I left Walmart yesterday and was a good piece down the road before I realized I had neglected to buy the Christmas candle I had meant to buy, among other things. Not that I had a specific candle in mind. I just always have to have one around for the holidays. One that smells like the holidays, preferably. Anyway, I wasn't about to turn around and go back, but I wanted that candle. I ended up stopping along the way at one of the numerous Dollar General stores that are popping up everywhere. I wasn't expecting to find a quality candle at DG; but I lucked up and found these 6 oz Farmstand jar candles for $2.50 apiece. I'd never heard of them, so I removed one of the Lids and smelled the candle. Hmmm...Pretty darned good. I grabbed two of them (1 gingerbread, 1 cinnamon), paid and left the store. I was not disappointed when I lit the cinnamon one upon returning home. It smelled wonderful. Oh, it's not quite a Yankee, but it's really very good. It filled my living room up with the nice cinnamon fragrance. No black smoke, either. I have no doubt I'm going to like the gingerbread one every bit as well. Actually, I was so impressed that I looked up the DG site online searching for these Farmstand candles. They don't seem to be a regularly stocked item. It must be a Christmas item only, but I did find that other stores and online sites regularly sell the Farmstand candles. They seemed to go for a good bit more than I paid for mine. So, if you see them in your local Dollar General and you like candles, you better scoop some up. They are an outstanding buy.
We have started shopping at the Dollar General closest to us also. Unless we are looking for something that needs a large store like Walmart, it is much simpler to find a place to park, and also to shop at the dollar store. Their prices are about the same as Walmart for most things, too. We used to go to the smaller Walmart down the road, but they built a brand new Super Walmart near there instead, and closed down the smaller one. Rather than fight our way through all of the Christmas shoppers at Walmart, it is better to just go to the dollar store if we are only getting a few items. I noticed that Dollar General has online coupons, too. You choose which coupons you want, and then when you check out, they access your account from your phone number and give you the coupon discount. So, I went through and added a coupon for anything I thought I might even possibly buy, and then I should get the discount if I do buy it. I think we will be shopping there a lot more in the future. It is close, easy to shop at, and good prices.
HFL, we went through the same thing when they built a beast and closed our old Walmart down. The new one really is too big for our purposes a lot of times, as well. Plus, it's only about seven miles to the nearest Dollar General where it's more like twenty to the nearest Walmart. So, we too, end up at the Dollar General most of the time and we love it. No matter the store, I will usually give the store brands a try on most items. Some store brand items don't measure up for me in quality while others do quite well. I find that the Dollar General brand items are usually very good. I haven't found anything to complain about, yet. Not even in the personal products aisle, which is a biggy because the quality of lotions, creams and etc., is extremely varied and important to me. I don't need the best but I really can't stand the worst. If these items are really bad, then they are totally useless to me and they end up in the trash sooner or later--a complete waste. I find, though, that the Dollar General brand lotions that are situated next to the lotions they are supposed to compare to, really do compare fairly well. And I've found myself to be very satisfied with their moisturizers, as well. Which is a good thing because my old favorites are becoming too cost prohibitive for me. All in all, I'd give Dollar General two thumbs up on everything. And I wish I had stock in their company because they are really growing by leaps and bounds these days.
