Dollar General reports Q2 2026 sales growth, raises outlook

Dollar Gen (NYSE: DG ) released second-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday.

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The full earnings call is available at Summary Dollar General Corp reported a 5.2% increase in net sales to $11.3 billion for Q2, with same-store sales up 3.5%, driven by a 2% increase in customer traffic and a 1.5% increase in average basket size.

The company experienced strong gross margin expansion, rising 127 basis points to 32.6%, benefiting from tariff refunds and supply chain efficiencies.

Dollar General plans to resume its share repurchase program in Q3, with up to $700 million in repurchases anticipated for the second half, reflecting strong cash flow and liquidity.

Strategically, the company is focused on enhancing customer experience through digital and in-store initiatives, expanding its $1 price point offerings, and leveraging its DG Media Network for growth.

Dollar General raised its full-year guidance, expecting net sales growth of 4% to 4.3% and EPS between $7.80 to $8.00, considering the benefits from tariff refunds.

Management highlighted the company's competitive pricing position and strategic promotional activities as key drivers for maintaining customer loyalty and traffic.

The company continues to expand its store footprint, opening 125 new stores in Q2, with plans for further growth in the U.S. and Mexico.

Dollar General is focusing on operational efficiencies, including inventory optimization and leveraging AI for productivity gains, to mitigate cost pressures such as high fuel prices.

Full Transcript Kevin, Investor Relations Good morning, everyone.

On the call with me today are Todd Bezos, our CEO, and Donnie Lau, our CFO.

After our prepared remarks, we'll open the call up for your questions, and Emily Taylor, our Chief Operating Officer, will join us for the Q&A session to allow us to address as many questions as possible in the queue.

Please limit yourself to one question.

Our earnings release issued today can be found on our website at investor.dollargeneral.com under News and Events.

Let me caution you that today's comments include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements about our financial guidance, long-term financial framework, strategy, initiative plans, goals, priorities, opportunities, expectations or beliefs about future matters, and other statements that are not limited to historical fact.

These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections.

These factors include, but are not limited to, those identified in our earnings release issued this morning, under Risk Factors in our 2025 Form 10-K filed on March 20, 2026 and any later filed periodic report, and in the comments that are made on this call.

You should not unduly rely on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today's date.

Dollar General Corp disclaims any obligation to update or revise any information discussed in this call unless required by law.

Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Todd.

Todd Bezos, CEO Thank you, Kevin, and welcome to everyone joining our call.

I want to begin by thanking our team for their continued dedication to fulfilling our mission of serving others every day in our stores, distribution centers, private fleet, and store support center.

We are pleased with our second quarter results, including balanced top-line growth, healthy operating margin expansion, and strong double-digit EPS growth, each of which exceeded our expectations even before considering any impact from tariff refunds.

For today's call, I'll start by recapping highlights from our second quarter performance.

Donnie will then walk through our financial results and outlook, and I'll close with an update on our strategic growth pillars.

Turning to our second quarter performance, net sales for the quarter increased 5.2% to $11.3 billion compared to net sales of $10.7 billion in last year's second quarter.

Once again, during the quarter we grew market share in both dollars and units in highly consumable product sales, while also growing market share in non-consumable product sales.

We were especially pleased to see our share gains accelerate in the quarter, which we believe demonstrate the strength and broad appeal of our unique combination of value and convenience, particularly in rural communities across America.

Same-store sales increased 3.5% during the quarter, driven by customer traffic growth of 2% and average basket growth of 1.5%.

Notably, this marks the fifth consecutive quarter of growth in customer traffic as we continue to build on the momentum in our business with both new and existing customers.

In addition, all four merchandising categories delivered positive comp sales for the sixth consecutive quarter, with the growth rate in non-consumables once again outpacing consumables.

This broad-based category growth is a testament to the relevance of our offering and our position as America's Neighborhood General Store.

From a monthly cadence perspective, all three periods of the quarter were strong, led by both June and July, and while still early, we're pleased with the strong sales performance to begin Q3 and confident in our plans to drive continued growth in sales, market share, and customer traffic.