Day: October 22, 2025

• Dollar General has gained ground among shoppers as a destination for fill-in grocery trips.
• The chain has grown its share of grocery trips that last under 10 minutes, Placer.ai found.
• It points to another niche that dollar stores are filling in the US retail landscape.

For some shoppers, Dollar General is becoming like a local corner store.

Data from Placer.ai released this month shows that Dollar General has become a destination for shoppers looking to pick up a snack, a gallon of milk, or other quick groceries. Many customers are shopping at the chain in addition to more traditional supermarkets.

Dollar General stores were the destination of 28% of quick visits, or shopping trips that last less than 10 minutes, during the second quarter of 2025, according to Placer.ai’s data. That’s up from 24% during the same quarter in 2019.

“Consumers are visiting Dollar General, and probably all dollar stores, for that matter, as a sort of fill-in opportunity,” Elizabeth Lafontaine, the director of research at Placer.ai, told Business Insider.

Traditional grocery stores still received about 61% of those quick trips in the second quarter of 2025, Placer.ai found. But the data shows that Dollar General has carved out another niche for itself, Lafontaine said.

Dollar stores, particularly those operated by Dollar General and Dollar Tree, have opened thousands of new locations in the US over the past several years.

The chains have gained a reputation for setting up shop in small rural communities where Walmart and other retailers can’t make a store work. In those areas, shoppers might spend most of their weekly grocery budgets at dollar stores.

Placer.ai’s data, though, shows how dollar stores function in more densely populated areas, where shoppers tend to have many shopping choices. In those areas, many consumers aren’t spending most of their budget at Dollar General, but they are turning to the chain for those quick trips, Lafontaine said.

Between 2022 and 2025, for example, more Aldi shoppers also began shopping at Dollar General, according to Placer.ai data. At the same time, more Dollar General shoppers turned to Aldi.

That means that shoppers, especially those who are looking for good deals, are “likely to visit both of those retailers and not necessarily exchange one trip for another because they see them as probably complementary visits to one another,” she said.

Dollar General has also bolstered its quick delivery options through partnerships with DoorDash and Uber Eats. Three-quarters of delivery orders at the chain are filled within an hour, and many contain grocery items, CEO Todd Vasos said on an earnings call in August.

Do you work at Dollar General or another dollar store and have a story to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com

• I was 26 when I had my son, and I didn’t realize how important it was to have mom friends.
• I tried to make some at first, but when nothing stuck, I sort of gave up.
• Then, a good friend of mine had a child, and I saw the benefits of being friends with other parents.

When my son was born, I was 26. I was a new mom, and not only did none of my good friends have kids yet, but they also didn’t live close by. I didn’t have anyone my own age to talk to about all of the mom things that would come up. Every time I needed parenting advice, I called my aunt, and she was patient with me.

But talking to my aunt was not the same as talking to someone going through parenting milestones at the same time. She had her son 10 years prior to me having mine. Often, she didn’t remember what she had done in any given situation, and she would tell me I needed to “try to make some mom friends.”

When my son was born, I tried to make mom friends at first

I went to story times at the library, popular playgrounds, and local swim lessons for moms and babies, but I never hit it off with anyone. Many of the moms were older and married, and I felt like I was in a different territory as a younger single mom.

After a year of failed attempts, I stopped trying so hard. That’s when one of my good friends had a son, and we slowly became closer over the shared experience of being a boy mom.

We had been good friends in college and ever since, but becoming moms at around the same time took our friendship to a new level. I think we each care a lot about being a good parent, and that brings even more mutual respect into the relationship. I’ve found it so helpful at times to put our brains together and break down different parenting issues with her.

My son is now almost 12, while her three boys are all younger. My son’s whole life, I’ve given them the clothes and toys he outgrows. It’s really special when I recognize them wearing something like one of his old shirts. It feels like we’re all more connected.

I didn’t realize how many benefits there were to being friends with other moms

I went on for the first three years of my son’s life without any other friends who were also parents. Before then, I envisioned the main benefit as being someone to talk to about your kids. However, being friends with someone who recognizes me as the person I am, not just as a mom, is actually the greatest benefit of having friends who are also mothers.

Now that I’ve experienced the support that comes with being friends with other moms, I’m really sad that I missed out on that when my son was at his youngest. Being a new mom, I felt totally isolated. It would have been really helpful to have more allies, and to cheer each other on.

Having friends who are also moms and understand how all-encompassing it can be helps me feel understood and makes me feel connected to myself again. My friends and I have also made a habit of checking in on each other, because we just…get it.

I have individual relationships with a few moms now who are close friends. Besides them all being in my wedding, I mostly spend time with each of them separately. I love that with any one of them, we can hang out with our kids, which is our preference, or do something together kids-free, like go out for coffee. Either way, I’m sure we’re talking about our kids half of the time.

I had told myself it wasn’t important to be friends with other parents

During the years I was navigating parenthood alone, I had honestly given up on the idea of finding any mom friends. I had family and child-free friends, and told myself I didn’t need anything else. But once I experienced bonding with another mom, I realized just how valuable it is to find someone who understands that experience.

I believe being a parent is the most important job I’ll ever have. Finding such a good friend in someone who feels the same way has actually made me even better at it, because I no longer feel alone. It feels like I’m part of a team that just wants to do a really good job at being a mom.

• Google’s Chelsea campus underwent bedbug treatment over the weekend.
• A pest-control company said bedbug sightings in commercial spaces have increased as employees return to offices.
• Bedbugs pose an icky problem for employers, who should have protocols in place to avoid legal issues.

More workers are heading into the office with laptops, lattes — and, in some cases, bedbugs.

Google sent a memo over the weekend informing New York City employees that it was treating its Chelsea campus offices for the pests.

The company’s Real Estate & Workplace Services team “was recently informed of a possible bed bug issue at our Chelsea campus,” the Sunday memo, acquired by Business Insider, said. “Today, exterminators inspected the NYC-9TH, Chelsea Market, 8510, and Pier 57 buildings with a sniffer dog and found credible evidence of their presence. Initial treatment has been completed on the affected floors of the Chelsea campus.”

For a time during the pandemic, workers logging on from home didn’t have to worry about creepy-crawlies in their cubicles. Now, as more employees return to the office, bedbugs are coming along for the ride.

“These are what we tend to call ‘take-your-bedbug-to-work events,'” said Gil Bloom, an entomologist who is president of Standard Pest Management in New York. “They’re primarily hitchhiking, unfortunately, from home environments” via items like backpacks and clothing.

Bedbug issues in New York haven’t reached the level they were prior to the pandemic — but there’s been an uptick in sightings at commercial locations since life began returning to normal, Bloom told Business Insider.

Offices aren’t immune

Google isn’t the only employer to deal with this issue. Earlier this year, bedbugs were discovered at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation office, and staff from the affected area had to leave while the building underwent treatment, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

In 2017, BuzzFeed’s Manhattan headquarters similarly had to get bedbug treatment. Hotels and airlines have also had to deal with the wingless insects.

New York City ranked second among the most bedbug-infested cities in 2018, dropped to fifth place in 2021, and climbed to third in 2023, based on data from 300 Terminix branches in the US. As of June, New York is back in second place.

Bloom said when companies suspect bedbugs are in a workspace, exterminators typically bring in detection dogs to confirm their existence and identify affected areas. While an employee might accidentally bring bedbugs into work, offices usually lack the ideal infrastructure for the insects to settle in.

“There’s no great hotspot,” Bloom said, referring to the lack of beds in most offices. “So it’s like finding a bedbug in a haystack.”

Identifying the location of the outbreak allows companies to narrow down the treatment area and resolve the problem, Bloom said. He describes such instances as “introductions,” rather than full-blown “infestations.”

A liability issue for companies

While bedbugs might be unpleasant, Jerome Goddard, a medical entomologist at Mississippi State University, told Business Insider that there is little to no transmission of disease from the pests. Often, the biggest challenge is dealing with the ick factor.

“The main effects are emotional and psychological,” Goddard said. “And I’m not saying that’s not real.”

Companies, however, could face legal consequences if they don’t take steps to kill the bugs.

Employers have a duty to provide a safe workplace per OSHA requirements, and failing to protect workers could create a liability, said Andrea Whalen, a senior HR business strategist at consulting firm Clark Schaefer Strategic HR.

Bloom said companies don’t usually provide extermination services to individual employees unless there’s a repeat situation and the office is trying to find the source to avoid future introductions to the office.

Whalen told Business Insider that companies should establish clear, written rules that cover different kinds of infestations or outbreaks. Those policies could include considerations about paying workers if they have to be sent home while pest-control professionals treat a worksite.

Because employees have a “moral and an ethical responsibility” to tell their employers if they have bedbugs, policies should include a way for employees to report an issue confidentially, she said.

“You want a way for an employee to come forward and say, ‘I have this issue,’ so that it protects the rest of the team,” Whalen said, adding that it should be addressed with “empathy and discretion.”

After all, she said, places where people often think of outbreaks occurring — like hotels, schools, and hospitals — are themselves workplaces.

“It can happen to anyone,” Whalen said. “It can happen to any place.”

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