Distribution Because Dollar General does not sell wholesale, it adapts its supply chain to focus on more frequent deliveries of goods to smaller stores. While this creates some inefficiencies compared to their big box rivals who were able to ship larger truckloads to their stores, Dollar General benefits from a denser network of stores in many areas as it had more than double the locations in the U.S. (11,061) than Wal- Mart (4,807) in 2013. Additionally, Dollar General owns all the trailers that move to and from distribution centers, but subcontracts the trucking [dollar general 10K]. This reduces the capital investment required, while maintaining key distribution activities, including controlling the loading, unloading and scheduling of product delivery to both retail stores and distribution centers. Cost Leadership Partnership and Convenience (Strategy and Value Creation, Delivery and Acquisition) Historically, Dollar General operated in a highly price-sensitive market segment, with 55% of its consumer base earning an average annual gross income less than $40,000.[2] To attract these customers, Dollar General used an everyday low pricing strategy similar to that of Wal-Mart. Therefore, keeping costs low and generating high traffic volumes were critical to the company's financial success. Dollar General accomplished this strategy in several ways, including keeping rents and labor costs low, locating in low-income, high-traffic areas that offered consumers few substitutes, and offering a wide variety of popular consumer products and white products. Given the dominant position and fiercely competitive nature of Wal-Mart and Target in the big-box retail industry, Dollar General has avoided competing head-to-head with these larger rivals by differentiating a classic generic bu...... half of paper...... nce 2008), [CITE: #7?] had a negative impact on Dollar General's profitability, given its higher purchasing costs and lower margins compared to other categories. Analysts estimated that Dollar General's margins fell from 7.4 percent in 2008 to 7.1 percent of net sales in 2013. to 22 percent of total supplies sales from 2007 to 2013. Among brands Dollar General's white label there are several lines of brands, including Dollar General, Dollar General Market, Clover Valley, DG, Dollar General Guarantee, Smart & Simple, true living and Sweet Sorrisi.[7] Additionally, despite Dollar General being a primarily "homegrown" company, Dreiling had purchased several high-profile but defunct brands, including Rexall Drugs, a bankrupt pharmacy chain..