As Austin becomes a full-on upscale metro boutique high-dollar shopping experience, there are times you still wanna save a few bucks, right? Even more so, in fact, as costs of living climb skyward. And that’s when I go downmarket and head to Family Dollar.
Some of you may resist the store as it generally serves the 47 percent that Mutt Romney couldn’t give two shits about. It’s as proletarian as eating squirrel, a total no-frills We The Po’ People kinda place. But what's cooler than saving on the basics?
As Austinite Koko D. notes on Yelp:
This place is kept clean and organized and the employees are nice. They have cheap stuff there. What else do you need?
Perzackly! It‘s a store that could theoretically provide all the basics of life you might need… I stress might. That’s not how I shop there, but one woman in Chicago, Jillian G., has this to say:
I love me some Family dollar.
Man this store has gotten me through some rough times. I spent some time living in the Congress Theater apartments. There are no grocery stores around here. I do not count the wack CVS down the street. Thus, I have done entire grocery shopping from Family Dollar.
I have purchased the following from Family Dollar: Hello Kitty underwear that fit weird, Socks, Mac N' Cheese, Pre-Cooked Bacon, Soda brands I have never heard of before or since, a skid of tuna, weird foreign dog toys, etc.
This place does lead to weird eating habits though. I did go through a pre-cooked-bacon-out-of-the-package-on-the-way-home phase I try not to think about.
Unlike Jillian G., I get my food elsewhere. But I shop at Family Dollar in a fashion similar to my grocery shopping: I get most of what I eat at H-E-B, but also some special items at Central Market, and a few other things at Sprouts sometimes. (I generally boycott Whole Foods.)
So I stop into Family Dollar for certain items at prices well below what I would pay elsewhere. As a working reporter, I record all of my interviews and I transcribe by playing them through a battery-powered set of small speakers. The process gobbles up AA batteries like a growing pup eats chow, so the $6 pack of 20 is a deal I can hardly pass up. (Yes, greenies, I know I should get rechargeable batteries and will soon, I promise.)
They’re conveniently located by the toiletries section where I find most of my regular Dollar bargains. The way-overpriced Gillette Mach3 razor blades I use to keep my chin-chinny-chin smooth are $13 as opposed to $16.27 at the H-E-B. And I recently got a two-pack of the same brand deodorant I prefer for $6.50, not much more than what a single one costs elsewhere. Shampoo and conditioner are similarly priced well below what most other stores charge, and the variety of offerings is fairly wide.
A four-pack of Scott toilet paper is only $4, dishwasher soap (45-ounce phosphate free Palmolive eco for a bargain $2.50) and laundry detergent (62.5 ounces of Arm & Hammer at $5) are both cheap. And how can you scoff at four plastic pot scrubbers for a buck? Or a roll of paper towels for 50 cents?
When I needed a small fuzzy rug for my bathroom floor? You guessed it. I also found a nice picture frame for a small piece of art I wanted to hang. Cheap scented candles? The list goes on.
I do skip over the clothing (except for 3-packs of socks for $3.50). Admittedly, the packaged and frozen food sections don’t offer much I'd eat, and the offerings could send you off into the realm of adult-onset diabetes and obesity if they were your full diet. But a 32-ounce V8 for two simoleons or a 64-ounce Ocean Spray cranberry juice for three bills helps me afford the premium vodka to spike them with.
With Halloween fast approaching, if you need lots of candy for the costumed munchkins knocking at the door... you're getting the picture now, right? Yep. Dirt cheap at Family Dollar, with eight Austin locations.
As I like to be a socially aware shopper, I did some research and found a site that took Family Dollar to task for its labor practices. But it’s nowhere near as across-the-board objectionable as Walmart, which I recently renewed my longtime pledge to never spend another dime at after seeing the documentary “WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price” detailing the company’s pervasive vile scumbucketry for the sake of profits (plus hypocritical public pronouncements about being good corporate citizens and caring stewards of the planet).
I don't like to spend my hard-earned lucre at places that make it filthy by their policies and practices, but being politically correct to the point of obsession is something I just can’t manage. Spank me if you wish – metaphorically please - but I take a middle path on spending as a political act. A path that leads me down the aisles at Family Dollar.
Maybe you feel above shopping at a store where WIC cards are a regular form of transaction. Your call. If you don’t want to be seen shopping with the great unwashed you can always wear a hat and some dark glasses, but frankly I’ve never run into anyone I know there. (On my most recent visit, though, some folks in the cash register line had a decidedly upscale look about them. Maybe the place is catching on with a widening demographic.)
In the end, it’s just hard to argue with saving some bucks when there’s a high price to living in Austin on the lower end of the middle class. In my lil family of one, a dollar saved is one more to spend.