Posted on 04/10/2014 11:57:36 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
NEW YORK (AP) — Dollar stores are feeling the pinch from mounting financial pressures on low-income shoppers.
Family Dollar said Thursday that will cut jobs and close about 370 underperforming stores as it tries to reverse sagging sales and earnings. The discount store operator will also permanently lower prices on about 1,000 basic items.
Family Dollar Inc., which operates 8,100 stores, did not provide details on how many jobs it would cut.
~SNIP~
Dollar General, the nation's largest dollar-store chain with 11,100 locations, offered a weak profit outlook last month after reporting weak fourth-quarter sales. And Dollar Tree, which operates about 5,000 locations, missed profit expectations for the holiday quarter in February.
Family Dollar has stumbled even more than its rivals because it has made mistakes in pricing, merchandising and the locations of its stores, analysts say. Still, the industry's problems are a big departure from a few years ago, when Family Dollar and other chains packed in customers and expanded rapidly by catering to cash-strapped people during the Great Recession.
(Excerpt) Read more at tbo.com ...
I wish there were more Dollar Trees where I live. Those places are awesome! Clean, nice staff, and stuff is actually a dollar!
“Occasionally, a shopper would wheel up a full cart - and you got the impression “we” were paying for it...”
Oh, bet the farm, cows and chickens on it.
I went there once with an uncle of mine (Korean War vet who lived in the real USA) and he said to me as we pulled up: “What the f*** are we going to this welfare dump for?”
You know recovery is near when store chains close a significant number of their stores.
/s
FWIW....I live on a tight budget made doable by cutting corners with careful non-wasteful shopping. Family Dollar and most of the others are nowhere near as good for quality + price on basic items as is Dollar General. It would be nice to know how many of these closing Family Dollar stores compete with a nearby Dollar General.
That’s funny; in the store near me most shoppers seem normal (again, most are just picking up a couple of things).
Most shoppers at Doller stores don’t have cars so they have to be within walking or bus range.
The dollar stores are close enough in price that most of the time, we don’t drive the extra 12 miles to the nearest Walmart.
OBUMMER DOES NOT CAR ABOUT RURAL AREAS....
I think you'll find that Dollar Tree is on par with Dollar General. Family Dollar is the pits. The dollar stores have replaced the five and dimes that used to be everywhere. I think they fill a huge niche that was left vacant when Woolworth's shut down its entire chain of money-losing five and dimes and renamed itself Foot Locker.
That’s funny - closing 370 stores - they just opened one here about a month ago.
Brother can you spare a dollar!
The one that I went to is very...(find a semi-PC term)...seedy.
The shoppers were...(find another semi-PC term)...not normal. Think PJ wearing types.
12 miles to the nearest Walmart? Man you must live in the boonies!
Within a 12 mile radius of my house there are 7 Walmarts
Both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar are good. It depends what you’re purchasing. The others are the pits, I agree.
I get the picture; I see them here in bodegas at lunchtime (when they’ve just rolled out of bed). You know, the bodegas that advertise in Spanish that they accept EBT...
Around here Family Dollar seems to have most of their stores located deep in “the ‘hood”. Probably makes sense to close them.
DG for me is where I go for party stuff like paper plates, balloons, etc....
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