Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is often blamed for causing the "retail apocalypse," which has caused tens of thousands of store closures over the past decade. The expansion of Amazon's Prime ecosystem, which surpassed 100 million U.S. members last year, exacerbated the pain.
Yet discount retailers like Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) and Dollar General (NYSE: DG) withstood Amazon's assault, flourished, and continued opening new stores. The dollar stores kept growing by opening their stores closer to lower income areas, offering lower prices than Amazon, and promoting a "treasure hunt" experience by constantly rotating their products.
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