The post-holiday shopping hangover may still be lingering. But there’s one retail sector that experiences growth year round: dollar stores. Industry analysts consistently cite the impressive profits of dollar stores amid a stiff economic climate and declining shopping base. Owners find the urban market attractive for doing business. These discount outlets invite consumers, but also criticism.

CARTER: I’ve never really seen black socks bundled like this. I’m a bargain hunter…

She and her sister-in-law stroll the aisles of Family Dollar, a national chain.

CARTER: I come to a dollar store like this whenever I get a chance. But I do shop at the regular stores, like Macy’s. I go to the big stores, too. But when you’re low in cash, this is where you go, the dollar store.

Ambi continues and fades

Dollar Plus. Dollar Express. Dollar Tree. Mexidollar…The name “dollar store” can be a bit of a misnomer. Some don’t sell items more than ninety-nine cents while others are discount depots that vend merchandise such as furniture.

According to a search of Chicago’s business license database, there are almost four hundred dollar stores in the city. An analysis shows stores concentrated in moderate to low-income black wards such as Englewood … as many as fifteen in one area while there are none in some Near North and North Side lakefront wards.

BRAVERMAN: We’re providing a great service to our customers in urban markets.

Joshua Braverman is spokesman for Family Dollar. He says the stores started out as rural but the company now has implemented an aggressive urban initiative in the last few years.

BRAVERMAN: When you live in a big city you sometimes you don’t have access to car to be able to go out to one of the big box stores and park and figure out how to do that with kid in tow in some instances. So I would say one of our big things we’re proud of is to be able to provide that convenience.

But there are others who believe dollar stores aren’t the sign of healthy retail investment in a community.

University of Illinois-Chicago’s Nik Theodore is an urban planner. He says dollar stores don’t exactly spur surrounding economic growth in these communities that are isolated from other retail options.

Even some shoppers like Megan Mims find the stores unappealing.

MIMS: One, they tend to look bad. They don’t really look aesthetically pleasing in the neighborhood.

Dollar and Up recently opened at 75th and King Drive. Mims comes everyday to buy Diet Coke. Begrudgingly.

MIMS: I think it’s also a deeper underlying thing. I can’t explain it but it disturbs me. I can’t explain why but it makes me uneasy that there’s one on every corner. Like it’s a checking cashing place on every corner and liquor store on every corner. It kind of goes along with that theme and it bothers me.

Store Manager Ray Salameh stands right there as Mims unloads. He’s indifferent to her comments.

SALAMEH: I don’t see every corner a dollar store…some of them every couple of blocks you maybe find a dollar store. But not all of them are the same, they’re different.

The irony of this statement seems lost on him.

ambi: dollar store

Back at the Family Dollar on 80th and Halsted, Sherry Carter had to act as a stock girl and move trash and fallen merchandise off the floor to push her cart though.

But convenience trumps aesthetics.

She tells the simple logic of why customers flock.

CARTER: They don’t have a lot a lot of money because of the bills and stuff. If I had plenty of money, girl, I wouldn’t go to no dollar store. a

ambi: register

Carter checks out at the register. She spent ten dollars and leaves with two bags. And then regrets not using a coupon.

Family Dollar already has one hundred stores in Chicago…eighty five have opened since they year 2000.

I’m Natalie Moore, Chicago Public Radio.