Dollar General Corporation: 10-K Risk Factor Changes

The retail business is highly competitive with respect to price, customers, store location, merchandise quality, product assortment and presentation, service offerings, product sourcing and supply chain capacity, in-stock consistency, customer service, ease of shopping experience (including but not limited to various modes of shopping, including online alternatives and delivery), promotional activity, employees, and market share. We compete with discount stores and, to varying degrees, other retailers, including mass merchandise, convenience, variety, drug, grocery, warehouse club, online retailers, and certain specialty stores. To maintain our competitive position, we may be required to lower prices, either temporarily or permanently, and may have limited ability to increase prices in response to increased costs, resulting in lower margins and reduced profitability. Certain of our competitors have greater financial, distribution, marketing and other resources, and may be able to secure better arrangements with suppliers, than we. Furthermore, if our competitors or third parties incorporate artificial intelligence into their businesses more quickly or more successfully than us, it could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations, or if our use of artificial intelligence is inaccurate or ineffective, our competitive position could be adversely affected. 12 12 12 Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Our plans depend significantly on strategies, initiatives and investments designed to increase sales and profitability and improve the efficiencies, costs and effectiveness of our operations, and failure to achieve or sustain these plans could materially affect our results of operations.We have short-term and long-term strategies, initiatives and investments (such as those relating to merchandising, real estate and new store development, mature stores and store remodels (including Project Elevate), international expansion, store formats and concepts (including pOpshelf), digital, marketing, shrink, damages, sourcing, private brand, inventory management, supply chain, private fleet, store operations, expense reduction, and technology) in various stages of testing, evaluation, and implementation, which are designed to continue to improve our results of operations and financial condition. The effectiveness of these initiatives is inherently uncertain, even when tested successfully, and is dependent on a number of factors such as consistency of training and execution, workforce stability, ease of execution and scalability, and customer adoption, as well as the absence of offsetting factors that can influence results adversely. The number and diverse geographic locations of our stores and distribution centers and our decentralized day-to-day field management also contribute to the challenging nature of these factors. Other risk factors described herein also could negatively affect general implementation. Failure to achieve successful or cost-effective implementation of our initiatives could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2024, we recorded a significant impairment expense, the majority of which relates to pOpshelf stores. The success of our merchandising initiatives, particularly those related to non-consumable products (including pOpshelf) and efforts to increase sales of higher margin products within the consumables category, further depends in part upon our ability to accurately predict the products that our customers will demand and to accurately identify and timely respond to evolving trends in consumer preferences and demographic mixes in our markets. If we are unable to select and timely obtain products that are attractive to customers and at costs that allow us to sell them at an acceptable profit, or to effectively market such products, it could result in materially decreased sales and profitability. While we saw slight improvement in our sales mix in 2025 as compared to the prior year, our sales mix remains heavily weighted towards consumables, and there is no guarantee that these initiatives will continue to improve our sales mix. Additionally, factors negatively affecting our customers’ disposable income and consumer sentiment, such as the economic factors discussed above, can have a larger negative impact on non-consumables sales results than consumables sales results and on our pOpshelf concept. The success of DG Media Network, which is our platform for connecting brand partners with our customers to drive even greater value for each, further depends on our ability to successfully gather target customer audiences (which may, in turn, depend upon the success of our various digital initiatives) that deliver consistent, predictable and beneficial returns on advertising spending to generate interest and demand from our brand partners, as well as to properly handle and secure all sensitive customer data.We face intense competition that could limit our growth opportunities and materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. The retail business is highly competitive with respect to price, customers, store location, merchandise quality, product assortment and presentation, service offerings, product sourcing and supply chain capacity, in-stock consistency, customer service, ease of shopping experience (including but not limited to various modes of shopping, including online alternatives and delivery), promotional activity, employees, and market share. We compete with discount stores and, to varying degrees, other retailers, including mass merchandise, convenience, variety, drug, grocery, warehouse club, online retailers, and certain specialty stores. To maintain our competitive position, we may be required to lower prices, either temporarily or permanently, and may have limited ability to increase prices in response to increased costs, resulting in lower margins and reduced profitability. Certain of our competitors have greater financial, distribution, marketing and other resources, and may be able to secure better arrangements with suppliers, than we. Furthermore, if our competitors or third parties incorporate artificial intelligence into their businesses more quickly or more successfully than us, it could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations, or if our use of artificial intelligence is inaccurate or ineffective, our competitive position could be adversely affected.