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Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices

(www.theguardian.com)
510 points bookofjoe | 2 comments | 07 Dec 25 14:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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regera ◴[07 Dec 25 21:07 UTC] No.46185157[source]▶
Dollar stores are private equity with a checkout lane.

In 2025, Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to a group of private-equity firms: Brigade Capital Management, Macellum Capital Management and Arkhouse Management Co.

https://corporate.dollartree.com/news-media/press-releases/d...

It’s a business model cosplaying as poverty relief while quietly siphoning money from the people least able to lose it. They already run on a thin-staff, high-volume model. That 23% increase is not a glitch. They know their customers can’t drive across town to complain. They know the regulators won’t scale fines to revenue.

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sema4hacker ◴[07 Dec 25 21:15 UTC] No.46185228[source]▶
Has private equity ever done anything good for anyone outside of the investors?
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chongli ◴[07 Dec 25 21:51 UTC] No.46185536[source]▶
Private equity are the crows of the economy. They pick off weak / dysfunctional businesses and open space for fresh competition (or for other markets to open up).
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venturecruelty ◴[07 Dec 25 21:59 UTC] No.46185617[source]▶
How do I travel to the alternate universe where private equity apparently makes things better instead of worse?
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pfdietz ◴[07 Dec 25 23:55 UTC] No.46186686[source]▶
You stay in this one. If PE wasn't producing value it would disappear. What, you think people dump money into PE because they want to twirl their villainous moustaches?
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1. andrew_lettuce ◴[08 Dec 25 00:06 UTC] No.46186779{3}[source]▶
Most people would say that extracting wealth and concentrating it into an ever shrinking group of elites is making the world worse. They do this both from the companies you and I might work for, but more importantly from the markets that have no defenses.
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2. pfdietz ◴[08 Dec 25 12:09 UTC] No.46191326[source]▶
This is a simpleminded parody of how a market works. Competition isn't concentrating wealth, it's driving down prices. The value ultimately flows to the consumers.

When PE salvages a failing enterprise, it's increasing the overall value of that enterprise, even if that means selling off parts that still have value. Those parts are made available to others at prices lower than they otherwise would have had to pay.

Wealth concentration flows from impediments to competition. There is no shortage of PE firms competing for these opportunities.