The Case for In-Store Media — And Why Dollar General Is Built for It

The news is out. DG Media Network is expanding the DG In-Store Radio Network to 12,000 stores across 48 states by Q2 2026. Adweek and Progressive Grocer covered it. The response has been great.

Here’s what the headlines didn’t get into.

Scaling an in-store radio network to 12,000 stores is not easy. Most retailers would spend years planning something like this. We’re doing it in a matter of months. And what the industry is calling our “expansion” is actually just the beginning. 6,000 stores. For context, that’s a pilot compared to what other large retailers treat as a full rollout. We moved fast, but we didn’t move carelessly. Every decision about how to build this, how to measure it, and how to make it useful for brands has been deliberate.

That’s what we want to talk about here.

The Moment That’s Been Hardest to Reach
Retail media has gotten really good at reaching shoppers online. Sponsored search, offsite programmatic, onsite display — the tools are sophisticated and brands know how to use them. But there has always been a gap between reaching someone on their phone and reaching them when they’re standing in the aisle deciding what to actually buy.

That moment is where 82% of purchase decisions get made. 16% of unplanned purchases are driven by in-store promotions (MarketingDive). It’s the most valuable moment in the path to purchase and for most of retail media’s history, it’s been the hardest one to activate with any real accountability.

That’s what we’re trying to fix.

Why Dollar General, Specifically
There are a lot of retailers experimenting with in-store media right now. What makes Dollar General’s position different isn’t just scale, it’s who we reach.

We have more than 21,000 stores. About 75% of the U.S. population lives within five miles of one. But the number that actually matters is this: roughly 80% of our stores are in markets of 20,000 people or fewer. These are communities that third-party audiences miss, that traditional media skips over, and that most retail media networks don’t even think about.

For brands trying to reach shoppers in rural and underserved markets, there isn’t really another option. And because our stores average about 7,400 sq. ft., the distance between a shopper hearing something and acting on it is sometimes just a few steps.

Built to Be Accountable
In-store media has a trust problem. Brands have been sold “presence” in stores for years without any real way to verify what actually ran or whether it worked. We knew going in that if we were going to ask brands to invest in this seriously, we had to solve that.

The DG In-Store Radio Network manages playback remotely across every store in the network. Volume, content, and scheduling are controlled centrally. When an ad is scheduled to run, it runs. The network logs exactly what played, in which store, and when. That’s not a small thing. It’s the foundation that makes everything else possible.

That play log data connects back to Dollar General’s point-of-sale data. Over time, that connection is what lets us link a heard message to an actual purchase, and what lets AI-powered targeting get smarter about what’s relevant to shoppers in a given moment rather than just cycling through a rotation.

Measurement That Actually Holds Up
We measure every in-store tactic the same way. Audio, signage, shelf-level media — all of it follows IAB guidelines with a consistent holdout methodology. Stores that don’t receive a tactic serve as the control group, so we can see the actual incremental impact of each format on its own without the noise of everything else running at the same time.

When we report a lift number it means something. It’s not a blended figure, it’s not a modeled estimate. It’s a clean read on what the media actually drove.

We think that consistency is what eventually makes in-store a channel brands plan around rather than a line item they test once and forget.

“In-store is one of the biggest opportunities brands have to reach shoppers directly. And Dollar General proves it,” said Matt Elsley, Co-founder and CEO at QSIC. “With smarter targeting, verified delivery and measurement tied to point-of-sale and loyalty data, in-store media has never been more effective or accountable. Dollar General’s scale and reach into communities across the country make it an incredibly powerful place for brands to influence shoppers in the moments where decisions are being made.”

More Than Audio
Audio is where we are going, but the in-store environment at Dollar General is already more than a single format. In addition to QSIC for audio, we work with Neptune on digital coupons and in-store signage, and with Vestcom on shelf labels and physical-to-digital products right at the shelf.

The vision is simple even if the execution isn’t. A shopper hears something at the front of the store and sees something relevant by the time they reach the aisle. In a 7,400 sq. ft. store that’s not a complicated journey. The pieces just have to be connected well.

What This Actually Means
Twelve thousand stores by Q2. Built in months. With verified delivery, IAB-aligned measurement, and reach into communities most networks don’t touch.

We’re not done building. But we’ve been thoughtful about how we got here, and we’re confident in the foundation. There’s a lot more to come.