My brain often brims with burning questions of no real consequence. One recent obsession was where Muncie’s first Dollar General store was. Here alone, there are at least ten today. That works out to roughly one Dollar General for every 6,500 people! That sheer density made me curious. It didn’t just happen overnight, so where did the phenomenon begin? As it turns out, Muncie’s first Dollar General was in the old Southway Plaza.
Dollar General began as J. L. Turner and Son. The company was founded by J. L. Turner and his son Cal after years spent buying and liquidating bankrupt general stores during the Great Depression1. They struck out on their own in 1939, but the real turning point came in 1955 when Cal reimagined Turner’s Department Store in Springfield, Kentucky, as the first Dollar General2. The company went public in 19683, which set the stage for the familiar yellow signs that now blanket places like Muncie.
Dollar General made its way into town in Southway Plaza in 1979. “Local shoppers with a good eye for a bargain will receive their first look at an unusual retail outfit when the Dollar General Store on Ind. 67 opens its doors Thursday, March 84,” wrote the Muncie Star. “Because most retailers aren’t interested in them, irregulars and closeouts come to us in large quantities at greatly reduced prices5,” explained Cal Turner.
In Muncie, that translated into eye-catching grand-opening deals: four 25-ounce iced-tea glasses for a dollar, 22-ounce bottles of Ivory liquid soap for 75 cents, fashionable handbags for $5, hand tools two for $3, and whistling tea kettles with copper bottoms priced at $5. “Every day is dollar day at Dollar General stores6,” one advertisement proudly proclaimed.
Unfortunately, things weren’t looking great at Southway Plaza. Just three years after it opened, Dollar General held a total inventory sale and closed in 1982, joining Ballard Hardware, Jo Ann Fabrics, Mobil Shoes, the Fashion Barn, and King’s Department Store in leaving the moribund strip mall7. It’d be another eleven years before Dollar General returned to Muncie, this time at White River Plaza8.
Surprisingly, Dollar General made its return to the renamed Southway Centre on November 30, 19959, where it remained for thirty years! That’s the store I took photos of. By 2011, however, the Dollar General was one of only a few remaining establishments at the plaza, alongside Revol Wireless, Mattress USA, and MainStreet Market10. Those numbers have thinned even more dramatically in recent years, and I was surprised to find that Dollar General closed a few months ago.
The rest of Muncie’s Dollar Generals dot the city in every direction. They’re so common that they almost fade into the background! Still, what began as an experiment on State Road 67 flickered out, reappeared across town, then improbably found its way back to Southway Centre only to vanish again decades later. Even a place so ubiquitous as Dollar General serves as a reminder that retail booms rise, shopping centers age, and even the most familiar fixtures are temporary.
Sources Cited
1 Martin, D. (2000, November 20). Cal Turner, 85; Founded Dollar General. The New York Times. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
2 Scavotto, A. (2000, November 15). Dollar General Founder Cal Turner Sr. Loved Small Town Life. The Nashville Post. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
3 Beck, C.C. (2009, November 13). Dollar General Trades Higher After Its IPO. CNBC. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
4 Dollar General Store Coming to Muncie Area (1979, February 27). The Muncie Star. p. 5.
5 (See footnote 4).
6 Dollar General Stores (1979, March 7). The Muncie Evening Press. P. 32.
7 Jackson, W. (1982, September 20). Southway Merchants Seek Improvements. The Muncie Star. p. 2.
8 Mogollon, C.D. (1993, October 1). Dollar General plans to open Muncie store. The Muncie Star. p. 17.
9 Rutter, R.J. (1995, November 30). Italian Oven to open Thursday. The Muncie Star. p. 16.
10 Roysdon, K. (2011, June 26). Southway to rise again? The Muncie Star Press. p. 21.
I have mixed feelings on these stores. They can be a sign that your neighborhood is deteriorating. OTOH, they are a real blessing to folks on a budget who just need the basics. And I will confess that I sometimes linger over their food and candy offerings.
Thanks for this history, I had long wondered how they got started.
Kings! That brings back long-forgotten memories. There was one near where I grew up that I shopped as a li’l kid. Kings went bankrupt in 1984 and Ames bought up most of their locations.
Heh, Ames brings up memories for me. It took over Hill’s but wasn’t long for this world in my neck of the woods. Only place in town you could get “Bowman’s Best” basketball cards.
Ames was an interesting beast, as its strategy was similar to Dollar Generals in going after the more rural, less served, and less competitive markets. It worked for quite a bit, but the later 90’s were hard on the smaller, more regional chains as Target and Walmart were reaching nation-wide saturation. None of the Northeast’s regional discounters (Ames, Bradlees, Caldor) survived long past the turn of the millennium. Ames might have held out longer if they didn’t saddle themselves with debt by buying out Hills.
I remember that one of Ames’s strong suits was a larger-than-average arts/crafts department. It helped them stand out.
I didn’t know that about the arts and crafts segment. Isn’t that what Ben Franklin turned into, largely?
I believe so, but it’s been eons since I’ve seen or stepped inside a Ben Franklin. It was a smart strategy, especially in areas that didn’t have their own arts/crafts stores.
I think we still have one in Indiana- maybe in Columbus, the headquarters of Cummins and, probably because of that, a well-known haven of modern architecture. Not that that has anything to do with Ben Franklin, lol.
My favorite Mexican restaurant the next town over is in an old Ben Franklin. The door handles still say so.