Dollar General

Changes in Dollar General Dairy Coolers in the Southeast; DG Fresh Distribution Centers Shift Available Brands

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Changes are happening in Dollar General dairy cases. In the southeast, this means that there will be visible changes in brands on the cooler shelves.  In some cases, depending on location, this means that familiar ‘local’ brands, which supported farms in the immediate local area, will no longer be available to consumers in at their community Dollar General.

In late 2018, Dollar General announced plans for a new “DG Fresh” Distribution plan, and opened their first regional distribution center for perishable goods in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. During 2019, 4 more regional warehouses were built, with several of those coming on-line in late 2019 and early 2020.

Part of this plan included the expansion of the Dollar General’s in-house Clover Valley brand onto milk cartons sold in the regular DG stores, whereby Dollar General would further utilize its own private label. For a few years, Clover Valley branded milk has been available in the Dollar General Markets (the grocery format DG, but without a huge footprint like the stores you see every 5-6 miles).

Affecting the lower Southeast milkshed most directly are two of those warehouses, one in Atlanta, GA, and another in Montgomery, AL.  In some regions, this means that familiar local brands will no longer appear on the shelves of their local Dollar General stores.

Perhaps the most affected region will be East Tennessee.  Beginning in the second week of June, 2020, local dairy farmers and their families, following their habits, went into Dollar Generals specifically to purchase Mayfield brands (Mayfield in the yellow carton and Fieldcrest in a translucent carton), but were startled to see they were no longer available.  Instead, they saw Clover Valley private labels and PET branded milks.

For several years, local consumers in East TN could rest assured they would be supporting their local dairy farm neighbors by purchasing either Mayfield or Fieldcrest brands at a Dollar General store.  Many dairy farm families and their friends and neighbors shopped at Dollar General because they knew the chain supported their farms.  This grass-roots promotion by the farmers themselves, who knew retail brands were a means of connecting their farms with a consumer sale, sent many customers to Dollar General.  Those farmers will now be sending those consumers to other retailers.

This Dollar General move ultimately means local milk from East Tennessee dairy farms, processed at the Mayfield Dairy plant in Athens, has lost a significant amount of retail shelf space in the immediate area.   Sources, who asked not to be identified, said the milk will still have a Dollar General home, but will be processed and packaged in Athens, then hauled to a warehouse in the Montgomery, AL area, for distribution in the coastal southeast.

Dollar General has now built 5 of a projected 17 regional distribution centers for refrigerated and fresh products.  Those distribution warehouses will serve as hubs in which Dollar General will supply their own stores, instead of relying on Direct Store Delivery (DSD) from various vendors and other regional food distributors.

Atlanta DG Fresh Warehouse will serve East TN:   Up until now, Dollar Generals in East Tn, North Georgia, and SW Virginia had received their milk deliveries directly from Mayfield trucks, arriving 2-3x a week.   Beginning this June 2020, they will receive milk from a DG Fresh warehouse located in the Atlanta area.  That warehouse will receive packaged milk from the Pet Dairy Plant at Spartanburg, SC, which does buy milk from southeast farms, just generally not Tennessee farms.

Change was underway before the Dean Foods bankruptcy:  Both Pet and Mayfield were previously owned by Dean Foods, but as of May 1st, are now owned by Dairy Farmers of America, Inc, the nation’s largest milk cooperative.  The Dollar General plan was initiated in the latter half of 2018, and was well underway before the Dean Foods / Southern Foods Group, LLC Chapter 11 bankruptcy was  filed in November of 2019, and long before the DFA purchase of Mayfield, Pet and other Dean Foods operations.

So, what’s in store for Dollar General dairy cases?  Here’s a sampling of what’s being seen thus far (as of June 19, 2020).  The changeover isn’t quite complete, and it hasn’t been determined how wide a geographic area this will affect. At this time, it’s unknown how Dollar Generals in the middle TN area, which has been served by Purity and its private Dairy Belle label, will be affected.

Point of Pride now gone for East Tn Farmers:  Many dairy farmers in East TN were very happy that Dollar General carried the Mayfield and Fieldcrest brands, and many shopped at Dollar General for that very reason. After all, it was a Tennessee-based company carrying a highly nutritious product that was produced on Tennessee farms. And that milk not only affected dairy farms, it was a means of connection for other farms who grew grains and hay that went to feed those Mayfield cows. That intense in-state connection has now been broken by a Dollar General corporate decision for ‘efficiency’ for Dollar General.  Farmers may understand it, but it doesn’t make it any less painful for them to not be able to make that connection with a product on a shelf.

The ‘short-description’ of the new ‘milk domino game’ type of distribution:

  • Milk, largely from farms in the Carolinas and NW Georgia, will be processed at the PET plant in Spartanburg, SC, then shipped to a DG Warehouse in Atlanta, for distribution to DG stores in GA, East TN, and as far west as Birmingham AL. (there might be slight variations in the distribution territory).
  • Milk from East TN and North Georgia farms will be processed at Athens, TN, packaged in cartons wearing the Mayfield and Clover Valley brands, then shipped to Montgomery, AL for distribution in the Coastal South.
  • It’s not yet known how this switch will affect FL, VA, and KY and areas farther west.
  • Observation: As Covid-19 panic buying ensued in March and April, Dollar General stores in the southeast experienced milk shortages like grocery stores.  However, some of the shortages in DG were also likely due to DG personnel getting adjusted to this new distribution schematic.  Even this week, there have been some very empty Dollar General coolers, particularly a couple of days after a delivery.

But above all, Dairy Farmers in the South do appreciate everyone who buys any of these southeast brands, and we appreciate Dollar General for buying milk from southeast farms!

Photos tell the story:

The Changes in Chugs in East TN (the ‘drop in and get it to go cause it’s local’ size):

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GALLONS:  Some Comparisons of the new and previous in East TN:

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PLANT CODES:  How we know where the milk was processed (most farms in the southeast know where the farms are) along with a note about the “Best By” date:

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History of DG Fresh Implementation, and Background:

Dollar General has over 16,000 stores, and approximately 5,000 are now receiving goods from their DG Fresh Perishable Goods warehouses.  The company hopes to be nationwide with this effort within 3-4 years.  Here’s a progression:

Mar 15, 2019: Dollar General Shifting to Self-Distribution of Fresh and Frozen; by Russell Redman for Supermarket News

  • The effort began in very early 2019 with 300 stores in the Northeast, distribution facility located in Pottsville, PA
  • CEO Todd Vasos said “DG Fresh will allow us to control our own destiny in fresh foods.”
  • Vasos: “In addition, self-distribution will allow us to offer a wider selection of our own private brands to provide our customers with even more compelling value. Overall, we expect DG Fresh to allow us to do a better job of tailoring our product selection to fit the needs of our customers, particularly in rural areas.”

March 19, 2019:  Dollar General Brings Perishables Distribution In-House, Will Open 975 New Stores in in 2019, by Glenn Taylor, for Retail Touch Points

Aug 29, 2019: Dollar General Encouraged by DG Fresh Rollout,by Ron Ruggles for Supermarket News

Aug 29, 2019: Dollar General Expanding DG Fresh to Fourth Distribution Center, posted at Produce Blue Book

  • From one warehouse in PA in Jan of 2019, then one in NC and GA during the spring and summer of 2019,  adding another in Indiana last fall

Dec 6, 2019: Dollar General to open 5th Warehouse in Fresh Distribution Overhaul  by Emma Cosgrove, Supply Chain Dive

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#NationalHugABaristaDay; Hugging Bovine Baristas!

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Who even knew there was a #NationalHugABaristaDay?   By Twitter algorithms, it’s today, June 11th!  (Don’t you just love the twitterverse we live in?)

So I’m celebrating with a post about two of my favorite things – cows and coffee!  (I just love bovine baristas, don’t you?)

How many of you have tried Caribou Coffee’s Premium Iced Coffee Beverage, a new and super-dairylicious, milk-based, caffeinated,  taste-bud sensation?  The first day I found it, May 15, at a Dollar General in East TN,  I was inspired to at least do a post for Facebook:

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And on that very same day, a dairy industry colleague, Sherry Bunting, picked me up for a short ride down to a farm on the NC-SC border. (Sherry was delivering a goat her daughter had sold to a SC #farmHer – perhaps another blog post in the making!)

Being the curious dairy industry communicators we are, and because Sherry needed caffeine for a long drive on down to Texas, we ended up at another Dollar General in Chesnee, SC.  We were SO GLAD (and kind of amazed at the karma involved at the timing of all this) when we found the same calcium-coffee concoction in that cooler.

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Dean Foods, one of America’s largest dairy processors, has developed and is distributing the beverage in a joint venture with Caribou Coffee.  Announced to be available by March, 2016,  this was the first day (May 15th) either of us had found it on a retail shelf.   Result: Two very excited Caribou Dairy beverage fans in one day!

Now – as to the #MILKSHED involved (all known from the information on a label):

These bottles were processed at a Dean Foods plant in Riverside, Ca, (Code #06-128), with the milk most likely originating from California herds. (Note:  educated guess based on milk transport and CA’s huge dairy cow presence and milk production, but not for sure known.)  It’s also a guess that this plant had the specialized equipment available needed to produce such a delightful product on a large basis. Dean Foods, because of its size and nationwide network, has the built-in distribution system required to bring the product to retail outlets across the country, in a cost-effective manner.

Even the labels are of a ‘new age.’

Many consumers, myself included, have been frustrated because ‘serving size’ didn’t necessarily match ‘container size.’  However, in this case, a shout-out to Dean Foods and Caribou for going a step further, and putting both ‘serving’ and ‘bottle’ size on the label!

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As for the nutrition, USDA is in the process of writing new label standards, and it appears that ‘added sugars’ will have to wait for a bit to be included.  If you are a diabetic or watching sugar intake, realize you must balance this aspect with other parts of your daily diet.

And lastly, the label engages one with a delightful message:  on this label of Sea Salt Caramel flavor, the message is “JUMP into life!  Just make sure the cap’s on tight first!’, then followed by some wordplay. Lessons in life, and lessons in marketing, too!  The messages differ for different flavors (Sea Salt Caramel, Chocolate Mocha, and Vanilla), so I’ll encourage you to go try some for yourself!

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Why is this Tennessee-southern gal OK with buying a drink made with milk from cows in California?  Several reasons apply:

  1. I have dairy friends in California, and they are experiencing an extremely challenging on-farm low price cycle as this is written. Anything that will help them move milk for new uses is very exciting.
  2. Dean Foods has several plants in the southeast, and if this beverage meets with widespread acceptance, then it means financial stability for Dean Foods in general, and that will benefit Dean plants across the country.  That’s good for both dairy farms and milk plants across the country.
  3. Any new product or beverage that helps sell milk in general is great!  Coffee drinks in the past few years have proven to be a big boost for dairy farms and milk consumption in general, and we cows and people in the dairy industry really appreciate that!  So many THANKS to all you lovers of Lattes, and Champions of Cappucino!
  4. I’ll keep buying regular milks produced by the cows in my neighborhood and processed at the local milk plants near me  – I’m a great believer in local food systems, and make a conscious effort to support that belief with my dollars.  However, a locally processed dairy beverage of this type is not conveniently  and readily available at the current time, in the paths where I most often travel.  There is a local processor who does make a similar product, and it is wonderful, but it’s often sold out on delivery!

For now, I think I’m going to heed that message of “JUMP,”  and go JUMP in the car, and find some of that Caribou Iced Coffee on this hot June afternoon!  I’ll be going to a Dollar General store, because I know that’s where I can get this in my small town.  Look for this at a retailer near you – you’ll be glad you did!

Have a dairylicious #NationalHugABaristaDay!  Party till those Cows Come Home!

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