to discount stores.  Take a look.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703683804574532551434723442.html

Outsourcing

Major Retailer Outsources Entire EDW to the Cloud

Dollar General Corp. replaces Oracle and HP with 1010data’s hosted analytics/data warehousing service

Information Management Online, October 8, 2009

Julie Langenkamp

October 8, 2009 - 1010data has signed a multi-year contract with Dollar General to host the retailer’s enterprise data warehouse and provide the front-end analytical tools and related support for their entire enterprise. This solution is being delivered via 1010data’s namesake service, an analytics and reporting platform as a software as a service model in the cloud. With this contract, Dollar General becomes the first major retailer to adopt this model.

Dollar General, the largest discount retailer in the United States by number of stores, currently generates more than 5 billion records of data annually and has accumulated over 70 billion records of historical and operational data. Rapidly growing data volumes have exhausted the capabilities of the company’s existing data warehouse infrastructure. 

Under the agreement, Dollar General will use 1010data’s hosted solution for all data warehousing needs for its operations, including more than 8,500 stores, nine distribution centers and a corporate office in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. 

”Our solution provides Dollar General with a place where their most detailed source data is hosted for all users to access with permission over the Internet,” said Jim Mattecheck, VP of the retail solutions group for 1010data in a statement. 

Mattecheck also stated that Dollar General’s decision to be the first major retailer to embrace an outsourcing strategy for its EDW signals a fundamental shift in how retailers are thinking about the value of their data and the business opportunities provided with insight on demand.

This announcement signals a shift outside of the retail space as well. One year ago, independent industry analyst Lou Agosta wrote that it was difficult to imagine anyone moving an existing multiterabyte data warehouse to the cloud, but he admits times are changing. “It is a special pleasure to have to eat one’s words since that is where one is able to learn and grow personally and professionally,” Agosta told Information Management. He believes that the client, vendor and analyst communities are all going to learn a lot from 1010data/Dollar General undertaking. 

While Agosta offers encouragement for such an undertaking into new realms of outsourcing, Saas and cloud computing, he also offers words of caution for companies considering such a model.

“Critical success factors in transforming the press release into a successful implementation include a rigorous yet flexible service level agreement (SLA) between the client and the vendor; upstream, low latency data integration to identify which consumer regions are buying what products and when and where are they doing so; a usable front end that delivers the ‘ah-ha! moment’ synthesized in the background; and some serious bandwidth, i.e., pipes, so that the network functions as a whole. The front end is for show; data integration is for dough.” 

When asked about trepidation regarding data warehousing in the cloud, Greg Munves, 1010data VP, told Information Management that 1010data has been implementing large data warehouse projects in the cloud successfully for the last nine years.  

“The competitive landscape of the current economy and the need to reduce costs now make data warehousing in the cloud more attractive than ever,” said Munves. He further stated that the company has proven the technology is available - and even optimal - to handle enterprise data warehousing in the cloud.

Generic Strategies

As I read the text it was actually harder than I thought to pick out what strategy I thought my company had chosen to follow.  In the end, I decided that they may cross the descriptions a little but they definitely are a low cost provider.  The text also warned against not selecting a well spelled out strategy and losing to your competitors because of that.  Dollar General's strategy as a low cost provider is combined with locations in rural communities that their target marget can get in and out of a lot faster than the overcrowed and very busy Walmart.  The design of the stores is well laid out and you know you are stopping in for the just the basic staples and you know exactly where it is.  There are two checkout lines!  This is the best idea ever in my opinion.  Especially since you go to Walmart who have 20 with only 2 open.  In checking new stories on my company I found another great diversification move that the company is making.

Dollar General revamps bobbie brooks clothing line 

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn.
Dollar General Corp. says it is revamping its bobbie brooks women's clothing line.
The fall line, which arrives in stores this month, features new fabrics, colors and looks for the popular brand that Dollar General took over exclusively in 2005. All of the clothing items sell for under $16.
The move is part of a larger effort by the discounter to widen its array of items as more shoppers turn to discount stores for their basics from food to household goods and clothing.
Dollar General shares rose 10 cents to $28.25 in afternoon trading.

Performing Better Than Expected

When Dollar General was founded in 1939 as J.L. Turner & Son, a wholesale business in Scottsville, KY, Dollar General in 2007 was a $9.2 billion revenues company and the largest competitor in the dollar store segment, with more than 8,000 stores.  In 2007 affiliates of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., L.P. acquired Dollar General and turned it into a private company.  In 2010, however, Forbes reports that  the Low -Price Retail chain beat the predicted estimates and hikes full yeat forecast. It appears that the company is holding its own when faced with the competition and the external environment.

The company earned $141.2 million in the second quarter, or $0.41 per share, compared to $93.6 million, or $0.29 per share, in the same quarter last year.

Sales rose nearly 11%, to $3.2 billion.

Results beat analyst expectations, and Dollar General ( DG - news - people ) hiked its full-year forecast. It is now looking for earnings in a range of $1.68 to $1.74, compared to its prior forecast of $1.62 to $1.69 per share. Dollar-store rival Dollar Tree ( DLTR - news - people ) hiked its guidance earlier in the month as well. Other competitors include Family Dollar ( FDO - news - people ) and 99 Cent Only Store ( NDN - news - people ).