K-Mart vs Wal Mart vs Target vs Sears vs whatever your local highmarket department store is.

The "dollar store" used to be those places that sold wigs and weird make-up, lots of hair products. I used to get hair doo dads and scented oils at them, but a lot of people would not set foot in them. I'd say that in the past fifteen or so years they've shed their "reputation" - the stores are very clean and you can get cleaners and paper towels and dog food. I'd wager you could cook a decent meal from dollar store food if you tried.

Oh by the way, Staples and Office Depot are merging. Maybe some day there will be one giant store for everything - one brand. Today's shopping mall will become one giant store owned by one company.

I had thought it was Office Depot merging with Office Max, rather than Staples.

As the guy who handles purchasing in my dept, the last two days have been a pain in the ass. Had tax exempt status "disappear" from the merger.

Dollar Tree and Family Dollar are merging btw, Dollar General rebuffed

I enjoyed this headline:

Family Dollar Stores Sticks With Dollar Tree, Refuses Dollar General's $9.1 Billion Offer

Imagine being paid with 9.1 billion items from a Dollar Tree

I've seen one Five Below around here, but it's the first one I've ever seen and I had no idea what it was. Toys, huh?

Really cold toys.