Dollar General opens 1st Montana store

Dollar General is now operating in all 48 states in the continental U.S.

The discounter, which has nearly 19,500 stores around the country, opened its first store in Montana on Saturday.

The Columbia Falls, Montana, location is scheduled to be joined this fall by Dollar General locations in Lincoln and Sanders Counties, and the retailer said it is eyeing additional Montana real estate for future sites.

“Today marks an exciting milestone in our history as we extend our ability to provide customers with convenient and affordable access to household essentials throughout all 48 continental states,” Steve Deckard, Dollar Genera’s EVP of growth and emerging markets, said in a statement.

Dollar General has become well known for its expansion in rural areas. About 44% of Montana’s population lives areas with fewer than 2,500 people, according to a 2020 Census Bureau report.

The Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based discount chain announced in June that it was building two stores in the northwestern part of Montana.

Dollar General this year also opened its first store in Mexico, a Mi Super Dollar General location in Escobedo, Nuevo Leon.

In January, Dollar General said it had opened its 19,000th store. The retailer has opened roughly 1,000 new stores each year since 2012, and Dollar General has said it intends to keep up that pace.

MORE: A timeline of Dollar General’s store growth

Dollar General started as a wholesaler in 1939 and opened its first retail store in Springfield, Kentucky, in 1955.

“We’ve grown from a single wholesale store to the country’s largest small-box retailer,” the company noted on its website.

But the company struggled during the second quarter, as consumers continued to turn away from discretionary purchases to focus on essential items like food and beverages.

Same-store sales fell 0.1% during the quarter and operating profit declined 24.2%, to $692.3 million.

“While we are not satisfied with our overall financial results, we made significant progress in the second quarter improving execution in our supply chain and our stores, as well as reducing our inventory growth rate and further strengthening our price position,” Dollar General CEO Jeff Owen said in August.