David Swenson, associate scientist, was interviewed for an August 11th Sioux City Journal story, "As Dollar General rapidly expands in rural Siouxland, small-town grocers report losses."
Swenson cautioned the struggles of small grocers cannot be laid solely at the feet of Dollar General, much as their owners may not like the chain. "It's a chicken-and-egg thing. The reason the grocery stores are closing is not just Dollar General, it's because the density of local demand purchases has either gone down because of population going down, or that peoples' purchasing preferences have shifted, so they're doing more of their shopping where they work," he said.
A 2017 study by Swenson and Liesl Eathington, assistant scientist, which said that Iowa's greatest workforce gain in the first half of this decade was in workers under the age of 44 with only a high school diploma, was cited in an editorial in the August 15th Quad-City Times.