Is Rural America Dollar General’s Secret Weapon Against Amazon? | Fast Five Shorts

Dollar General is expanding its proprietary MYDG delivery same day delivery service to more than 17,000 stores, many in rural communities, directly competing with Amazon's rural delivery expansion.

According to Chain Storage, this expansion comes as Amazon invested more than 4 billion in 2025 to expand its rural U.S. delivery network to speed up delivery for millions of customers in less densely populated areas.

Dollar General data indicates that approximately 75% of the US population lives within five miles of one of its stores, which is incredible, positioning the company to support same day delivery in underserved rural communities.

Lydia Thatcher, VP of Digital Commerce at Dollar General, stated, MYDG delivery is helping bridge the digital gap by extending same day delivery to rural communities nationwide through Saturday, February 28th.

So that's a month from today.

Dollar General is providing customers with free delivery on one MyDG delivery order using their MyDG.

You have to say MYDG a lot in this one.

I know it's a lot of MyDGs.

They're offering free delivery on MyDG delivery order using their MYDG Rewards account with the option to expedite orders to one hour or less for an additional $1 fee.

Sticking with the Dollar General thing there, DOL provides same day delivery from more than 18,000 stores through DoorDash and more than 17,000 stores through a recently launched collaboration with Uber Eats.

Chris, Dollar General versus Amazon in a rural America for same day delivery.

Who wins that battle?

Okay, you're putting me on the spot now.

All right, the tables are turning here.

All right, I love that, first of all, I love that question.

All right.

It's a really great question.

I'm actually going to go a different direction.

I don't think it's either one of them.

I think.

Can I say Walmart, Jen?

Can I say Walmart?

That was not an option, but let's hear it.

Let's hear.

Okay.

I mean, I think Walmart's got the biggest leg up in the, in the race.

You know, given like what I said with like they're within 95% of the US population in under three hours.

Actually, like so very, very quickly.

But, but so like I think, I think, I don't, I think I frame it as, you know what we got at least talk about Walmart within the conversation.

But what I love about the headline, and I'll keep playing the acronyms, is that dg, DG specifically is trying to create its own network versus relying on third parties.

And the reason for that, if you get back to it, is like, you know, why should you do this versus just going through UberEats and DoorDash like we talked about with Kroger on last week's show when Ann was here.

There's a couple reasons.

One, your service is generally better when you control it yourself because you're closer to that customer experience in terms of how it all plays out.

And the other point is you keep control of your first party data as well, which you're effectively giving up when you go through the instacarts in the doordashes of the world.

So the only real question of why not to do this is economics.

But so from my perspective, I think Dollar General or DG has to go this direction to keep pace with both Amazon and Walmart in the long run.

So in that respect, to me it's a table stakes investment.

But Jen, I'm going to turn the tables on you because I want to go back to you.

I'm curious, how are you hearing retailers approach this last mile question, which I was basically talking about there, in terms of how to do it and how are they approaching it from a talent standpoint?

Is it a focus or are most retailers resigned to just using Instacart and DoorDash versus building the muscle memory to do it internally themselves?

Like what?

What's your take there?

What do you see in the marketplace over these last few years?

Yeah, when it comes to the last mile, I think it's a good question.

What I'm seeing is many of them are getting creative and they're testing out where they can own pieces of this versus where it does make sense to outsource, which we've seen right to the ships or the instacarts of the world.

We're seeing retailers build those resources internally where specifically around like building the strategy and the tech integrations, the customer service.

They want to own that customer service and that customer experience, but they're really leaning into those external partners for the toughest part, which is staffing the deliveries.

Right.

So staffing the deliveries in that actual last mile of how does it get to someone doorstep.

Right.

To get it to their doorstep.

Right.

It's nuanced, it's expensive, it can carry inherent risk.

I mean, think about taking store employees or distribution associates and putting them out on the road.

There's just, it's a different model where staffing is already no joke.

Right.

We all know it's hard to get in store employees, it's hard to get D.C. employees right now.

So I just don't think many of the retailers are prepared as much as they may Be looking into it.

And it's a great idea to find a way to control that experience in the future.

I mean, the manpower isn't there to.

Do it today, so there's the reality of it, too.

All right, so what about the question you asked me, like, who do you think wins in the battle in the long run?

I'm curious your take there too.

Who, who wins?

Well, I didn't know Walmart was an option, so.

Oh, so I'm not say Walmart.

Here's what I will say.

I'll say I really like this.

I like this from Dollar General.

I think they know their customers.

I think they're not trying to cater the solution to everyone and be the next Amazon.

I think they're just saying in these areas we can compete.

If they truly have 75% of the population within five miles from a store, they're, they're just prepared to compete.

So I would say I'm going to go with what might be considered the underdog here and say I think Dollar General has a strong opportunity to win against an Amazon in those rural communities.

I think the.

When Amazon announced its plan for rural communities, they said they needed 200 delivery stations.

Well, Dollar General already has those delivery stations.

Right.

They're going to use their store, use their existing footprint.

We already talked about how many stores they have, and I think if it's done well, I'm going to give them the win.

Yeah, well, yeah, I think you're right.

I mean, I think you're onto something that we can't overlook too, which is that there is a local factor to where people choose to shop.

And so Dollar General is that local factor for a lot of the American population.

And so Amazon is not that.

Now Amazon can try to continue to fortify its E commerce position with the marketplace, which it's done very well and will continue to do well in that regard.

But I think there's a point that you're making here which is, you know, again, it goes to Walmart too, to some degree.

But Dollar General and Walmart both have that local perception of the place you shop.

And there's an affinity to that that is hard to break.

Ultimately, over time, I think the challenge.

Will be how do you get shoppers to change their behavior when they're ordering something?

Because that's never been shopper behavior in the past.

Right, but how is Dollar General getting in front of them with announcements like this, offering this dollar delivery?

I think that will be the challenge.

Like, am I going to go to my phone and open up my DG app.

My dg, which is the new acronym we're using.

Right, Right.

And, and that will be the challenge.

But I do think there are some very loyal in those rural communities, people that love their Dollar General.

It's the closest store to them.

So I would say that's the biggest challenge.

Yeah.

And also, like, how much assortment you can provide via this method to like, you know, is it, is it, is it going to give people what they want consistently?

I also think it gets potentially into like a membership aspect too, like with Dollar General.

So it gives them potentially another income source in the long run as they're test understand how valuable it is to different people.

So.