The Dollar General Store story began in Scottsville, Kentucky, in October 1939. James Luther Turner and son Cal opened the first J.L. Turner & Son mercantile. The venture proved successful and, by the mid-1950s, there were thirty-five Turner's Department Stores in operation in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The concept of a Dollar Store, where everything sold for a dollar or less, was implemented. The Turner's location in Springfield, Kentucky closed and re-opened, as the very first Dollar General store, in June 1955. The company went public in 1968.

During Dollar General's early years, the corporate headquarters was located in Scottsville, Kentucky. A new "HQ" and distribution facility opened there in 1973. The home office moved to a center city location in Nashville, Tennessee in 1989. In the year 2000, the home office relocated from Nashville to the suburb of Goodlettsville.

In July 2007, the company began to be operated as a privately-held entity. It became a publicly-traded corporation, once again, in August 2009. Between 2015 and 2025, it was owned by Dollar Tree Stores, Incorporated. 

 

Dollar General was acquired by a joint venture of Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management in March 2025. In December 2025, there were over 20,000 Dollar General Stores in operation in forty-eight states, the District of Columbia and Mexico. 

Crowds gather for the June 1955 grand opening of the very first Dollar General Store. The chain, which started out in the Bluegrass State, grew exponentially between the 1970s and 1990s.
Photo from https://newscenter.dollargeneral.com

Above, we see a DG operation in Durham, North Carolina. A Mexican division went into operation in March 2023. In 2026, only the states of Alaska and Hawaii had no Dollar General stores. 

Photo from Wikipedia / "Specious"