Houston’s newest DG Market opened earlier this week. Located at 1838 S Kirkwood at Briar Forest, this new location takes the place of a shuttered Walgreens store. DG Market first broke into Houston late last year by converting existing Dollar Generals in North Houston and La Marque. This was bolstered by another location South of Houston, in a former CVS in Leauge City, which opened a few months ago. This newest store is the most central to Houston thus far and will likely not be the last. The concept has been something Dollar General has experimented with for the past 20 or so years. The original format was essentially a pared-down grocery store, with a few DG staples added to fill the space, and it usually took the space of a former grocery store. However, within the past few years, the company has been developing a scaled-down version of the format, which they have brought to Houston. While still selling fresh groceries, the stores feature more GM. That said, they feature more groceries than a standard Dollar General overall. These new stores are designed to fit easily into existing DG stores or smaller standalone retail stores. With both uses being tested in Houston, it seems like Dollar General will have plenty of space to test this concept here. While small-scale general grocery is a broad open market for DG Market, with most smaller grocers being ethnically focused, it remains to be seen how successful the concept will be in an already competitive grocery market. One more DG Market appears to be on the way to a former CVS at 529 and Fry Road in the Cypress area.
