Driving along Madison Street, I sometimes swing into Dollar Tree with just one objective in mind: potato chips. Dollar Tree has 2-ounce bags of Cape Cod, Zapp’s, Kettle and other brands for a buck and a quarter a pop, much less than I’ve paid elsewhere.
When I was a kid, I used to go to the Little Big Dollar Store in Portage Park, Chicago, because in those days, it was amazing how far a dollar could go (read: lots of candy). At the Dollar Tree in Oak Park, it’s no longer the case that everything is under a dollar — some of the frozen foods, like Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, are around $5 — but the prices are still very competitive.
Now admittedly, Dollar Tree and others of its ilk are rather, um, down-market. Who cares? My 2-ounce bags of chips, bought in bulk, are around half the price of what they’d be elsewhere and, just as importantly, small bags make portion control quite easy.
Dollar stores have always been a good place to shop for deeply discounted cleaning products, sponges, paper plates, and towels, everyday stuff like that. The stores are also a gateway to strange and perversely intriguing merch that some purchasing agent got for a song. For instance, you might find Tapatio Ramen, the perennially popular Japanese noodles seasoned with hot Mexican red sauce; Scooby Doo doggy cleanup bags; holographic duct tape; a raygun-looking toy that makes fart and burp sounds; and a rubberized sea creature that, when you put it in water, grows 600%. Find that at Target!
I’m not buying any of that crazy stuff, but for potato chips, I’m all in.
Dollar Tree is not without critics. Local treasure Charlie Meyerson’s Chicago Public Square newsletter — if you don’t subscribe, do so right now! — recently linked to some downtown critics of Dollar Tree. Those critics include the notoriously righteous Chicago City Council, one of whose members said, “I wouldn’t trust them to serve me a fruit, a vegetable and nothing else because their stores are filthy.”
It is very unlikely that Dollar Tree will start selling fresh fruits, vegetables, and other perishable items, but if you’re concerned about the cleanliness of stores, which to me seem on par with other grocery stores in the area, you can have Dollar Tree goods delivered right to your home.
I counted around a dozen Dollar Tree stores in the Chicago area, many serving communities that don’t have a lot of other options. Those who inveigh against such retail outlets seem insensitive to the concerns of folks who rely on such places for the essentials, which go way beyond the urge for the occasional potato chip.
It’s good to have a store like Dollar Tree in Oak Park, particularly for those on a limited income.
But who doesn’t want a good deal?
Rant over.
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