Dive Brief:
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Dollar General will hire some 10,000 new employees as it expands its number of stores, the dollar store chain announced Thursday.
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Dollar General, which operates more than 13,000 retail locations (and plans to open approximately 1,000 new stores over the course of fiscal 2017), seeks to hire both full-time and part-time workers including store managers, assistant store managers, lead sales associates and store associates. The retailer is also hosting 600 hiring events through Sept. 24, where applicants can meet with local store managers and human resources executives.
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The Dollar General hiring spree comes at a time when competition for workers is stiff as rival retailers ramp up their holiday staffing efforts. Target earlier this week announced it will hire some 75,000 seasonal workers ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Dive Insight:
Staffing stores is a huge expense for retailers, accounting for more than half of a typical merchant’s selling, general and administrative costs, according to Bain & Co. While technological innovations promise to automate some aspects of store jobs and enable a reduction in employee ranks, many retailers realize that in-store workers still play an important role in fostering connections with customers.
Technology should amplify, not replace, human potential on the store floor, agrees Brett Wickard, founder and president of “lean retail” software solutions firm FieldStack. “I would say that employees are not your greatest cost,” Wickard told Retail Dive earlier this year. “The right employees are your greatest asset and absolutely an investment in your organization.”
In a statement, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said that the retailer considers investment in its employees a “competitive advantage.”
The hiring effort nevertheless comes as Dollar General has promised to clamp down on costs in light of a new push to cut prices. Dollar stores have been among the most successful segments in retail in recent years, but competition is fierce: Dollar General and Dollar Tree not only do battle with each other, but they must also contend with Wal-Mart, which is chasing many of the same budget-oriented customers.
Dollar General stumbled in the second quarter, reporting same-store sales growth of just 0.7%, compared to analyst expectations from Consensus Metrix for a 2.6% increase. The discount retailer suffered from food price deflation, especially in items like milk and eggs, its two largest perishable products.
But Vasos made it clear to investors that Dollar General understands its place in the retail landscape, one dependent on a low-income shopper without a lot of wiggle room in her household budget.
“As for our core consumer, we operate with the reality that it is always challenging for her to stretch her budget given the pressures on her income and spending,” he said last month. “We are taking aggressive action across merchandising and store operations to address these factors and help drive same-store sales. And we will continue to be very disciplined in our [Selling, General and Administrative Expenses] spending… [I]t will take time for our initiatives to resonate with our consumer.”