Graphic Source: GreenStreet CD

Chinese industry has had quite an effect on this country. Oh I am not only talking about being able to shop in stores and buy cheap merchandise, although this is quite an advantage to many of us. I am talking about a phenomena that has sprung up all over the country, because of this low priced Chinese merchandise and that is the Dollar Store. Just in case you might live in an area devoid of such a place, although I doubt that one exists, I will tell you what a dollar store is. A dollar store is a place that sells anything and everything that a person can buy for one dollar. These stores can be very large, like the stores in the chain called Dollar Tree, or they can be small such, as some of the little private dollar stores. These stores are a relatively new phanomena, but they have their foundation in other stores that were here before them.

About thirty years or more ago, there were what we used to call junk stores. They sold things like little statues, candy bars and assorted other items at a very low price. On the east coast the name of one chain was Shanes, they have been out of business now for many years. They didn't have the assortment of items that the dollar stores have today and they didn't charge one dollar for most of the stuff they sold, for example I believe that some candy bars were 3 for $1.00. They also sold drinking glasses and I think that these were usually 2 or 3 for 99 cents. Here is the difference, you could buy i candy bar for about 40 cents or 1 glass for about the same if they were the 3 for $1.00 variety. But even these stores had their basis in other stores that came before them and they were called 5 and 10 cent stores. The two big chains on the East Coast were F. W. Woolworth and Lamstons. You could go into one of these stores and buy all sorts of cheap junk and even get a sandwich and a shake. This was so long ago that in about the late 1940s they began to get in things made in Japan. Now in those days, people laughed at this type of merchandise. The reason for that was it either broke right away or bent, depending on the item. I remember my mother buying a small hammer and when she went to use it, the entire head broke off. It had been made of cast iron. You could buy a pen knife that was almost guaranteed to bend at the slightest pressure. Here is the deal, the stuff was dirt cheap. The hammer might have cost 39 cents and the knife 50 cents or so.

We have come a long way since those days. It seems that China has learned their lesson well. It was very opportune for them that so many people were hurting in this country and wanted to save big money by buying Chinese merchandise. Lets look at some of the stuff that you can get for you measly dollar. One of the first things I noticed was umbrellas. It used to cost about $10.00 for a cheap umbrella, then the Korean stores came along and the price dropped to $2.99 and $3.99. Now you can get a folding umbrella in the dollar store. Another thing that caught my eye was the tape measures. This has to really hurt the expensive tape measure business. You can get a tape measure that is metal and works as good as any that you would pay 8 or 9 dollars for. Sometimes they have computer keyboards, mouses, and wires, all for one dollar each. Even the quality of those cheesy little statues has increased tremendously, some actually look pretty nice. You can buy sun glasses, men's and ladies' belts, ties, toys and so much more. With the scare on toys of China, the toy sales must have slowed down. Heck, they even sell food. Would you believe that some of these places have a frozen food department? I have one out by me that does.

It used to be that cheap tools were just that, cheap and junk. If you bought a screwdriver for example, it might twist when you went to use it. I had this happen to me once. I was trying to screw a big phillips screw into wood and after the initial resistance, I felt the screwdriver turn rather easily. I thought, wow that was pretty easy, until I looked down. It wasn't the screw that was going into the wood, it was the screwdriver that was twisting the screws into this strange drill like shape. It was like something out of a comedy skit. Today you can get a set of maybe three screwdrivers in the dollar store and they are usually ok for small jobs around the house. Before the dollar stores I used to pay through the nose for picture frames. Hey this is only a term of speech, actually I handed them the cash, but I think you know what I am saying here. Now there are frames of every size and description in these places.

I bet you think that these places contain huge bargains, don't you? Well yeah, maybe on some things you would be correct, but beware, just because you are in a dollar store and paying only a dollar for what you buy, this does not mean that you are getting a bargain. Here is an example. They sell blue see through bags that are used for recyclables. You get 8 bags for your dollar, but wait, my local supermarket sells the clear ones that are 35 bags for $2.99, ouch they are cheaper than the dollar store. Believe me this is not an isolated item. Many items seem to have been packed in small amounts so that they could be sold this way and yet they turn out to be more expensive. Then there are the items that you think you want and after you get them they are just plain no good. I purchased a package of 10 ball point pens for one dollar. What could possibly be wrong with ball point pens? I will tell you what, they could be pens that didn't write. It seemed that the ball in each pen was frozen and all you did was rip the paper if you pressed to hard. No folks this certainly was not a bargain. I know this wasn't a huge investment and the store would have probably taken the pens back, but you know how it is, you are probably not going to waste a dollar's worth of gas to return a one dollar item. Another thing that I purchased, that just was no good, was a face mask. It was the type that you put over your nose and mouth when sanding or doing work that causes a lot of dust. All it did was cut into my face because of the rough plastic parts.

You meet a lot of interesting people in these places though and they are usually senior citizens. They seem to roam up and down the isles, looking like that are about to invest $500 in a major appliance rather than maybe one dollar in a pack of clothespins. I think that most of them just come into these places out of boredom. They are very willing to talk and sometimes they come over to you when they see you with an item in your hand, to tell you the merits or non merits of the item. I helped one elderly woman reach something on the top shelf and she was all too glad to tell me about her day and why she was there. These stores do seem to be making a lot of money, , because most people are like me, unfortunately. I go in with my wife and while she is looking around, I just keep throwing items into the wagon. Seriously, I don't know what my problem is. There are certain things that I buy, just because they are there and that dollar price makes you feel that "what the heck it is only one dollar". That is true, but if you buy 25 of these things, it is 25 dollars. I will buy calculators, markers, pads, envelopes, scissors, pens, wire ties and batteries every time I see them. Along with this I also buy those packs of utility knives with the break off blades. Help me please! Well I really don't need help, but I should stay out of these places for awhile, because I have no more room to store all the junk I buy there.

So by all means if you need something like a soup ladle, or one of those paper towel holders, the dollar store will do nicely, but if it is recycle bags, forget it, they are too expensive. Maybe the next set of store to come along will be the 50 cents stores and they will be from some country with a lower standard of living than China. Wouldn't that be a hoot.