i think it's less about what jeff owen did wrong than about what todd vassos did right he joined the008 before becoming c.o.o. in 2013, ceo in 2015 during his tenure as ceo dollar general was an incredibly successful company he grew the store count from 10,500 locations, not shabby, to 17,500 locations annual sales increased by more than 80% most important under his leadership dollar general's market capitalization more than doubled, growing to $58 billion. nice numbers a the lo of that's because vassos had big plans for the chase and was able to execute them flawlessly. frozen and refrigerator business, that's been a real profit center. he expanded the availability of fresh produce, new for dollar general, and created the store within a store concept where they sell seasonal products and home decor most important it was the driving force behind dlash general's expansion into mexico. during his later years the company was winning awards left and right. in 2020 dollar general joined the fortune world's most admired companies list they got recognized by "forbes" for a great response to

over the past couple years some of which were under todd's watch and over the past 12 months with jeff owenade. and in our upgrade notes we outline a number of initiatives which we think they should undertake. we think they need to more invest in price and labor to get back to what dg was the past decade. and todd has been there since 2008. knows the business probably better than anybody. so we like the move here by the board. >> how do you best explain the performance of the dollar names in an environment where the thinking is that there is degradation in the consumer especially at the low end? >> yeah, a really great question. if you were to say two years ago which subgroup would do the best in this environment, you'd think it would be the dollar stores. and i think the real big change is what we've seen from others like walmart, so much better than they were five to ten years ago. they are focused on the low end customer. so that is the big difference. second is that we're not seeing a lot of trade down like we did in 2008. 2008 there was a culture shock to the system. and it is very dif