Dollar General is on a roll these days, but that doesn’t stop company officials from pushing for that ultimate customer experience.
“We’re focused on new ways to wow our consumers,” Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said during the company’s Aug. 27 second-quarter earnings conference call, according to Seeking Alpha. “We are focused on expanding high-opportunity categories and giving our consumer the trend-right product she wants at affordable prices. For instance, we know licensed products resonate with our consumers as they are on trend and communicate value. As a result, we are broadening our reach across categories with more impactful licensed products. At the same time, affordability is as important as ever to our consumers. For 2015, more than 40% of our holiday seasonal assortment is priced at $1.”
Vasos is nearing his first 100 days as CEO.
“I am as excited as ever about the opportunities ahead of us at Dollar General,” he said. “The team is energized and excited as we look to help our consumers save time, save money every day.”
Second-quarter sales increased nearly 8%, to $5.1 billion while same-store sales grew 2.8%.
“For the 30th consecutive quarter-over-quarter, we increased both our customer traffic and average ticket,” Vasos said. “The labor hour investment in this select group of stores is designed to ensure we deliver on our customer's expectation in more competitive markets to enhance our in-stock position for a more convenient shopping experience.”
Specifically, the key metrics of same-store sales, transactions, average basket, and consumer satisfaction scores have all registered significant improvement, Vasos noted.
“The second investment in labor comes from the realignment of our store operations management structure to optimize the scale of our divisions, regions, and districts to improve accountability and maximizing training and teamwork, all while driving stronger more sustainable results,” he said. “We have reduced the time our district managers spend driving so they can invest more time mentoring and coaching our store managers on developing and strengthening their teams.”
Dollar General’s new store prototype will be rolled out in 2016 for all new stores, relocations, and remodels. The format will allow for a more customer-friendly shopping experience and in this prototype, the consumer will enjoy a faster, more convenient checkout, “an attribute that is a high priority for our core consumer,” Vasos said. “We have value-engineered the design to be capital efficient and easier to operate for our store teams. Given the early results from our test, we are encouraged about the prototype.”
Based on customer insights, Dollar General plans to expand its offerings across segments such as hair care, cough and cold, over-the-counter meds, skin care, and nail care.
“We are well positioned to capitalize on this trend given our brand offerings and price relevancy,” Vasos said. “Our ongoing affordability initiative will be front and center with the new fresh approach. Our underlying principles are to keep the business simple, but move quickly to capture opportunities, control expenses, and always be a low-cost operator.”