Does Dollar General Sell Books?

Dollar General sells a little bit of everything. There’s a reason for that: a number of Dollar General stores are located in more remote areas where there are few other stores of any kind. If you’re a shopper in those places, you might not have any other options at all … at least, not ones that don’t require driving 15-30 minutes (or more) to get what you need.

DG, then, has emerged as the jack-of-all-trades store. It carries some groceries, including staples like milk. It carries hygiene products and health care products. It sells household necessities. It even stocks clothing.

Dollar General isn’t just restricted to the important stuff. It offers some entertainment, too, including movies, board games, and toys. You might wonder if books are among the entertainment fare.

The answer is yes.

While your mileage may vary, most of what we saw were small paperbacks. Most of the novels we saw were $1 to $3, with classics like Shakespeare’s King Lear going for $1 and most modern literature going for more.

Romance, thriller, and mystery dominated the racks. We didn’t see much in the arena of, say, fantasy or science fiction. Some of the author names we hadn’t heard of before, while others we had; we found one of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, for instance.

While anyone can read any book, demographically, it appeared that DG’s book collection was aimed primarily toward women. We didn’t see as many books that were obviously men-marketed fare.

One more note: we did also see some children’s books in Dollar General, including coloring books. So if your kids need entertainment, the dollar store can often help you out with that, too.

So if you stroll into a Dollar General and you’re desperate for a read, you might be able to find something that’s worth taking a flyer on. And if you don’t like the book, you’re only out a dollar or a few. You could always turn around and donate it later, either to a charity or to a little free library.