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GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — The grocery business comes naturally to Allen Warch. Now vice president and division merchandise manager for food and fresh at Dollar General, Warch grew up in the industry, working in a variety of roles at several supermarket chains before joining the nation’s premier value retailer two years ago.
Since his arrival at Dollar General, Warch has spearheaded efforts to make grocery essentials, including fresh fruit and vegetables, accessible to consumers in underserved communities across the country. His success in that endeavor makes him one of MMR’s People Who Made a Difference for 2024.
Warch characterizes his involvement in grocery retailing as a family affair. Two of his grandparents and an uncle were meat cutters, and his stepfather was vice president of operations at Shoppers Food Warehouse in Maryland. That’s where Warch got his start in the business, stocking shelves at the age of 14.
“I’ve been around supermarkets as long as I can remember,” Warch recalls. “As a kid I saw the pride my grandfather took in providing food to his customers, all of whom he knew by name. It stuck with me.”
As his career progressed, Warch “was blessed to be able to pretty much have every role within a grocery store,” giving him “a full end-to-end perspective of the consumer and the experience that you have to deliver to her each day.” Over a three-decade career that took him from Shoppers Food Warehouse to Food Lion, Kroger, Coles Super-markets in Australia, Price Chopper and now Dollar General, Warch excelled in operations, procurement and merchandising.
That wealth of experience continues to serve Warch well. He has been instrumental in the rapid expansion of Dollar General’s grocery business, helping make the retailer America’s leader in individual points of distribution for fresh produce. The time spent at Coles, where Warch led the vegetable procurement team, was particularly beneficial.
“Australia has the population of Texas, but the landmass of the United States,” he explains. “It’s a very different environment than the U.S. market. What I loved about it was the connection of food to day-to-day life. It is something that’s really important to that community and that culture.
“Australia is a tough environment. To grow fresh produce and make sure it gets through the supply chain to the shelf in time is a huge challenge and a massive learning experience for me. It definitely drove home the importance of the connection between farm and shelf.”
The insights that Warch gained at Coles and in his subsequent assignment as vice president of fresh merchandising at Price Chopper did much to prepare him for the task of extending Dollar General’s reach in food. As a result of the initiative, the company is now delivering fresh fruit and vegetables and, in a smaller but significant and growing number of stores, fresh meat to people in underserved communities.
“The benefit that Dollar General brings to the food ecosystem is that we have the ability to be in markets that others have chosen not to serve or just can’t serve,” says Warch. “We’re in 48 states across the U.S., and approximately 80% of our stores are in communities with a population of 20,000 people or less. The way our company is structured gives us the opportunity to fill in gaps in areas that have never been filled before.”
Warch points out that while Dollar General isn’t a full-line grocer, it provides consumers with convenient access to affordable food and beverage essentials.
“We have a wide assortment of products that are from the top brands that you would expect to see in a supermarket,” he says. “As a result, many communities are requesting us to place stores in underserved areas.”
The food business is powered by Dollar General’s extensive logistics and warehousing network, supplemented by approximately 30 direct store delivery wholesalers for produce. More than 5,400 locations now offer fruit and vegetables, and more than 900 also sell fresh meat.
Dollar General has put a spotlight on its grocery offerings. Launched last year, the company’s Food First initiative involved adjustments within stores to make consumables more prominent, but that was just the beginning.
“Food First is a multifaceted effort,” Warch notes, “and all the major CPG companies — Unilever, Coca-Cola and Kraft, for example — have been along on that journey with us. We’ve also launched well over a hundred items under Clover Valley and other lines that are in our private brand suite.
“But Food First is really about making the shop more efficient for our customer. When you think about the evolution of Dollar General over time, you go into waves of expansion and innovation within the four walls of the box.
“Our customer wants to shop in a certain way. She wants to be able to find her dairy and frozen products in a well-defined area. And she wants to find her pantry items in a well-defined area. Wherever the customer needs us to be, that’s where we’ll go. We developed new formats over many years, and we will keep tweaking things.”
Warch indicates that there is plenty of room for further expansion of Dollar General’s fresh food offerings.
“When you think about what the challenges are for a household, the range varies. It may be just a question of access. ‘I have a busy life. I work two jobs. I need to have someplace that is strategically positioned for my convenience.’ That’s where our rural stores come into play. We can be right on the way to work or right on the way home. For that customer, that’s going to be a big draw.
“For another customer it’s really, ‘I need to be able to go to a store and know that my dollar’s going to get me as far as it possibly can.’ You can go into one of our stores and pretty much shop your grocery and your non-consumables needs all right there in one easy, convenient location. And we definitely offer meaningful value to the customer who’s on a very tight budget and needs to watch what she purchases.
“There are different needs, but we’re able to address most of them. That’s the beauty of being the country’s general store.” •
