by Dennis Dalman
A permit application for a new Dollar General store in St. Joseph has been submitted to the city and is now being reviewed for approval.
The new store will be on the same site as a previous Dollar General store just north of CR 75. That store opened in December 2019, but it sustained major interior damage in a fire on an early evening of October, 2022. No one was injured, and the cause of the fire was undetermined. The St. Joseph Fire Department succeeded in dousing the flames with mutual assists from the fire departments of Sartell, Cold Spring and Waite Park.
St. Joseph Community Development Director Nate Keller informed the Newsleader the permit from Dollar General was received by the city in early March. It is not yet known when the new store will be ready to open for business.
A Dollar General store recently opened in Sartell, on the site of a previous dollar store, Family Dollar, which closed a couple of years ago.
The Dollar General Corp., headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tenn., owns a chain of nearly 19,000 Dollar General stores in the United States. The discount variety store offers clothing, cleaning supplies, home décor, pet supplies, health and beauty aids, toys, seasonal holiday items and grocery items.
There are about 200 General Dollar stores in Minnesota.
The discount variety stores were founded in 1939 in Scottsville, Ken. by James Luther and his son, Cal. For many years, the stores were called J.L. Turner & Son. In 1955, that name was changed to Dollar General and years later the stores proliferated throughout the nation.
Since 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $216 million in grants, helping more than 15.4 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy and/or continued education.
A Dollar General store that opened in St. Joseph in 2019 was destroyed by fire in October 2022. Firefighters succeeded in dousing the flames, but the inside of the store sustained major damage. A new Dollar General is planned to be opened on that same site.
