Two major players in the dollar store market in the U.S. are Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which purchased Family Dollar in 2015. In 2018, Dollar General's net sales amounted to about 25.6 billion U.S. dollars , with Dollar Tree generating about 22.8 billion U.S. dollars that year, albeit Dollar Tree's figure incorporates sales made in Canada as well. The two companies operate upwards of fifteen thousand retail stores apiece throughout the United States.
The gap between mass merchandisers, supercenters and dollar stores is shrinking. A survey conducted in August of 2018 found approximately 60 to 65 percent of consumers across different generational cohorts have bought something at a discount store in the last three months. For Dollar General alone, almost half of U.S. consumers, aged between 30 and 49, reported that they had visited a store in the past twelve months.
