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My Father's Business: The Small-Town Values That Built Dollar General into a Billion-Dollar Company
The first-person account of the family that changed the American retail landscape that Dave Ramsey calls a must-read.
Longtime Dollar General CEO Cal Turner, Jr. shares his extraordinary life as heir to the company founded by his father, Cal Turner, Sr., and his grandfather, a dirt farmer turned Depression-era entrepreneur. Cal's narrative is at its heart a father-son story, from his childhood in Scottsville, Kentucky, where business and family were one, to the triumph of reaching the Fortune 300 -- at the cost of risking that very father/son relationship. Cal shares how the small-town values with which he was raised helped him guide Dollar General from family enterprise to national powerhouse.
Chronicling three generations of a successful family with very different leadership styles, Cal Jr. shares a wealth of wisdom from a lifetime on the entrepreneurial front lines. He shows how his grandfather turned a third-grade education into an asset for success. He reveals how his driven father hatched the game-changing dollar price point strategy and why it worked. And he explains how he found his own leadership style when he took his place at the helm -- values-based, people-oriented, and pragmatic. Cal's story provides a riveting look at the family love and drama behind Dollar General's spectacular rise, pays homage to the working-class people whose no-frills needs helped determine its rock-bottom prices, and shares the life and lessons of one of America's most compelling business leaders.
Longtime Dollar General CEO Cal Turner, Jr. shares his extraordinary life as heir to the company founded by his father, Cal Turner, Sr., and his grandfather, a dirt farmer turned Depression-era entrepreneur. Cal's narrative is at its heart a father-son story, from his childhood in Scottsville, Kentucky, where business and family were one, to the triumph of reaching the Fortune 300 -- at the cost of risking that very father/son relationship. Cal shares how the small-town values with which he was raised helped him guide Dollar General from family enterprise to national powerhouse.
Chronicling three generations of a successful family with very different leadership styles, Cal Jr. shares a wealth of wisdom from a lifetime on the entrepreneurial front lines. He shows how his grandfather turned a third-grade education into an asset for success. He reveals how his driven father hatched the game-changing dollar price point strategy and why it worked. And he explains how he found his own leadership style when he took his place at the helm -- values-based, people-oriented, and pragmatic. Cal's story provides a riveting look at the family love and drama behind Dollar General's spectacular rise, pays homage to the working-class people whose no-frills needs helped determine its rock-bottom prices, and shares the life and lessons of one of America's most compelling business leaders.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published May 22, 2018
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781 people want to read
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December 8, 2018
In 2002, the law firm for which I worked was involved in the Dollar General debacle, helping clean up the mess after the company restated financial statements due to massive accounting fraud. I didn’t know much about Dollar General at the time. But I do remember that a firm partner told me that one of the company’s directors had succinctly described their business model to him. “We sell shit, to poor people.” Cal Turner, Jr., has written this book to explain that business model and his part in it.
"My Father’s Business" has three threads. It is a history of Dollar General as a small, scrappy business. Then it is a history of Dollar General as big business. And intertwined throughout are elements of religious tract (the title is a play on words, the relevant “father” being both God and Cal Turner, Jr.’s own father, the original Cal Turner). Actually, despite the title, the religious elements are fairly light—Turner is a devout Methodist, a group not given to aggressive evangelization. But to his credit, he is not apologetic about the importance of his religious belief, something refreshing in today’s publishing environment. I’m a bit put off by some instances of how he applies his faith, but as Pope Francis says, who am I to judge?
It’s the early history of Dollar General that interested me most, since my own post-law background is as entrepreneur. Most books about entrepreneurship are totally clueless, or a pack of lies. Charles Koch’s "Good Profit," for example, is an awful, worthless book. Peter Thiel’s "Zero to One," with its focus on monopoly and reek of private equity money, has nothing to do with the gutter struggles of real entrepreneurs, the type that made America. Turner experienced that gutter struggle firsthand—really, his grandfather and his father more than him, but the business was still quite small when he started working at Dollar General, in the early 1950s. While my experience is in manufacturing, and Turner’s in distribution and sales, many of the same challenges arise, and they are not challenges understood by anyone who has not run a business on a shoestring. Turner, or rather his father, did, and Turner does a good job of conveying what that’s like, with anecdotes both amusing and heartbreaking, such as his father spending every Saturday night for many years calling every store manager to figure out what cash he would get the following week, so he could decide which vendors’ bills to pay.
In fact, cash flow is the single biggest concern for any real entrepreneur, and stores that keep inventory, like Dollar General, tend to face the most challenges. As a result, real entrepreneurs are always worried about bankruptcy, which can happen even if a business is profitable. Cal Turner, Sr., used to half-joke when he got a good buy on some goods that “If I have to declare bankruptcy, I won’t be embarrassed to tell the judge what I paid for this inventory I can’t get rid of.” Similarly, Turner mentions that his grandfather, Luther Turner, “bought a farm and put it in [his wife’s] name so that if the company went under, all of them could return to the land and start over.” For years I kept all my assets in my wife’s name for the same reason—so I could collapse our business and we would not be left destitute, but could begin again. To this day, my thoughts revolve around the need to prepare for that possibility. This sort of thing, necessary because of the enormous risks, is the norm among entrepreneurs. Nor do most people realize that entrepreneurs can’t borrow money like you read about in the news. If they can get a loan at all, entrepreneurs pay high interest rates where big companies pay zero interest rates, thanks to the government, and the entrepreneur also has to personally guarantee the loan, so he’ll be personally ruined if the company can’t pay.
But most other people, working eight-hour days, simply don’t understand any of this, the risks and the amount of work and sacrifice required, at any level. Nor, of course, do politicians, like Elizabeth Warren with her infamous “you didn’t build that” screed. She, like probably 98% of the people in Congress, has never built anything, or taken any material risk, in her entire life. Reading this short book would be a good requirement for any politician before taking office. The simple fact is that a very small group of people are the producers of most of the economic value in a society; without them, that is, without their drive and organization, output would be vastly lower. That’s one thing Ayn Rand got right, and when you read Marxists claiming that workers can run their own factories, you know you are reading someone with no actual experience of business.
Cash problems went away pretty early in his career for Cal Turner, however, since the company went public in 1963. From this point on the book was less interesting to me; it became a chronicle of ever larger acquisitions, along with discussion of family troubles, as Turner, by his account, just had to get rid of his father (right after his mother died), as well as his brother, and leave himself in charge. No choice in the matter, you see. Jesus told him to do it, in fact, when He said that every branch that doesn’t bear fruit should be pruned. Maybe so, but I’d be curious for some Rashomon-type viewpoints. Turner also seems addicted to “management training” and “strategic planning” which I think is dubious in most cases, along with “individual value statements,” which are dubious in all cases. (I could never understand at business school why people who had never run a business were not only allowed to teach “strategy,” but were held in great respect.) On the other hand, Turner was by the 1970s running a very large company, quite far-flung, so perhaps external training was helpful to weld people together into common action.
In many places, Turner describes a number of completely illegal practices under the securities laws that the company engaged in, including overt lying over decades. Yet he claims he was completely shocked when in 2002 it turned out that due to his complicity and negligence (not that he admits it), the company’s books were fraudulent and he was forced out—really, fired. Nor does Turner mention that in 2005 the SEC sued him and four other officers for accounting fraud, and he personally paid a fine of a million dollars. Instead, he complains “Everybody seemed to have a stake in making us look bad. The process was terribly injurious and punitive, and a lot of people were getting hurt.” He moans about how unfair it was that someone could accuse a “values-based leader” like himself of, gasp, “cooking the books.” (He also talks about his “time in the barrel at the SEC”; I don’t think he, or rather his ghostwriter, looked up the origin of that metaphor.) It’s tiresome and lacks any sense of humility.
Turner could afford the fine. He’s a billionaire, not that he mentions that in the book either. (He does seem to leave out quite a few things in which the reader would be interested; I’m sure there’s more that I’m just not catching.) Nor does he mention the ancient Christian question of the salvation of the rich. This is a question that concerns me, though. Between Christ’s injunction to the rich young man to sell all that he had and give it to the poor, and the admonition about rich men, camels, and needle’s eyes, I should probably lie awake at night. On the other hand, my fallback position is that of Zacchaeus the publican. After all, he got direct approval from Jesus to only give away 50%, and he was an actual fraudster, so I figure 50% is a ceiling, not a floor. Between that and pointing to my wife and saying “I’m with her,” I hope to still gain admittance from Saint Peter. Wish me luck!
Anyway, my guess is that the primary reason Turner wrote this book is that he, and the rest of his family, have been mostly erased from history by today’s Dollar General. If you go to the Wikipedia entry for the company, it’s all about boring details after Turner’s firing. He, his father, and grandfather, only get a few sentences. After 2002, the company was soon turned into an arm of private equity (then eventually went public again), and their PR firm doubtless scrubbed the entry. Wikipedia most definitely does not mention any part of the episode that got Turner fired.
But despite Turner’s best efforts to put a shiny gloss on Dollar General’s business, it still has the slightly dirty feel of all businesses that fall somewhere along the line between catering to, and taking advantage of, the poor. Dollar stores are, after all, the same basic type of business as pawnbrokers and payday lenders. On the other hand, Dollar General today, and throughout its history, does seem to be remarkably free of leftist cant—you can’t find any on their current website, and Turner certainly offers none. That’s a rare treat today in the age of social justice warrior corporations. And aside from serving areas that often lack stores (although I am curious if the company, like WalMart, also pushes aside existing local business), the company has for decades offered the real service of upward mobility, since anyone competent can climb the corporate ladder. True, I don’t think Dollar General is especially Jesus-approved, as Cal Turner would have it, but it’s a decent business that provides value to the poor in consumer goods and jobs. That is a niche that has been very good to Cal Turner, and, also, for the most part, been a boon to many poor areas of America. On balance, Cal Turner should be proud of his life, and if you like this type of book, his story is worth reading.
"My Father’s Business" has three threads. It is a history of Dollar General as a small, scrappy business. Then it is a history of Dollar General as big business. And intertwined throughout are elements of religious tract (the title is a play on words, the relevant “father” being both God and Cal Turner, Jr.’s own father, the original Cal Turner). Actually, despite the title, the religious elements are fairly light—Turner is a devout Methodist, a group not given to aggressive evangelization. But to his credit, he is not apologetic about the importance of his religious belief, something refreshing in today’s publishing environment. I’m a bit put off by some instances of how he applies his faith, but as Pope Francis says, who am I to judge?
It’s the early history of Dollar General that interested me most, since my own post-law background is as entrepreneur. Most books about entrepreneurship are totally clueless, or a pack of lies. Charles Koch’s "Good Profit," for example, is an awful, worthless book. Peter Thiel’s "Zero to One," with its focus on monopoly and reek of private equity money, has nothing to do with the gutter struggles of real entrepreneurs, the type that made America. Turner experienced that gutter struggle firsthand—really, his grandfather and his father more than him, but the business was still quite small when he started working at Dollar General, in the early 1950s. While my experience is in manufacturing, and Turner’s in distribution and sales, many of the same challenges arise, and they are not challenges understood by anyone who has not run a business on a shoestring. Turner, or rather his father, did, and Turner does a good job of conveying what that’s like, with anecdotes both amusing and heartbreaking, such as his father spending every Saturday night for many years calling every store manager to figure out what cash he would get the following week, so he could decide which vendors’ bills to pay.
In fact, cash flow is the single biggest concern for any real entrepreneur, and stores that keep inventory, like Dollar General, tend to face the most challenges. As a result, real entrepreneurs are always worried about bankruptcy, which can happen even if a business is profitable. Cal Turner, Sr., used to half-joke when he got a good buy on some goods that “If I have to declare bankruptcy, I won’t be embarrassed to tell the judge what I paid for this inventory I can’t get rid of.” Similarly, Turner mentions that his grandfather, Luther Turner, “bought a farm and put it in [his wife’s] name so that if the company went under, all of them could return to the land and start over.” For years I kept all my assets in my wife’s name for the same reason—so I could collapse our business and we would not be left destitute, but could begin again. To this day, my thoughts revolve around the need to prepare for that possibility. This sort of thing, necessary because of the enormous risks, is the norm among entrepreneurs. Nor do most people realize that entrepreneurs can’t borrow money like you read about in the news. If they can get a loan at all, entrepreneurs pay high interest rates where big companies pay zero interest rates, thanks to the government, and the entrepreneur also has to personally guarantee the loan, so he’ll be personally ruined if the company can’t pay.
But most other people, working eight-hour days, simply don’t understand any of this, the risks and the amount of work and sacrifice required, at any level. Nor, of course, do politicians, like Elizabeth Warren with her infamous “you didn’t build that” screed. She, like probably 98% of the people in Congress, has never built anything, or taken any material risk, in her entire life. Reading this short book would be a good requirement for any politician before taking office. The simple fact is that a very small group of people are the producers of most of the economic value in a society; without them, that is, without their drive and organization, output would be vastly lower. That’s one thing Ayn Rand got right, and when you read Marxists claiming that workers can run their own factories, you know you are reading someone with no actual experience of business.
Cash problems went away pretty early in his career for Cal Turner, however, since the company went public in 1963. From this point on the book was less interesting to me; it became a chronicle of ever larger acquisitions, along with discussion of family troubles, as Turner, by his account, just had to get rid of his father (right after his mother died), as well as his brother, and leave himself in charge. No choice in the matter, you see. Jesus told him to do it, in fact, when He said that every branch that doesn’t bear fruit should be pruned. Maybe so, but I’d be curious for some Rashomon-type viewpoints. Turner also seems addicted to “management training” and “strategic planning” which I think is dubious in most cases, along with “individual value statements,” which are dubious in all cases. (I could never understand at business school why people who had never run a business were not only allowed to teach “strategy,” but were held in great respect.) On the other hand, Turner was by the 1970s running a very large company, quite far-flung, so perhaps external training was helpful to weld people together into common action.
In many places, Turner describes a number of completely illegal practices under the securities laws that the company engaged in, including overt lying over decades. Yet he claims he was completely shocked when in 2002 it turned out that due to his complicity and negligence (not that he admits it), the company’s books were fraudulent and he was forced out—really, fired. Nor does Turner mention that in 2005 the SEC sued him and four other officers for accounting fraud, and he personally paid a fine of a million dollars. Instead, he complains “Everybody seemed to have a stake in making us look bad. The process was terribly injurious and punitive, and a lot of people were getting hurt.” He moans about how unfair it was that someone could accuse a “values-based leader” like himself of, gasp, “cooking the books.” (He also talks about his “time in the barrel at the SEC”; I don’t think he, or rather his ghostwriter, looked up the origin of that metaphor.) It’s tiresome and lacks any sense of humility.
Turner could afford the fine. He’s a billionaire, not that he mentions that in the book either. (He does seem to leave out quite a few things in which the reader would be interested; I’m sure there’s more that I’m just not catching.) Nor does he mention the ancient Christian question of the salvation of the rich. This is a question that concerns me, though. Between Christ’s injunction to the rich young man to sell all that he had and give it to the poor, and the admonition about rich men, camels, and needle’s eyes, I should probably lie awake at night. On the other hand, my fallback position is that of Zacchaeus the publican. After all, he got direct approval from Jesus to only give away 50%, and he was an actual fraudster, so I figure 50% is a ceiling, not a floor. Between that and pointing to my wife and saying “I’m with her,” I hope to still gain admittance from Saint Peter. Wish me luck!
Anyway, my guess is that the primary reason Turner wrote this book is that he, and the rest of his family, have been mostly erased from history by today’s Dollar General. If you go to the Wikipedia entry for the company, it’s all about boring details after Turner’s firing. He, his father, and grandfather, only get a few sentences. After 2002, the company was soon turned into an arm of private equity (then eventually went public again), and their PR firm doubtless scrubbed the entry. Wikipedia most definitely does not mention any part of the episode that got Turner fired.
But despite Turner’s best efforts to put a shiny gloss on Dollar General’s business, it still has the slightly dirty feel of all businesses that fall somewhere along the line between catering to, and taking advantage of, the poor. Dollar stores are, after all, the same basic type of business as pawnbrokers and payday lenders. On the other hand, Dollar General today, and throughout its history, does seem to be remarkably free of leftist cant—you can’t find any on their current website, and Turner certainly offers none. That’s a rare treat today in the age of social justice warrior corporations. And aside from serving areas that often lack stores (although I am curious if the company, like WalMart, also pushes aside existing local business), the company has for decades offered the real service of upward mobility, since anyone competent can climb the corporate ladder. True, I don’t think Dollar General is especially Jesus-approved, as Cal Turner would have it, but it’s a decent business that provides value to the poor in consumer goods and jobs. That is a niche that has been very good to Cal Turner, and, also, for the most part, been a boon to many poor areas of America. On balance, Cal Turner should be proud of his life, and if you like this type of book, his story is worth reading.
March 23, 2022
I swear I always fallll for youuur tyyyypppppeeee...
May 21, 2018
#Hachettepartner
`My Father's Business` is a first-hand account of author Cal Turner, Jr., Cal Turner, Sr. and Luther Turner by former CEO of Dollar General, Cal Turner, Jr. It's about Cal's journey of self-discovery and by sharing what he has learned he can teach readers how to flourish and work together for the good of organizations, communities, and our world.
Cal's grandfather, Luther Turner, became a dedicated student of life with only a third-grade education. He valued other people's information, insight, and perspective. He opened their first store, Turner's Bargain Store with a third-grade education and a monthly income of just $225. Cal, Sr. went to Vanderbilt University with only an eighth-grade education. This shows the dedication of the family.
When Cal, Sr. sold his wares for only $1 he was told it would never work. So he started with the store that had already failed as a Junior Department store in Springfield, Kentucky. The second store to sell everything for $1 was in Memphis. With hundreds of customers lining up to come in when the store opened its doors the Memphis store sold $1.1 million in the first few months. With this new concept of selling merchandise for $1, the stores' names were changed to Dollar General.
When Cal, Jr. began working for his dad his job was to unload the trucks and stock the stores. When he began opening stores hundreds of people would stand outside the door waiting for it to open. It took them four days from beginning to end to ready a store for customers. They would hire people that came in from the streets.
One night when Cal, Jr. was eleven-years-old the song `The Old Rugged Cross` entered his mind and he became a Christian at that moment. It was not so much about religion as it was a relationship with Jesus. As an aside, he became a Methodist because that's what his mom was. He felt a calling to a true ministry to a hurting world instead of an institutional ministry.
I liked this book and the intriguing information about Cal, Jr. and his family. It was interesting to see inside of maintaining a store(s). I recommend this book to an Economics student, entrepreneurs, or anyone interested in retail stores.
Disclaimer: "I was provided a free copy of this hardback book from Hachette Publishers. All opinions are my own."
`My Father's Business` is a first-hand account of author Cal Turner, Jr., Cal Turner, Sr. and Luther Turner by former CEO of Dollar General, Cal Turner, Jr. It's about Cal's journey of self-discovery and by sharing what he has learned he can teach readers how to flourish and work together for the good of organizations, communities, and our world.
Cal's grandfather, Luther Turner, became a dedicated student of life with only a third-grade education. He valued other people's information, insight, and perspective. He opened their first store, Turner's Bargain Store with a third-grade education and a monthly income of just $225. Cal, Sr. went to Vanderbilt University with only an eighth-grade education. This shows the dedication of the family.
When Cal, Sr. sold his wares for only $1 he was told it would never work. So he started with the store that had already failed as a Junior Department store in Springfield, Kentucky. The second store to sell everything for $1 was in Memphis. With hundreds of customers lining up to come in when the store opened its doors the Memphis store sold $1.1 million in the first few months. With this new concept of selling merchandise for $1, the stores' names were changed to Dollar General.
When Cal, Jr. began working for his dad his job was to unload the trucks and stock the stores. When he began opening stores hundreds of people would stand outside the door waiting for it to open. It took them four days from beginning to end to ready a store for customers. They would hire people that came in from the streets.
One night when Cal, Jr. was eleven-years-old the song `The Old Rugged Cross` entered his mind and he became a Christian at that moment. It was not so much about religion as it was a relationship with Jesus. As an aside, he became a Methodist because that's what his mom was. He felt a calling to a true ministry to a hurting world instead of an institutional ministry.
I liked this book and the intriguing information about Cal, Jr. and his family. It was interesting to see inside of maintaining a store(s). I recommend this book to an Economics student, entrepreneurs, or anyone interested in retail stores.
Disclaimer: "I was provided a free copy of this hardback book from Hachette Publishers. All opinions are my own."
June 12, 2018
First of all, I have to say, I love Dollar General. 2 years ago my tiny town of 1000 people were amazed that such a beautiful store would want to come to our town. We had been without anything but a gas station for several years. And so we learn that that is their business model- to go where they are needed and people dont have anywhere else to buy common, every day things. The founding fathers of Dollar General were small town, country people that believed in hard work, honesty and helping your fellow man. There is one thing, though, that bothered me and from what I have heard I dont think it has changed in the few years since the Turners have no longer been in charge. Cal talks about paying low wages to keep costs down and from what I have heard in our town the starting wage at Dollar General is about $8 an hour. Cal states in his book that employees start low but if they work hard and work their way up the ranks by becoming managers and assistant managers that they can make good money by becoming share holders. I know the store in my town has a hard time finding and keeping help so I dont think this is a good business model. Cal also likes to tell us how rich he is so this kind of rubbed me the wrong way, that he makes millions a year while paying employees a poverty level wage. I dont know much about business but I'm guessing probably all big retail companies do the same thing. So, all in all, this was an interesting story. It did get a little bogged down in the middle when he gets more into business language that I didn't really understand but I was glad to know the origins of the only store we have in our town where we can get almost anything we need.
September 25, 2019
I couldn't get very far into this book - too preachy. But that's just me. A book I might not like, someone else would find inspirational. I knew a grocery store owner in Virginia who grew up in Central America, and was inspired by one of Robert Schuller's books. I bought this book in a Walmart Express store that failed and was taken over by Dollar General. I will pass it on to others to read. Much more interesting is to look up and read articles within the past four years about the adverse effect these discount stores have in small communities. Better to shop at a locally-owned grocery store, and within the store, support buying nutritious foods produced locally, if possible. You can eat beans, rice and local greens for less than $2 per day, plus a vitamin, and be healthy.
May 28, 2018
I got this book as a review copy from the publisher, in exchange for a review on my blog, AMOKArts.com. They are now requiring that I add the hashtag #ad to my reviews, and while I fundamentally disagree with this policy, because I don’t review these books to advertise them, I look for books that might be useful to my audience and share them as potential resources. That being said I will honor their policy.
I spent most of this book wondering how I would review it, because at times I really didn’t like what was said very much. That being said, there were many times when I had to stop and realize I was being judgmental and not putting myself in the author’s shoes. I chose to review this book because it dealt with business and this is an area my audience needs to at least consider, i.e. ministry in the marketplace. It’s the story of Dollar General Stores and the men who founded them. It’s the story of a company that goes from a small town family store to become a billion dollar company and it is downright fascinating most of the time. Interestingly as the company grows and changes from family company to publicly traded business is where it lost most of it’s luster for me. I think the reason for this is simple, all of the sudden the author has to do things like fire family members, etc. There was part of me that understood the responsibility to stockholders that required theses kinds of things to happen, and part of me that felt it was cold and heartless. At first I really wanted to lash out at the author, but then I realized the problem may have been with me, judging someone whose shoes I have never had to walk in.
Over all this is an interesting book. I am glad I read it as much for learning things I do not want to do as things I do. Turner challenged me at times and at times even made me angry. Like the time where he got grief for opening his stores on Sunday from a pastor, and turned it around on the pastor that clearly he wasn’t teaching his people well enough to get them to stop shopping on Sunday. I am a pastor, and while I can’t condemn someone for shopping on Sunday, I thought it was an extremely short sighted statement from someone who at one point felt the call to ministry. Of course about the time I was starting to get really incensed, Turner talks about how bad he felt about making such a statement. Ultimately, I think this book was a little too far removed from my life experience for me to relate to, and yet it exposed me to a different world and for that I am grateful. There’s a certain fascinating irony to the fact that people can become very wealthy, by deliberately creating stores designed to serve the less fortunate to bringing them necessities at low prices.
In the final chapter, Turner tells us his hope for the book and it was here that he really helped me to solidify this review. He writes, “My motive in this book has been to examine my father’s business and make sense of it in a way that might invite you to do the same—so that you make help others do the same in turn. It’s part of loving others as ourselves.” If that was his goal, I believe Cal Turner Jr. achieved his goal.
I spent most of this book wondering how I would review it, because at times I really didn’t like what was said very much. That being said, there were many times when I had to stop and realize I was being judgmental and not putting myself in the author’s shoes. I chose to review this book because it dealt with business and this is an area my audience needs to at least consider, i.e. ministry in the marketplace. It’s the story of Dollar General Stores and the men who founded them. It’s the story of a company that goes from a small town family store to become a billion dollar company and it is downright fascinating most of the time. Interestingly as the company grows and changes from family company to publicly traded business is where it lost most of it’s luster for me. I think the reason for this is simple, all of the sudden the author has to do things like fire family members, etc. There was part of me that understood the responsibility to stockholders that required theses kinds of things to happen, and part of me that felt it was cold and heartless. At first I really wanted to lash out at the author, but then I realized the problem may have been with me, judging someone whose shoes I have never had to walk in.
Over all this is an interesting book. I am glad I read it as much for learning things I do not want to do as things I do. Turner challenged me at times and at times even made me angry. Like the time where he got grief for opening his stores on Sunday from a pastor, and turned it around on the pastor that clearly he wasn’t teaching his people well enough to get them to stop shopping on Sunday. I am a pastor, and while I can’t condemn someone for shopping on Sunday, I thought it was an extremely short sighted statement from someone who at one point felt the call to ministry. Of course about the time I was starting to get really incensed, Turner talks about how bad he felt about making such a statement. Ultimately, I think this book was a little too far removed from my life experience for me to relate to, and yet it exposed me to a different world and for that I am grateful. There’s a certain fascinating irony to the fact that people can become very wealthy, by deliberately creating stores designed to serve the less fortunate to bringing them necessities at low prices.
In the final chapter, Turner tells us his hope for the book and it was here that he really helped me to solidify this review. He writes, “My motive in this book has been to examine my father’s business and make sense of it in a way that might invite you to do the same—so that you make help others do the same in turn. It’s part of loving others as ourselves.” If that was his goal, I believe Cal Turner Jr. achieved his goal.
April 13, 2020
Great book. Not for every reader, it's a bit repetitive but if you can identify yourself (as I did) having a similar story, working on your fathers business is a great book which calms you down your big concerns and gives you some tips to handle them!
June 24, 2024
Started to grow on me more at the end but the beginning was pretty slow. I wish he would’ve gone more in depth into certain stories rather than just summarize everything. Maybe I was just used to Phil Knights storytelling about Nike so that’s what I was expecting here.
June 8, 2018
The story of Dollar General with a Christian point of view of the Cal Turner, Jr.
May 2, 2021
A great Christ centered tale of rising up and creating success in business
July 18, 2020
A feel good story of a small town business. Describes the challenges/opportunities of running a family business in a gripping manner. Finally, this page "Turner" is a good read for anybody who wants to understand retailing.
May 20, 2018
Cal Turner, Jr. grew up in a retail family. His dad bought and resold close outs, remainders, and irregulars. His dad made the leap to the marketing idea in 1955 of selling everything for a dollar.
Cal, Jr. went to college, did a tour in the navy and then joined his dad's business. His first job was opening stores, then negotiating leases. The decision was made to take the company public. Dollar General expanded and over time became a Fortune 500 company.
When Cal, Sr. ran the business, it was at a time when a seat-of-the-pants growth worked. (102) As the company grew, Cal, Jr. brought in computers, inventory control, and strategic planning. The father and son were two strong personalities under one business roof and all did not always go well. Business decisions often severely strained family relationships.
I liked some of the retail philosophy of the Turners. They felt they were helping those with little money. I did not like the struggle they had with the unions. The kind of business they were in, however, meant that the profit margin was small and paying union wages was not possible, they felt. I was also bothered that Cal, Jr. moved the business headquarters in violation of the bylaws because he knew no one paid attention to them. (166)
Cal, Jr. shares the leadership lessons he has learned over his lifetime. He hopes that reading this book will inspire people to pursue their passion and serve others. I recommend this book to readers who are interested in the personal aspect of how a small town retail business expanded and grew into a billion dollar company with over 14,000 stores in 44 states.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
Cal, Jr. went to college, did a tour in the navy and then joined his dad's business. His first job was opening stores, then negotiating leases. The decision was made to take the company public. Dollar General expanded and over time became a Fortune 500 company.
When Cal, Sr. ran the business, it was at a time when a seat-of-the-pants growth worked. (102) As the company grew, Cal, Jr. brought in computers, inventory control, and strategic planning. The father and son were two strong personalities under one business roof and all did not always go well. Business decisions often severely strained family relationships.
I liked some of the retail philosophy of the Turners. They felt they were helping those with little money. I did not like the struggle they had with the unions. The kind of business they were in, however, meant that the profit margin was small and paying union wages was not possible, they felt. I was also bothered that Cal, Jr. moved the business headquarters in violation of the bylaws because he knew no one paid attention to them. (166)
Cal, Jr. shares the leadership lessons he has learned over his lifetime. He hopes that reading this book will inspire people to pursue their passion and serve others. I recommend this book to readers who are interested in the personal aspect of how a small town retail business expanded and grew into a billion dollar company with over 14,000 stores in 44 states.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
December 30, 2023
Listened becaused wanted to study Dollar General (company & stock). Typical business origin walkthrough but for unidentified reason didn’t get me excited at any point. Muddled through.
October 27, 2020
- Economic down term doesn't mean all is bad: the first store they opened failed during the (now forgotten) depression of 1920s. When they opened their second store during the great depression of 1929s, they aligned themselves perfectly to ride the wave - "where there's a failure, there's opportunity"
- Great Depression turned out to be more than good for Luther as he was able to use cash he saved and purchase sheriff sale inventories: always have cash, always avoid all forms of debt, especially mortgages
- Partnership requires trust on both end, but more importantly, needs exit strategy since the beginning
- It's important to give a little child heavy responsibility early on
- "Retail is about loosing money for 11 months and make it all back in December"
- Children learn from their parents through their parents' action, not words
- Children seek approval from their parents - people want rewards not punishment
- Due to pricing everything for $1, initially they priced a single shoe for $1 resulting many mismatched shoe
- Dollar store makes profit by pricing higher cost item (loss leader) and lower cost item (profit center) evenly
- It's very important to think of scaling early on. The early success of dollar general never prepared for scaling of the business, resulting a rather madness later on that had to be cleared up
- Always need to find ways to improve - similar to Sam Walton's movement towards computers, Dollar General while somewhat hesitant at first, did move to digitization which served it well. Technology will always change, and it's very important to keep seeing "the next big thing" to improve efficiency
- Entrepreneurs do not make good operators. Hence, it's important for such entrepreneur to step aside when scaling becomes much needed
- Manufacturing moving South was evident as early as 80s
- Knowing one's ignorance is very important: one of the biggest Cal Turner Jr's attribute is his humbleness and eagerness to learn what he doesn't know - rather than assuming he knows everything
- It's a cautionary tale that quick expansion is often not a good idea: we all have a bandwidth limit, and it's vital to stay far below that bandwidth so if things arise it can be taken care of nicely: quality, not quantity
- It's important for the founder to let go of his company when it has outgrown him - again, entrepreneurs wouldn't understand how operators think
- Family business and friendship business is always a bad idea: business decisions has to be made without emotions since they're calculated decisions. Family interferences would easily mean the decision won't be made on a decisive or strategic fashion
- Relocation is often a good way to get rid of old guards
- During each time of a company's growth, dramatic change must be implemented in order to keep up with the growth - almost like reinventing a new company. And old guard needs to go during each change
- Company needs to have one single vision and one single implementation. Lack of it would result in much lost in directions
- Great Depression turned out to be more than good for Luther as he was able to use cash he saved and purchase sheriff sale inventories: always have cash, always avoid all forms of debt, especially mortgages
- Partnership requires trust on both end, but more importantly, needs exit strategy since the beginning
- It's important to give a little child heavy responsibility early on
- "Retail is about loosing money for 11 months and make it all back in December"
- Children learn from their parents through their parents' action, not words
- Children seek approval from their parents - people want rewards not punishment
- Due to pricing everything for $1, initially they priced a single shoe for $1 resulting many mismatched shoe
- Dollar store makes profit by pricing higher cost item (loss leader) and lower cost item (profit center) evenly
- It's very important to think of scaling early on. The early success of dollar general never prepared for scaling of the business, resulting a rather madness later on that had to be cleared up
- Always need to find ways to improve - similar to Sam Walton's movement towards computers, Dollar General while somewhat hesitant at first, did move to digitization which served it well. Technology will always change, and it's very important to keep seeing "the next big thing" to improve efficiency
- Entrepreneurs do not make good operators. Hence, it's important for such entrepreneur to step aside when scaling becomes much needed
- Manufacturing moving South was evident as early as 80s
- Knowing one's ignorance is very important: one of the biggest Cal Turner Jr's attribute is his humbleness and eagerness to learn what he doesn't know - rather than assuming he knows everything
- It's a cautionary tale that quick expansion is often not a good idea: we all have a bandwidth limit, and it's vital to stay far below that bandwidth so if things arise it can be taken care of nicely: quality, not quantity
- It's important for the founder to let go of his company when it has outgrown him - again, entrepreneurs wouldn't understand how operators think
- Family business and friendship business is always a bad idea: business decisions has to be made without emotions since they're calculated decisions. Family interferences would easily mean the decision won't be made on a decisive or strategic fashion
- Relocation is often a good way to get rid of old guards
- During each time of a company's growth, dramatic change must be implemented in order to keep up with the growth - almost like reinventing a new company. And old guard needs to go during each change
- Company needs to have one single vision and one single implementation. Lack of it would result in much lost in directions
Read
March 26, 2022his lack of education showed every time he spoke. I can’t recall a grammatical error he didn’t make.
piano lessons, calling out the correct note when I played the wrong one. Then, she would walk across the room and hover over me. Anytime I hit a wrong note, she would hit my finger with a pencil. The fear was selffulfilling. “That pencil’s going to come down any second,”
“Cal Jr.,” he said, “is not going to be doing any more women’s work.” In that instant, I was absolved of my domestic chores.
Mama was good at keeping us in line because when she said something, she meant it.
I couldn’t understand why she was so nervous and tentative, but as we walked along the beach, she began talking about Laura Jo, explaining to me that she was having her first menstrual cycle. She stumbled through a talk about how this happens when a girl becomes a woman and how it’s a thirty-day cycle related to how women have babies.
“In retailing,” my grandfather used to say, “you lose money for eleven months, just hoping to make it all back in December. Then in January, you begin the struggle all over again!”
My dad made a point of coming into an aisle I’d just swept. He’d bring associates and say, “Look at this! Have you ever seen a floor that was swept as well as this?” He’d speak as if he didn’t know I was within earshot as I swept the next aisle. And it worked. The more he bragged, the harder I swept. That kind of approval is so important, since a parent’s support can make all the difference in the world.
He didn’t normally believe in buying high-style clothing that was subject to volatile trends and might have to be closed out at the end of the season. He would rather buy items he could pack away and bring out the next season.
It was fun for him to negotiate in his “You name the quantity, I’ll name the price” style. He’d say, “I’ll take all you’ve got. This is what I’m willing to pay.”
“I wanted the colors to leap right off the store signs,” he said.
Sometimes, he knew, he’d have to go to the vendor and say, “I can’t pay you that much. I’ve got to sell this at a dollar. Can you work with me?”
piano lessons, calling out the correct note when I played the wrong one. Then, she would walk across the room and hover over me. Anytime I hit a wrong note, she would hit my finger with a pencil. The fear was selffulfilling. “That pencil’s going to come down any second,”
“Cal Jr.,” he said, “is not going to be doing any more women’s work.” In that instant, I was absolved of my domestic chores.
Mama was good at keeping us in line because when she said something, she meant it.
I couldn’t understand why she was so nervous and tentative, but as we walked along the beach, she began talking about Laura Jo, explaining to me that she was having her first menstrual cycle. She stumbled through a talk about how this happens when a girl becomes a woman and how it’s a thirty-day cycle related to how women have babies.
“In retailing,” my grandfather used to say, “you lose money for eleven months, just hoping to make it all back in December. Then in January, you begin the struggle all over again!”
My dad made a point of coming into an aisle I’d just swept. He’d bring associates and say, “Look at this! Have you ever seen a floor that was swept as well as this?” He’d speak as if he didn’t know I was within earshot as I swept the next aisle. And it worked. The more he bragged, the harder I swept. That kind of approval is so important, since a parent’s support can make all the difference in the world.
He didn’t normally believe in buying high-style clothing that was subject to volatile trends and might have to be closed out at the end of the season. He would rather buy items he could pack away and bring out the next season.
It was fun for him to negotiate in his “You name the quantity, I’ll name the price” style. He’d say, “I’ll take all you’ve got. This is what I’m willing to pay.”
“I wanted the colors to leap right off the store signs,” he said.
Sometimes, he knew, he’d have to go to the vendor and say, “I can’t pay you that much. I’ve got to sell this at a dollar. Can you work with me?”
March 22, 2021
A gift from my older son, and one with many interesting family and business aspects. As one who worked hard, albeit for "the man" at a large American firm for his career, and who made sacrifices for the career, I could follow the thread of this interesting story about the founding of what turned out to be Dollar General, and the transision from a totally intuitive way of doing business, wildly successful, into a professionally led huge American retailer.
Some of the facts in the book are jaw dropping, with a new store being stocked in four days (Mon-Thurs) from scratch and opened the following Monday ready for the always packed and eager crowd waiting for the rock bottom prices. The business model was very interesting: a bit over 16% total gross margin on sales along with low costs: wages, lease, utilities, etc. provided around 5% pre-tax earnings. The strategy was "good enough" for basic goods, with extra merchandise offerred if the Turner family got it on a deal. They specialized in "real deals" buying out vendors and other stores of slow moving or other excess stock.
As the firm grew, the author, the older son, realized more "professional" business controls and systems were needed and he was able to take control over his hands-on entrapreneural dad and younger brother, who were more reluctant to make those changes. The family stress was present, and in some sort, the winner wrote the story. Yet as the company seemingly became a super success, a financial scandle, described as an "irregularity" was discovered. The financial reports were restated and earnings of $206 million were restated as nearly $71 million. The missing earlings apparently were "lifted" at numerous stores by local management and were not detected by the informal financial systems still in use. Eventually the pressures of the financial and regulatory requirements of the stock markets forced the resignation as CEO of the author, who was not implicated in any illegal activities.
Cal Turner Jrs' deep faith-based beliefs and values of the small town culture in which he grew up shine loud and clear throughout the story. The basic two beliefs of the company: everyday items at the very lowest prices, and remembering and respecting the core customers are emphasized througout the book.
Some of the facts in the book are jaw dropping, with a new store being stocked in four days (Mon-Thurs) from scratch and opened the following Monday ready for the always packed and eager crowd waiting for the rock bottom prices. The business model was very interesting: a bit over 16% total gross margin on sales along with low costs: wages, lease, utilities, etc. provided around 5% pre-tax earnings. The strategy was "good enough" for basic goods, with extra merchandise offerred if the Turner family got it on a deal. They specialized in "real deals" buying out vendors and other stores of slow moving or other excess stock.
As the firm grew, the author, the older son, realized more "professional" business controls and systems were needed and he was able to take control over his hands-on entrapreneural dad and younger brother, who were more reluctant to make those changes. The family stress was present, and in some sort, the winner wrote the story. Yet as the company seemingly became a super success, a financial scandle, described as an "irregularity" was discovered. The financial reports were restated and earnings of $206 million were restated as nearly $71 million. The missing earlings apparently were "lifted" at numerous stores by local management and were not detected by the informal financial systems still in use. Eventually the pressures of the financial and regulatory requirements of the stock markets forced the resignation as CEO of the author, who was not implicated in any illegal activities.
Cal Turner Jrs' deep faith-based beliefs and values of the small town culture in which he grew up shine loud and clear throughout the story. The basic two beliefs of the company: everyday items at the very lowest prices, and remembering and respecting the core customers are emphasized througout the book.
May 22, 2018
It is wonderful learning the story behind many of the businesses we now frequent and feel that somehow their success was a given. Yet, after reading My Father’s Business by Cal Turner, Jr., the son of one of the most well-known and national retail chains, Dollar General, it is encouraging to not just know, but understand how purpose, passion ,faith, hope, determination and a willingness to learn all aspects of business without shying away from hard work can create a legacy.
The author loving shares how he wanted to take another path in life, but eventually willing accepted that his purpose was to use the opportunities and education his father’s sacrifices provided to continue strengthening and building the business empire his father had labored and loved. Cal Turner, Jr. was very honest about the challenges he and his father faced personally and professionally in the transfer of power, but he managed to retell some very intimate details without dishonoring his father’s ways and judgments in any way.
I enjoyed reading this book and now every time I see that yellow and black store banner for Dollar General I smile with a sense of admiration. There are so many retail chains that have copied the model of Mr. Turner’s business which affirms the continued success of the family business under his management.
I would recommend My Father’s Business to anyone that wants to learn business methods from a different approach, as well as anyone looking for a worthwhile story about how to manage family, business and faith.
I received this book free from the publisher through their book review bloggers program and I was not required to write a positive review.
The author loving shares how he wanted to take another path in life, but eventually willing accepted that his purpose was to use the opportunities and education his father’s sacrifices provided to continue strengthening and building the business empire his father had labored and loved. Cal Turner, Jr. was very honest about the challenges he and his father faced personally and professionally in the transfer of power, but he managed to retell some very intimate details without dishonoring his father’s ways and judgments in any way.
I enjoyed reading this book and now every time I see that yellow and black store banner for Dollar General I smile with a sense of admiration. There are so many retail chains that have copied the model of Mr. Turner’s business which affirms the continued success of the family business under his management.
I would recommend My Father’s Business to anyone that wants to learn business methods from a different approach, as well as anyone looking for a worthwhile story about how to manage family, business and faith.
I received this book free from the publisher through their book review bloggers program and I was not required to write a positive review.
June 2, 2018
I gave it five stars not because it captured my interest all the time. But this relatively honest portrayal of a family from humble beginnings capture some of the warts and trials of running a small town company that grows to become a nationally known brand. Mr. Turner Jr. could have hidden the warts and the story would not have been quite so interesting or realistic. I grew up in small towns in Tennessee and Alabama during the time Mr. Turner Jr. began running the business. He captured a good part of the tenor of small town life and why Dollar General knew its customers well.
I loved the fact that he is honestly, openly a sinner and a Christian. Working in this culture can be hard and more difficult is trying to reflect Christ while building a business. His life mission statement of "God honoring change" is as good as they get. It works as a kid or an elderly man.
The family aspect alone is worth the read. Navigating family is hard and especially a family running a family business. Family members disagree and sometimes lock horns in ways that can be forever damage relationships within a family. From the reading it seems that they locked horns and somehow still see each other and maybe love each other. As I read the book I thought of the honest efforts by family members to speak their mind more often that in most families. Maybe the business forced the more open communications.
I loved the fact that he is honestly, openly a sinner and a Christian. Working in this culture can be hard and more difficult is trying to reflect Christ while building a business. His life mission statement of "God honoring change" is as good as they get. It works as a kid or an elderly man.
The family aspect alone is worth the read. Navigating family is hard and especially a family running a family business. Family members disagree and sometimes lock horns in ways that can be forever damage relationships within a family. From the reading it seems that they locked horns and somehow still see each other and maybe love each other. As I read the book I thought of the honest efforts by family members to speak their mind more often that in most families. Maybe the business forced the more open communications.
June 7, 2018
The book’s description and glowing reviews from non-verified purchases vs. what I read were two different things. Rather than really imparting life lessons or explaining his management style, this is more of an autobiography of his childhood followed by what appears to be his own penance / apology tour for creating a huge rift with his family after he (a) fired his brother, and (b) had the board maneuver to fire his father in the same year his mother died. Clearly something that was hard to do with what was described, but difficult to convey in the book, as a close-knit family he obviously had a lot of regrets doing that – and is still stung by not being invited to Christmas that year with the rest of the family as he describes in the book.
Those two events with the continued guilt resonated throughout this book and this was a difficult read; it was a real challenge to finish this one, and I kept hoping it would get better with each Kindle page turn. Unless you are very infatuated with Dollar General or the Turner family, at a price point of $13.99 for the Kindle version I would give this one a pass.
Those two events with the continued guilt resonated throughout this book and this was a difficult read; it was a real challenge to finish this one, and I kept hoping it would get better with each Kindle page turn. Unless you are very infatuated with Dollar General or the Turner family, at a price point of $13.99 for the Kindle version I would give this one a pass.
April 28, 2018
A Fascinating Look Inside the Creation of Dollar General
I enjoyed reading MY FATHER’S BUSINESS cover to cover. Cal Turner learned the dollar store business from his father. His father was a natural entrepreneur and I found many of the details of this book insightful. For example, the stores were slow to move to computers and centralized information but when they finally took the plunge the data and information was very helpful so they could even grow the business to a higher level. Sometimes we resist such changes in business but Cal Turner shows the struggles and successes in this book. The decisions were not always easy—such as firing his father but he didn’t shield or hide it from the reader.
As Turner writes toward the end, “This book has looked through my eyes at events that entwined my life with the story of Dollar General. It is my story, my truth, written from the position of retirement, a time in life I’ve given great consideration.” (Page 237-238)
I enjoyed reading MY FATHER’S BUSINESS and highly recommend this book.
I enjoyed reading MY FATHER’S BUSINESS cover to cover. Cal Turner learned the dollar store business from his father. His father was a natural entrepreneur and I found many of the details of this book insightful. For example, the stores were slow to move to computers and centralized information but when they finally took the plunge the data and information was very helpful so they could even grow the business to a higher level. Sometimes we resist such changes in business but Cal Turner shows the struggles and successes in this book. The decisions were not always easy—such as firing his father but he didn’t shield or hide it from the reader.
As Turner writes toward the end, “This book has looked through my eyes at events that entwined my life with the story of Dollar General. It is my story, my truth, written from the position of retirement, a time in life I’ve given great consideration.” (Page 237-238)
I enjoyed reading MY FATHER’S BUSINESS and highly recommend this book.
May 22, 2018
How many times have we walked into a Dollar General for one or two things and come out with three bags and a jug of laundry soap in our hands! I have often said to my husband, "We should own stock in DG!" It is now a store one sees in all the obscure, rural, out of the fray places! Just the other weekend, in search of an item I needed for an organizing project, we stopped at four different locations on our 90 minute drive to our daughter's!
So, how did this giant, billion dollar company, rural retailer get its start? It all began in Scottsville, KY and it's gone all the way to Wall Street! And, so many in-between's. A father and his son, Cal Turner and his dad! The story is woven with romance, family squabbles, cars, helicopters, board meetings, sorrow, and rejoicing.
This book is required reading for those who have a dream of building a business, and any and all aspiring young entrepreneurs. Not only will you learn and grow, you will be at the center of a wonderful family story.
Highly recommended.
So, how did this giant, billion dollar company, rural retailer get its start? It all began in Scottsville, KY and it's gone all the way to Wall Street! And, so many in-between's. A father and his son, Cal Turner and his dad! The story is woven with romance, family squabbles, cars, helicopters, board meetings, sorrow, and rejoicing.
This book is required reading for those who have a dream of building a business, and any and all aspiring young entrepreneurs. Not only will you learn and grow, you will be at the center of a wonderful family story.
Highly recommended.
May 25, 2018
My Father’s Business is a first-person account by Cal Turner, Jr., in which he shares the life story of his father, the founder of Dollar General. I loved reading this heartfelt memoir and learning more about the Turner family, who displayed strong values and a strong work ethic. The book will be fascinating to entrepreneurs – since the story shows the rise of a company – but the book is also a great example of a Christian putting his values into his business. It is so much more than the story of a company; it is the story of a man and his family. My Father’s Business is very inspirational, because we witness perseverance and the rising above circumstances. The book is a testament of what can be done when you serve God and serve others.
I received this book for review.
I received this book for review.
May 20, 2018
This business/leadership book is more geared for business readers. I wanted to read the book to see how the Turner family created the Dollar general brand from small town stores. It was an interesting read, but parts became a struggle when Turner discusses some of the retail terms and business bottom lines (I have worked in retail for many years, and I was confused on some of the words). Nonetheless the book is interesting to read, but if you are reading it as just a biography, there may be some parts that may be tough to get through.
An in depth review can be read at : https://lancewrites.wordpress.com/201...
An in depth review can be read at : https://lancewrites.wordpress.com/201...
September 23, 2018
My Father’s Business: The Small-Town Values That Built Dollar General into A Billion-Dollar Company is the story of a company founded in small-town Kentucky in 1939, the family that founded it, and the growth and development of the man who ran it for almost 40 years. It’s an honest book and a personal one. If you like honest, first-person accounts of what it’s like to be in business, this is a great book. If overt expressions of Christian faith or rustic language bother you, give this book a pass. If you’re looking for distilled wisdom, this isn’t the book for you. But if you like real stories about real people in business, told in straightforward way, this is a great book.
February 27, 2022
3.5-4 stars. Very long and detailed. I wasn’t expecting a play-by-play for every year since the beginning 🕗🕜
What did impress me was their families little education, rapid growth, and commitment to improving low income communities through employment, education and charity.
He glazed over the start of his family and somehow had a wife and son.
I didn’t understand the specific issues between he and his brother at work, only that they didn’t agree and therefore had to get rid of him
What did impress me was their families little education, rapid growth, and commitment to improving low income communities through employment, education and charity.
He glazed over the start of his family and somehow had a wife and son.
I didn’t understand the specific issues between he and his brother at work, only that they didn’t agree and therefore had to get rid of him
July 22, 2022
Cal really talks about his childhood and life and it is so interesting. I wish he talked more about his literacy work. I really enjoyed this but it was sort of strange how their economics work, but they truly realize the poverty and supply a need. I do agree that nowadays they need to be around for the paycheck to paycheck people but they also need to offer more perishable food options as they overtake small towns across the nation and put local grocers out of business.
May 19, 2018
I read many business books to prep for our podcast program, this one stands out as a rich, revealing, stirring document of the founding, early years, and phenomenal growth of the Dollar General corporation. Very personal and powerful observations from Mr. Cal. Looking so forward to this conversation!
August 8, 2018
One of the best books I have read this year. I believe that Cal Turner told a great story of his family and career. He did not cover up and told everything from his personal presentations. The story is exciting as business can be. I did not know the story of Dollar General and was surprised at the end. Good story telling all around.
September 17, 2018
When I first chose the book, I thought that it would be an in depth analysis of Dollar General. However, the book is more focused on the interpersonal relationships (especially the family aspect) of Dollar General and Cal Turner's life. Nonetheless, the book is an enjoyable read, just maybe not an insightful one.
July 4, 2019
Great book, very well written interesting peak into a family and family business that became a huge cooperation. Love the time line layout as you travel through the lives of the Turner family. Kind of reminds me of a smaller version of Downton Abbey with all the historic nuances and individual stories.
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