The dollar store phenomenon was really a function of China mass producing cheap goods, starting in the 90 s, way after Reagan. Cheap goods from China and ARM mortgages made millions of people feel economically strong for a few years, until the bubble burst in 2007-08. Subsequently, the cheap goods from China aren’t so cheap anymore, millions of people lost their homes to mortgage defaults, and wages stagnated. We’ll see what effect the increased bargaining power of unions has on overall wealth of regular working people. In the past, the unions overstretched and killed the goose that laid the golden egg. We’ll see if history repeats itself. Probably.