Dollar General Expands Fresh Produce and Refrigerated Offerings, Store Teams Must Prepare

Dollar General is pushing fresh produce and expanded refrigerated cases deeper into its store network as part of its fiscal 2026 merchandising and format overhaul, with CEO Todd Vasos confirming the direction on a recent quarterly earnings call.

"These larger footprint stores provide additional opportunities to serve our customers, including expanded cooler offerings and more health and beauty products," Vasos said during the call. The company plans to introduce fresh produce to more than 200 additional stores during fiscal 2026, adding to the roughly 7,000 stores that already carry fresh fruits and vegetables.

The trajectory behind that number is steep. Fresh produce offerings grew from 5,400 stores in January 2024 to more than 6,700 by March 2025, with over 1,300 of those locations sitting inside USDA-defined food deserts. In a single year, Dollar General added produce to more than 1,800 stores, a pace that has since moderated as the company shifts attention to remodel quality and store format optimization.

The produce push is more than a merchandising decision. About 80% of Dollar General's stores serve communities with a population of 20,000 or less, and many of those communities have no other practical option for fresh food. The Fruitdale, Alabama store illustrates the demand plainly: more than 200 Washington County families signed a petition asking Dollar General to expand food options, citing inflation and drives of nearly 25 miles or more to reach the next town's grocery options. Before DG expanded the Hitchcock store in November 2023, most residents in the area waited and did their grocery shopping out of town once each week.

A community member known as Tuck captured what that remodel meant on a practical level. "We take for granted driving to get what we want. Others in the community are not so fortunate. They can't just drive ten miles one way on a daily basis. Now, to have that option here in our town is going to be very beneficial for many."

Similar expansions have played out in Bluford, Illinois, where the store grew to include produce and more than 50% additional cooler space, and in Kingston Township, Michigan, where a rural community of 400 residents had been driving 15 to 20 miles each way for the nearest grocer before Dollar General remodeled the store in August 2023 to include fresh produce and expanded dairy and frozen items. Other communities named in the company's produce expansion coverage include Port Huron, Michigan; Sopchoppy, Florida; Fort Payne, Alabama; and Lockney, Texas.

For store teams receiving these upgrades, the physical changes will be significant. New and relocated stores are being moved into larger 8,500 or 9,500-square-foot formats specifically to accommodate expanded cooler sections and a wider health and beauty selection. The 2026 real estate plan includes 2,000 Project Renovate full remodels and 2,250 Project Elevate partial remodels. However, associates should know that stores undergoing Project Elevate will receive nearly all of the same assortment updates as full remodels, except for cooler expansion and the addition of produce. That distinction matters: produce and cooler additions are tied to the full remodel or new-format pipeline, not the lighter-touch Project Elevate work.

Where delivery services are expanding alongside these format changes, store teams face a separate set of operational demands. Dollar General's in-house DG Delivery service was soft-launched in approximately 75 stores, with plans to scale to thousands, through an exclusive partnership with DoorDash. Customers can order through the DG app using digital coupons and loyalty benefits, and the company is enabling SNAP and EBT integration for online orders, which will require associates involved in fulfillment to manage compliance around those payment methods.

On the product side, Dollar General's "Food First" initiative has added more than 600 new items to its Clover Valley private label line, expanding the SKU count store teams need to receive, stock, and rotate. That's on top of fresh produce sets, which the company says include the top 20 items typically sold in grocery stores.

Dollar General's executive vice president and chief merchandising officer Emily Taylor has said that ensuring communities have access to "fresh, affordable, and convenient food options" is one of the company's top priorities. The August 2024 Gold Globe American Business Award in Stakeholder Relations, awarded to Dollar General alongside Little Rock, Arkansas officials and nonprofit Fifty for the Future, reflects how the company is framing this expansion publicly: as a food-access mission, not just a sales strategy.

For associates already managing understaffed shifts, the cooler additions, delivery orders, and expanded private label SKUs represent a real workload increase. Dollar General's top merchandising priority in recent years has been the addition of freezer and cooler space in new and remodeled stores, and that commitment shows no sign of slowing in fiscal 2026. Store teams expecting a remodel would do well to request timelines from their district managers now, before the equipment installs and planogram resets arrive unannounced.