Dollar General Shut Down—It's a Wake Up Call for Real Estate Investors
Everyone blamed the landlord. The truth was more complicated — and more important than people realize.
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A few weeks ago, the Dollar General in our small North Dakota town shut down.
Brand new in 2022.
Clean. Convenient.
Everyone loved it.
Then one day—poof.
Closed. No warning.
And just like that, the rumors started flying.
“The landlord got greedy.”
“He raised the rent to $155,000/month.”
“That’s why they left.”
In a small town like Thompson, North Dakota, news spreads fast.
So I did what most people don’t:
I went straight to the source.
The Truth No One Was Talking About
I tracked down the building owner. Not hard to do in a town this size.
But it turns out—he lives in California and had no idea the store had closed.
I sent him a video of the empty building.
He was shocked.
I found out he was charging less than $8K/month in rent. Totally fair for a brand-new retail box like that.
With property taxes, insurance, and utilities, his cost to hold it is about $11K/month. That’s $132K/year—not cheap, but nowhere near the $155K/month being tossed around.
So where did that number come from?
I asked a Dollar General employee why they were leaving.
She said:
“The landlord raised the rent to $155,000/month.”
Not even close.
But here’s the thing:
It’s easier to blame a landlord you’ve never met than admit corporate is pulling the plug for reasons they don’t want to explain.
What’s Really Going On in the Real Estate Market
This isn’t about one Dollar General.
It’s about a shift that’s happening all over the country—especially in small-town America:
📈 Insurance premiums are skyrocketing
📈 Property taxes are climbing
📈 Debt is 2–3x more expensive than a few years ago
Margins are getting squeezed. Even big-box tenants are walking away from solid buildings if the math stops working.
And the people left behind?
They’re the ones who actually use these stores every day.
This is what real estate looks like right now:
Messy. Fast-moving. And full of false narratives.
So What Can We Do About It?
I don’t like just pointing out problems.
I like solving them.
Here’s one idea I’ve been bouncing around:
Buy the building as a local investor group
Have the city bond the debt at a better rate
Get temporary tax relief from local government
Bring in a business that actually wants to be here
Now the numbers start to work again.
Instead of being held hostage by national chains…we’d own the box and control the future.
That’s what I mean when I say:
Unfollow the Herd.
Think different.
Act local.
Take the long view.
Final Thought
If you’re in real estate—or just someone who cares about your community—
I bet you’ve seen something like this play out.
A building sits empty.
People point fingers.
Nothing gets done.
But maybe we do something different this time.
If you’ve got ideas or you’ve dealt with something similar…reply or reach out.
Hundreds of people dropped ideas in the comments of my original post about this on LinkedIn.
This isn’t just about one Dollar General.
It’s about what happens when we start taking ownership of our local communities, instead of letting big box chains leave buildings empty as soon as the math doesn’t work.
That’s all for today. Drop your questions in the comments!
Marc Kuhn,
CEO at MAK Capital
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