Midwest Dairy connected with shoppers as checkoff promoted fluid milk through a new 2023 sales partner, Dollar General. Dollar General is the number two grocery destination in the U.S., behind only Walmart, and has a national footprint of over 19,000 stores in 47 states. Seventy-five percent of Americans live within five miles of a Dollar General location, making this new partnership an exciting one!
Inflationary economic conditions continue to change how consumers shop. Recent studies show that high prices in the supermarket aisles for basic food items like eggs, milk, and butter have driven more shoppers to seek bargains at dollar stores. This partnership with Dollar General will allow checkoff to meet consumers where they are: the dollar store channel.
The partnership increased awareness and sales of fluid milk through strategically placed in-store signs during the holiday season and into the new year. These signs focused on affordable nutrition by promoting milk as a good value, using the new Undeniably Dairy tagline “Real Milk. Real Nutrition.” Signage also promoted pairing milk with other popular snacks, like cookies.
This in-store signage helped shoppers navigate aisle to aisle with the goal of influencing their purchase decisions during repeated shelf trips. Customers interacted with dairy promotions at different checkpoints throughout the store, including blade signs at the dairy case and in the cookie aisle.
This effort began as a joint program with Midwest Dairy and the United Dairy Industry of Michigan (UDIM) but grew as other dairy checkoffs joined. After Midwest Dairy and UDIM initiated the project, other state and regional checkoff organizations were invited to join the campaign to grow dairy’s footprint. There were 2,369 stores participating throughout the Midwest Dairy 10-state region, as well as 1,930 in American Dairy Association Northeast (East Coast), 584 in UDIM, 534 in Indiana, 1,041 in American Dairy Association Northeast (Ohio/WV), 1,515 in DairyMax, and 1,595 in The Dairy Alliance (GA/TN). Not only is checkoff bringing the farmer’s voice to the marketplace, but we are also listening! Dollar General has been a target for Midwest Dairy farmers, and in 2023, checkoff is proud to have gained collaboration with the chain. Dollar General is our first partner in this type of retail signage campaign, and one checkoff is confident in as we continue to increase dairy sales.
