A newly built Dollar General just opened at 1301 Broadway in Gary's Midtown neighborhood, right next to a Family Dollar.
It's hardly the only spot in Northwest Indiana where dollar stores are crowded on top of each other. There's a half-mile stretch in Whiting with a Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree all within a brisk walk of each other.
Dollar stores have been cropping up across Northwest Indiana in recent years, often planting roots in otherwise retail-starved cities and offering at least a limited selection of groceries in neighborhoods that have been deemed food deserts. Dollar store chains have been expanding in underserved rural and urban neighborhoods where other national retailers often fear to tread. Dollar General, for instance, took over a storefront Walgreens abandoned at 801 S. Lake St. in Gary a few years ago.