You said it @Ken Anderson. Name brand products for less than the bigger stores. I think the only drawback is size doesn't always fit the price. I do find myself debating which one I would like to go to sometimes because they are all within a 10 minute or less drive from where I live. Most of the time Dollar General will win because it opens earlier than the other two.
Yeah, the sizes are quite noticeable on some things, like paper towels and toilet paper. A roll of toilet paper at the Dollar Store is practically one use per roll.
In our small town in western Canada we only have Dollar Tree and Dollarama. I find the best quality at Dollarama and their prices are much better than Walmart on the same products. I always shop there first and if I can't find it there, then I go to Walmart across the street. Another good outlet for us is Canadian Tire which is not so much a tire store any more but is a pretty good department store with prices matching or sometimes less than Walmart.
I like Dollar Tree the best vs. Family Dollar ,or General Dollar. Dollar Tree. Do not really buy food stuff there, but the store is great for other things. I can go to Dollar Tree and spend $20 -$30 and feel like I have been shopping,without spending much. The other place we have here is Big Lots. Big Lots handles all the discontinued items from other stores. Good place to buy tissue, paper towels, and etc. If I buy anything of food value,I always check the dates, as I find many edible things are expired.
We just got back from our 99-Cent store. How they buy their stock is unknown to us. Two weeks ago they had name-brand (Oscar Meyer) packaged Ham or Turkey, containing no preservatives, no nitrites, 16 ounces, 99 Cents. Our big-names, Safeway and Smiths, have the same product but in 8 ounce packages, at $ 3.99! That's 8 times the price!! A similar buy we did was Oscar Meyer 16 oz. sausage, several varieties without preservatives @ 99 cents. Big-name over $4.00. Today, no such products were available at 99-Cent Store. Frank
Generally, I like shopping for paper products (greeting cards, party supplies etc.) at our local dollar stores. I do avoid buying any toiletries though as there was a problem here some years ago with a Colgate "counterfeit" toothpaste that was deemed to be unsafe by Health Canada.