1.Describe Dollar General’s business strategy.

Why has the company

been so successful?

Dollar General Corporation is a famous and popular corporation. Dollar

General Corporation follows some strategy. Dollar General Corporation is
an aggressive competitor and fighting for position with other dollar stores.
Dollar General stores offer a product line of general merchandise that
includes many products. Dollar General stores offer seasonal advantage.
Dollar General specially focused on customer service. That’s why; Dollar
General provides food to customers with low, middle, and fixed incomes.
Dollar General has kept away from the big box supercenter store. When
placing new stores, Dollar General prefers to locate them within
communities, often targeting municipalities that are home to fewer than
20,000 residents. Dollar General stores follow a fixed dollar-pricing
schedule with about one third of all merchandise priced. Dollar General
opens a lot of stores and operated this stores by full and part time
employees. Dollar General has developed a system for opening new stores
that whittles the procedure down to a scan eight days. The majority of Dollar
General stores are placed in either shopping centers or freestanding
buildings and with a handful housed in urban structures.

The company has been so successful because of some reasons. The company
is conscious to fill the role of neighborhood store. Because, the company
believes that the role of neighborhood is a big part of its success. Before few
years, Dollar General surpassed Wal-Mart’s benchmark by earning 4.3 cents
foe every dollar of sales. Dollars General accomplishes this by rapidly
opening stores and running each store at the lowest operating cost possible.
For every day that a new store is open, the company, on average, can expect
to add $2,800 in sales and $124 in profit.

Finally, we can say that Dollar General follows some strategy and by
utilizing those strategy the company has become so successful.

2. Describe the role of management, organization, and technology in

Dollar General’s business strategy.

For contributing success of Dollar General, management, organization, and

technology have been played some roles. Management follow a fixed dollar-
pricing schedule. Management distributes handbooks to employees to
interact with customers. Management encourages employees for providing
superior service to customers. Management is aware about shrink rate.
Organization’s goal is to keep shrink rates to no more than 1.75 percent to 2
percent. Organization has chosen to focus on the employees as the root of
the problem. Organization maintains close control over every aspect of
operation. Technology has been played a great role. By using technology,
Dollar General Company has become more successful. Dollar General uses
point-of-sale terminals, which is delivered by IBM. The satellite link
connects the IBM terminals to corporate headquarters. By using this
terminal, corporate management begins to transmit pricing data and product
codes to the IBM terminals. Dollar General uses bar code scanners that lay
flat in the cashier counters are installed and connected to the registers. Dollar
General uses advanced satellite technology to communicate with
headquarters.

Therefore, those are the main role of management, organization, and

technology in Dollar General’s business strategy.

3. How well do information systems support Dollar General’s business

strategy?

Information systems support Dollar General’s business strategy in many

ways. Information systems help the Dollar General store to keep cost down
and for very little else. Dollar General communicates with headquarters by
using advanced satellite technology. Dollar General receives and sends
information easily by using advanced satellite technology. Dollar General’s
distribution centers use information systems, running Catalyst warehouse
management software, to track the inventory they receive and subsequently
ship to stores. Information systems support to notify that headquarters
gathers from store cash registers each night, which indicates how many of a
product were sold and at what price. Information systems help to company
from theft of product. Dollar General stores uses a software, which identifies
unusual cash register transactions and installing video cameras to monitor
the registers, the stockroom and even the store manager.

Finally, we can say that information systems support Dollar General’s

business strategy very well.
4. Does Dollar General miss out on any business opportunities as a
result of its approach to information technology? If so, what are these
opportunities?

Dollar General misses out on some business opportunities. Individual Dollar

General stores do not use networks to facilitate operations. That’s not a good
matter for Dollar General stores. Besides, the IBM terminals include e-mail
features, but the Dollar General stores do not use them. This is another miss
out on business opportunities of Dollar General stores. Managers, both
during setup and operation, use paper on clipboards for tracking cash deposit
logs, employee contact information, and the arrival of goods into the stores.
Manager should use handheld computerized devices to perform those types
of works. Individual Dollar General stores have no automated method for
keeping track of their own inventory. Another great problem is they do not
scan the cartons or verify the item count inside the cases. Dollar General
stores have no scanning upon receipt, and to shoplifting in the stores.

If Dollar General stores solve those types of problems, then Dollar General
stores will ensure to earn more profit.