The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything

Chapter 4

“When Was the Last Time You Bought a Toilet Seat?”

Dollar General

Richard Dreiling stepped onto the balcony outside the bar of the Dream Hotel in New York on the evening of November 13, 2009, and took a deep breath. As a light rain began to fall, exhaustion overcame him. He went back inside with his wife Ellen, told his colleagues good night, and went back to his hotel to sleep.

It was the end of a long day. That morning Dreiling had stood on the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange and rung the opening bell in honor of Dollar General’s return to the Big Board via a public offering. It capped two weeks of pitching institutional investors on the story, repeating an hour-long presentation 9 or 10 times a day over breakfast, lunch, and ...