Dollar General sees more high-income shoppers as economy squeezes budgets

Higher-income shoppers are showing up more often in Dollar General aisles, and that is changing what store teams have to manage from the first part of a shift to the last. The company says the added traffic is coming on top of pressure from higher gas prices and cuts to SNAP benefits, especially in rural communities, where customers are already shortening trips and stretching budgets.

That shift showed up in Dollar General’s first-quarter fiscal 2026 results for the 13 weeks ended May 1. Net sales rose 3.4% to $10.8 billion, same-store sales increased 2.0%, operating profit climbed 10.8% to $638.5 million and diluted earnings per share rose 12.4% to $2.00. Traffic grew 1.4% and average transaction amount rose 0.5%, a combination that can change basket mix at the register and put more pressure on associates to keep fast-moving items on the shelf before customers hit the front end.

Todd Vasos tied the stronger traffic to the state of the economy, and the customer mix now looks more complicated than the old image of a dollar store serving only the lowest-income households. The chain still says its core shoppers are primarily low- to moderate-income households earning about $35,000 a year or less, but more households earning over $100,000 are increasingly trading down. That means a store can have a regular customer looking for the cheapest gallon of milk and a new shopper expecting cleaner aisles, clearer signage and a quicker trip, all in the same line.

For workers, that broadening mix matters most in the places that are already hardest to keep steady: in-stock levels, price labels and the front end. Dollar General now stocks more than 2,000 items at or below $1, including a frozen door dedicated to $1 items, and its Value Valley section of up to 500 $1 items posted an 18.4% comparable-sales increase. Those are the kinds of sections that can draw bargain hunters, but they also create more work if product is out of place, a promo is missing or a shelf is empty when a customer has come in expecting a quick win on price.

Dollar General opened 190 new U.S. stores and five in Mexico in the quarter and said it had 20,893 stores across the United States and Mexico as of January 30. It kept its annual same-store sales forecast at 2.2% to 2.7% while raising its fiscal 2026 earnings outlook to $7.20 to $7.45 excluding tariff refunds. The message for store teams is simple: the economy is sending more people through the doors, but that only helps if the store can stay organized, stocked and moving at the speed customers now expect.