IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v132y2025ics0306919225000314.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dollar store impact on local labor markets and retail activity

Author

Listed:
  • Chenarides, Lauren
  • Richards, Timothy J.
  • Rutledge, Zachariah
  • Pender, John

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between dollar store expansion and local labor market outcomes, including employment, earnings, and retail establishment counts within the general merchandise and food and beverage sectors. We compare these relationships across urban and rural counties. Using an instrumental variables approach to address potential endogeneity in store location decisions, we find that dollar store presence corresponds with higher employment levels within the general merchandise retail sector. While absolute employment increases are larger in urban counties, the relative changes compared to baseline employment levels are more substantial in rural counties than urban ones (11.86% versus 5.22%). We find contemporaneous decreases in average weekly earnings, but lagged results show a positive, compensating association with dollar store expansion in urban areas, while rural wages show no significant changes. We find modest employment increases in the food and beverage sector in urban areas with no significant relationship in rural areas. These findings provide empirical evidence that dollar store expansion corresponds with job creation, particularly in the general merchandise retail sector, despite the displacement of existing establishments.

Suggested Citation

  • Chenarides, Lauren & Richards, Timothy J. & Rutledge, Zachariah & Pender, John, 2025. "Dollar store impact on local labor markets and retail activity," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:132:y:2025:i:c:s0306919225000314
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102827
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919225000314
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102827?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dollar stores; Employment; Earnings; Retailing; Rural economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:132:y:2025:i:c:s0306919225000314. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.