Guest post: Not wild about the new Dollar General
The new Dollar General store at the corner of Riverland Road and Garden City Boulevard | Shot by Dan
Note from Dan: It’s likely you are familiar with Dollar General, the company that views itself as a “neighborhood Wal-mart.” There’s a new one going up on the corner of Riverland Road and Garden City Boulevard in Southeast Roanoke. Mark E. Petersen, a Southeast resident, is unimpressed to put it mildly.
By Mark E. Petersen
Thanks to the Roanoke City Council (excluding Anita Price), we now have an eyesore at the corner of Garden City Blvd. and Riverland Road. It looks like a damn auto body shop. Great work making the city more attractive to newcomers!
The pic down below is a Dollar General in East Greensboro. Much better to my aching eyes! Thanks City Council for not giving a rat’s ass about our neighborhood at the aesthetic quality of Mill Mountain’s Star Trail trailhead.
Submitted by Mark Petersen
Background: this is a history of Dollar General site from my memory.
10 years ago, the City passed it’s comp plan, Vision 20/20.
A vacant, single-family home sat on the corner of Garden City and Riverland Road.
In 2004, home taken down. This occurred after the land was rezoned by majority vote of the Planning Commission.
Country Store was interested in building a gas station and convenience store. Backed out due to flood zone concerns and friction by city staff.
Land stayed vacant until purchase by private developer. Dollar General negotiated deal. Current Dollar General Store is located next to Food Lion in Bennington Square.
Planning Staff recommended changes to original site plan, placing building closer to Garden City and parking lot behind.
Planning Commission rejects site plan, votes no.
Goes to City Council … voted 5-1. I think Anita Price was the no vote.
The site violates both the Riverland Road Neighborhood Plan and the Riverdale/Morningside Neighborhood Plan
Vision 20/20 calls for Garden City/Riverland Road/Bennington Avenue to be targeted and developed as a Neighborhood Village (concept of New Urban design).
I am cc this to a couple neighborhood respresentatives for their eyes, too.
The Garden City Civic League opposed the aesthetic quality of the project, but not the business per say.
May 7, 2012 - 8:00 AM
The top DG store look is their corporate stand-alone store format. The one from East Greensboro looks like they re-porposed a Food Lion (or other previous) store, hence, the two stores will be vastly different.
We drove by this yesterday on the way to Walter’s Greenhouse and the OP is right…the yellow and black signs are visually offensive.
OJ is right about the difference in the two. There’s also a fairly new one on Brandon Ave. past the DQ that’s. pretty ugly outside.
The design is a private vs. public money issue. Family Dollar doesn’t get to throw down a half-million or more on the designs of their buildings, because that money has to be pulled from profits. The franchise is in business to make money and intricate, eye-pleasing designs are expensive.
When you’re using taxpayer money, you get to design fancy new schools and courthouses, with glass-stories and detailed, unnecessary facades. I’m sure if people are willing to subsidize more retailers with their taxes, those retailers will be glad to give you pretty buildings.
The Dollar General pictured at top looks just like an Advance Auto.
#4 I’m sure JM White is exactly right. Every single private company building out there is just U-G-L-Y. Not a single good looking one anywhere. It’s always best to ignore the research that shows how attractive color combos and building design bring people in and move traffic.
Public buildings should all be cinderblock and cheap tin siding.
That’s one depressing looking store on Riverland. It looks old and abandoned in the photo above. Wouldn’t be out of place in some town like Collinsville or Bassett. The one on Brandon Ave. isn’t much better either.
Expectations aren’t too high on stores selling cheap plastic crap though…..
JMWhite, it doesn’t cost more money to be less nakedly ugly. Nor does it require intricacies of design. That scripty white “SouthPeak.net” sign overlooking 220 is plenty fancy and intricate but equally tasteless and tacky. Who on gods earth plasters “.net” on a sign for what’s supposed to be a “high end” retail spot?
For those who are curious, here’s the story I wrote on the Dollar General vote that was published on Sept. 20, 2011:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/298614
– Mason Adams
God forbid anyone get offended by the colors. We need the government to step in and save us from private companies who build stores on private property in colors that we don’t like.
Yes! Please have the government put an end to this madness immediately. Better yet, let’s tax the rich to make it so.
A) there’s no such thing as a “private company” if they want to do business with the public. B) zoning laws exist for a reason, and it’s precisely to protect the taxpaying public.
Kristen, are you saying that the public gets to dictate how a private entity spends their money? I’m afraid you’re treading a slippery slope there. It wouldn’t be far at all before the public or government would want to tell YOU how you must spend your money.
After all, isn’t the main issue of the article about the aesthetics of the building? This is very simple: if you and enough other people create enough noise about the blandness of Dollar General stores, the company will do something about it. But rest assured, you WILL pay for it in the form of higher prices.
If you don’t shop at DG stores in the first place, then all you would accomplish in the end is to put a heavier financial strain on the people who DO shop there – people who most likely need every cent they have.
Yes JMWhite, I am. If you disagree, try putting a cell phone tower up in your back yard. Are you at all familiar with the concept of “permits” when doing contruction projects? Local governments determine all the time what people can and cannot do with their “private” property. Hell HOAs do it too. Have you ever read about OSW and their regulations regarding what people can and cannot do with their “private property”? Again…it happens every day. It’s not a remotely slippery slope…it’s a done deal.
I couldn’t care less about higher prices at Dollar General…I won’t be shopping there. Part of retail is creating an environment that makes people want to come in the door. It looks like a payday loan shop.
Re: Comment by J.M.White — May 7, 2012 @ 4:16 pm
Check out http://tinyurl.com/7u3q6cz
So you think it is wrong to prohibit pig fed-lots, slaughterhouse, and processing within the city because it wouldn’t be long before the public or government would want to tell you how you must spend your money?
I couldn’t care less about higher prices at Dollar General…I won’t be shopping there
You don’t shop at Walmart either. Or Sam’s. Why do liberals turn their noses up at the places where poor people shop?
I’m more than familiar with permits (and the subsequent regulations) involving construction projects, considering that’s what I do for a living. I also know that EVERYTHING involving construction costs money. You were being disingenuous when you stated earlier that making a building “less nakedly ugly” costs nothing. Even moving the location of a light can cost hundreds of dollars. Every single piece of trim on a building costs money and someone has to be paid to install it.
I’m sure that if you were to call the corporate headquarters of Dollar General and tell them that you’re willing to front the costs of making the Riverland Rd. building pretty, they’d be all for it. However, you are admittedly not even a customer, so I’m fairly positive that a demand that they make their buildings more pleasing to the eye from you would fall on less-than-polite deaf ears.
Do you also want to tell your neighbors what color to paint their house or force them to install shutters (colors and style chosen by you, of course), just so you can have an eye-pleasing commute to work? You don’t live in their houses just like you don’t shop at DG. Tell me, what’s the difference? Not to be hostile, but your comments portray you as awfully pompous.
Kristen writes, “I couldn’t care less about higher prices at Dollar General.”
Translation: “I couldn’t care less about poor people.”
Kristen writes, “…I won’t be shopping there.”
Translation: “I’m too good to shop there.”
What were you even doing in South East? If you’d broken down, they wouldn’t even have found your delicate little bones, Baby Doll.
@14 Kristen,
….”I couldn’t care less about higher prices at Dollar General…I won’t be shopping there.”….
Funny, that statement mirrors the liberal philosophy on higher taxes. You don’t care if you don’t have to pay it!
It sounds as if JM White is of the philosophy that, “if you own the land, you can do what you want with it” and to hell with everyone else.
Although . . . I am sure he also believes in Msark Petersen’s right to believe it’s ugly, and not necessarily to shut up about that.
Phil Chitwood,
Obviously she was buying liver cheese at the SuperSaver IGA!
Folks, the prices at Dollar General are no bargain as it is. It is NOT a dollar discount store.
#17 “Do you also want to tell your neighbors what color to paint their house…”
Ever heard of homeowners associations?
“You don’t shop at Walmart either. Or Sam’s. Why do liberals turn their noses up at the places where poor people shop?”
Bear in mind that they have no means to defend themselves, so that plays into why they limit everywhere they can ever go too. No, not there….that big parking lot scares me. No, not there… that’s a scary part of town. Can’t go there either… did you hear what happened to so and so there last week?! I’ve heard a lot of this stuff over the years and certainly deservedly so over the Wal-Mart at Valley View. The “poor people areas” might just scare them.
“Ever heard of homeowners associations?”
One big difference with the HOA gdad, is that the HOA is pretty well defined when you move in and one must agree to that stuff when he/she buys the property. Getting a building plan through the wildcard of a town or county is a very different matter. Despite the customary 30 day study period that most buyers have when purchasing commercial property, it’s impossible for your plan to be a lock between the time the land is purchased and construction begins.
What were you even doing in South East? If you’d broken down, they wouldn’t even have found your delicate little bones, Baby Doll.
Kristen said she lives in the 24014 zip, and that is the part of SE where this store is or else very close. I believe she lives in a 4-plex down there somewhere.
#24 Oh please, John W, let’s not be silly. I’ve been to every Walmart, including the Valley View one at night. As a reporter I went into pretty much every section of town and into some pretty rough rural areas, as well. And I don’t carry.
Besides, I thought that going to relatively unsafe places even if you ARE armed wasn’t smart, since being armed still doesn’t guarantee your safety. That’s what some gun carriers have told me. Are you saying you voluntarily go to hazardous areas simply because you ARE armed? Is that part of the macho thing — I got me a big ole gun so I can go wherever the heck I want.
Mr. Casey, assumption is so unbecoming, sir, though you’re half-right. I completely believe in and will even fight for Mr. Petersen’s right to complain about a building’s appearance, as you assert. However, you also assert that I think “to hell with everyone else” when it comes to personal property. I believe in the law and the freedoms granted within the law.
No one has demonstrated or evidenced to me that Dollar General has violated any local ordinances or regulations. If they had done so, I’d be fully in agreement that DG must be brought within compliance, regardless of costs. However, just because someone, who refuses to even patronize the retailer in question, decides that they don’t like the appearance of the building, doesn’t mean that the business owner has to capitulate to their demands to change it.
And to address gdad’s comment: This is not the same as HOAs. When you buy a parcel in an HOA-controlled neighborhood, you’re told up-front what they expect from you and what rules you have to follow. If Dollar General is within compliance of local regs, then the HOA analogy is irrelevant in this case.
This boils down to personal taste(s). Dictating policy based on personal taste is not democracy. Dictating policy based on the community as a majority is. If the community as a whole stands up and demands that DG change their facade, then they most certainly will or shutter the store entirely as a result of the backlash.
But I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that the people who actually shop there would rather continue to pay $1.99 for their cheap, Chinese-made plastic do-dads than pay $2.29 for the same thing sold in a prettier building.
If my first sentence in the above comment sounds condescending, Mr. Casey, I apologize; I didn’t intend it that way. I’m trying to maintain a respectful decorum here.
J.M. White
I agree with you. I think the building is ugly. But unless there is some ordinance or building restriction already on the books that make its appearance not legal, then DG has every right to do as they see fit and to decorate it in terms of their corporate identity. As far as their merchandise is concerned, the DG stores that I have been in didn’t have anything that attracted me or that I was interested in buying. But they wouldn’t be stocking and offering it unless somebody was buying it.
Unfortunately, cheap Chinese plastic crap sells and as long as it does
corporate America will push it.
Actually Suzie, I think Kristen probably lives in the 3500 sq. ft. colonial sitting on the hill surrounded by 5 acres of land that overlooks the trailer park where you live.
“Besides, I thought that going to relatively unsafe places even if you ARE armed wasn’t smart, since being armed still doesn’t guarantee your safety.”
True, but I for one, refuse to be kept out of Wal-Mart at Valley View because of all the crime we know is there. It’s a place I need to go and rightfully should not be discouraged from going. If we give over every area to the criminals, who’s running the place?
#26 I know Kristen and you “believe” wrong. But then that’s nothing new.
#32 And as I said, John W, I don’t let it stop me, either, despite being so totally irresponsible as to be unarmed (although because I live on the other side of Roanoke I rarely have reason to go there). And I’ll bet that the vast majority of shoppers at that Walmart are also unarmed.
Hey, but I’ll bet that suzie goes there a lot simply because she loves poor people so much.
I know people like to bag on the ‘dollar’ sotres like Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, etc…but I like them, always have. Growing up in a lower-middle income family, we had limited resources to make ends meet, and it often meant shopping at those types of stores, plus Kmart, and Walmart once we got one nearby.
A former landlord of mine had good advice that resonated well. He was a nice guy, a retired professor at VT and alsewhere, who made a lot of money in rental properties and real estate that he did on the side. One day after work I saw his Jaguar parked at the nearby Dollar General when I was grabbing a few items at Food Lion. A couple days later when we paid our rent, we sat and talked, like we almost always did, and he mentioned he didn’t become wealthy by spending his money. He said paying $5 for 5 pairs of socks at DG made better sense than spending $10 for a single expensive pair, and they did just as good a job.
We had already known that, though from the other end of the spectrum…but it demonstrated why he was able to drive nice cars and custom build a nice house…he spent his money wisely and saved when and where he could.
Some items at DG are a lot less expensive than other stores…even Walmart, but others are more expensive, sometimes by a noticeable margin. But I like hose stores and the kinds of deals that can be found when you’ve got a good eye for a good deal. Same goes for thrift shops and yard sales…you can save a ton of money.
The DG stores are not attractive, but people don’t shop there because of the architecture. They shop there because it’s a DG store. Whether they recycle a previously vacated storefront that used to house a grocery or drug store, or they build a new free-standing building, they’re doing it the most economically they can, so the costs passed to the consumers are as low as possible. Otherwise, they either would be out of business…or more akin to the overpriced downtown merchant shops that most folks can’t afford to shop at.
#35 Heck, OJ, I go to all those stores sometimes, but it seems to me that DG isn’t much of a bargain, particularly on the more essential items.
BTW, we ended up second in our league of 20 teams this year. Not bad for a team of rapidly aging older guys.
Yeah gdad, there’s some of the regular items that I’ve noticed are a bit more pricey, like toiletries and household items. But I’ve seen a few pretty good deals there from time to time. I do like that they’re able to locate in smaller stores in smaller towns, often where larger companies won’t locate and where local options are sorely lacking. Makes it tough on the delivery drivers though, some of those stores are a real pain to get in and out of with a 53′ trailer.
Congrats on the league results! We finished 2nd in the first 2 thirds of the season. But despite having some of our best bowling in the final third, we finished 5th for the third…the other teams mostly bowled a lot better too, and just a bit better than us. That dropped us to fifth overall, just missing the roll-off by 2 points. I did score a reactive-core ball at Goodwill though, that fit perfectly and was the right weight. If I can refine my delivery a little more, I might be able to get a little better with it…I only had it the last 2 weeks of the season but it started making a noted difference.
Now it’s golf season so I’m hitting the links to try to redeem myself for my poor scoring at The Meadows to close last year. The bowling balls are up until August…well, mostly, I’ll probably still practice from time to time.
JohnW, I don’t not shop there because I’m scared to go without my gun, but you already knew that.
I consider it sad that because people don’t have a ton of money they should be compelled to shop in places that look like piles of dung. It doesn’t any more – at all – to build and paint with some eye towards design and street appeal. I’ve seen second hand stores – hell, ALL of them – that look better than this Dollar General. If you want to applaud their complete disregard for aesthetics and respect for the neighborhood in support of cheap plastic $1.99 crap from China, have at it, but I’d say that without quite so many of these places the need for them would be less. People would go back to being able to afford better quality merchandise in a building that doesn’t look like they should bring their car titles.
And whoever asked what I was doing there…I said I was driving through going up Windy Gap to get to a greenhouse I like. But I locked my car doors and made sure I had plenty of gas for the trip.
*#38, please lock your car doors even when you are on Avenham, ok, and remember, that, yes, you are in SE everyday that you flush! I’m sorry, that was bad. Please accept my sincere apologies.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/298614:
* “Pace said the company will build sidewalks around the property, including one that will help link to the nearby Star Trail that climbs Mill Mountain. But he argued that the intersection will never be a village center such as that found in the Grandin area. ”
Sidewalks! Innovative, I’d say. I cannot wait to descend the Star Trail on the direct sidewalk to GD.
…”never be a village” Uh, why not, Mr. Pace? The city planners envisioned this in the city plan. Did you take urban planning courses? It’s a wonderful vision and one that needs to be continued with to make this area more of a neighborhood.
*”People are unlikely to walk to this property no matter how it’s developed,” Pace said. “It just doesn’t fit.”
Uh, why not. Mr. Pace? People in this community walk a lot. They may not walk with heart rate monitors, Garmont hiking shoes or Marmot shorts, but they walk. All who walk in SE do not do so because they
are poor. All who walk are not on restrictive licenses.
“…no matter how it’s developed” – so, make it as trashy as we can get by with…?
* “Roanoke Mayor David Bowers said that despite the difference in visions for that property, he found Dollar General’s plan “to be a much more favorable project” than even the proposed convenience store that was never actually built at the site.”
Hey, remember the city planners’ vision for this area? Oh my goodness!
Actually, there are a lot of people walking in this area, on the Roanoke River Greenway.
You are absolutely right!
I was talking to a mother of three sons this morning and she has just started using the greenway. She loves it! but mentioned that she doesn’t care for the area beyond the hospital towards Vinton. She said it scares her because she is afraid to let her boys ride on in front of her because of the “homeless” people she has seen on that part of the greenway. Her comments have really bothered me, but I can understand a mother’s fears.
What are we going to do?
PS: A lot of landscaping going on at GD.
I know Kristen and you “believe” wrong. But then that’s nothing new
Right. Your kid and hers were on the same soccer team for like six years and didn’t know who she was.
Great post, Kim. I think I will use these ideas to generate some conversation on Face book as well. Blessings!