Dollar General 2011 Annual Report Download - page 109

10-K
minimized labor by offering fewer price points and a reliance on simple merchandise presentation.
Purchasing large volumes of merchandise within our focused assortment in each merchandise category
allows us to keep our average costs low, contributing to our ability to offer competitive everyday low
prices to our customers. See ‘‘—Our Business Model’’ above for further discussion of our competitive
situation.
Our Employees
As of March 2, 2012, we employed approximately 90,000 full-time and part-time employees,
including divisional and regional managers, district managers, store managers, other store personnel
and distribution center and administrative personnel. We have increasingly focused on recruiting,
training, motivating and retaining employees, and we believe that the quality, performance and morale
of our employees have increased as a result. We currently are not a party to any collective bargaining
agreements.
Our Trademarks
We own marks that are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and are
protected under applicable intellectual property laws, including without limitation the trademarks
Dollar General↧, Dollar General Market↧, Clover Valley↧, DG↧, DG Guarantee↧, Smart & Simple↧,
trueliving↧, Sweet Smiles↧, Open Trails↧, and the Dollar General price point designs, along with
variations and formatives of these trademarks as well as certain other trademarks. Effective as of
February 1, 2012 we exercised an option to purchase the Bobbie Brooks↧ trademark. We expect to file
assignment documents in applicable trademark offices in the coming weeks. We attempt to obtain
registration of our trademarks whenever practicable and to pursue vigorously any infringement of those
marks. Our trademark registrations have various expiration dates; however, assuming that the
trademark registrations are properly renewed, they have a perpetual duration.
We also hold licenses to use various trademarks owned by third parties, including a license to the
Fisher Price brand for certain items of children’s clothing through December 31, 2013, and an exclusive
license to the Rexall brand through March 5, 2020.
Available Information
Our Web site address is www.dollargeneral.com. We file with or furnish to the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the ‘‘SEC’’) annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q,
current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports, proxy statements and annual reports to
shareholders, and, from time to time, registration statements and other documents. These documents
are available free of charge to investors on or through the Investor Information portion of our Web site
as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with or furnish them to the SEC. In
addition, the public may read and copy any of the materials we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public
Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington DC 20549. The public may obtain information on
the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC
maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other
information regarding issuers, such as Dollar General, that file electronically with the SEC. The address
of that Web site is http://www.sec.gov.
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