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Here's a look at what's gone wrong at both chains.. These are tough times for two big US dollar store chains. In the past month, Family Dollar said it will close nearly 1,000 stores and 99 Cents Only said it will go out of business. Both companies said inflation and shoplifting have contributed to their troubles. While inflation has pressured the companies' low-income customer base and shoplifting has squeezed their profits, those factors alone can't explain their difficulties. Years of strategic mistakes and underinvestment have plagued Family Dollar and 99 Cents Only, retail analysts say. Both brands were acquired by...

Dollar stores across the United States and Canada are selling products that contain a large number of toxic chemicals, including children’s toys, according to a new study published on April 12. The study was conducted by the consumer advocacy group, Campaign for Healthier Solutions, and focused on all of the leading dollar store retailers in the United States and Canada: Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, Five Below, and 99 Cents Only Stores. It found that more than half of the items purchased by researchers at the stores contained one or more chemicals of concern. At the start of 2021,...

Kyle Dishman can't afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General, where he can make $40 stretch into a week's worth of groceries and the occasional can of motor oil for his Chrysler 300. He sticks with pasta, frozen pizza and canned vegetables, fully aware that "any food you can buy for only $1 is not the greatest for you." But Dishman says prices have gone up so much that he's started rationing his food. "When you only have a certain amount to spend, it's like, why not just go to the dollar...

The battle for America's poorest consumers intensified Monday with Dollar Tree Inc. agreement to buy rival Family Dollar Stores Inc. for about $8.5 billion. The chains thrived during the recession as the number of working Americans living in poverty increased by nearly 40%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The stores appealed to cash-strapped shoppers with bargain-basement prices and locations that were closer to their homes than many Wal-Mart supercenters. The smaller package sizes of everyday items like laundry detergent and cereal fit into the budgets of consumers living paycheck to paycheck.

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...

The family-run drugstore on Main Street has been dying for decades. Now, the big national chain pharmacies—which helped push those family operations to the brink of extinction—are being surpassed in terms of total locations by dollar stores. What does this say about how people shop nowadays? And about the state of the economy? One of the hottest retail trends in recent years has been the rise of the dollar store. During a period when many retailers have struggled as a result of consumers scaling back, dollar stores boomed for obvious reasons—one way consumers cut expenses was by spending more time...

More stores across the U.S. that offer deeply-discounted products are seeing their sales decline after years of growth amid America’s “Great Recession” — and one analyst said on Monday it’s another sign of even deeper downturn. While the demand at stores like the 99-Cent Store or Dollar Tree is still relatively high, the biggest chains in the nation have fallen short of Wall Street’s expectations for several months, a trend that may prove even more ominous for the economy at large. “I think what’s going on in those stores is that we are in a depression for 80 percent of...

More stores across the U.S. that offer deeply-discounted products are seeing their sales decline after years of growth amid America’s “Great Recession” — and one analyst said on Monday it’s another sign of even deeper downturn. SNIP “I think what’s going on in those stores is that we are in a depression for 80 percent of Americans,” SNIP “In other words, the economy is continuing to be worse, the Obama depression continues to explode,” he added.

The struggling economy has brought more dollars to dollar stores. As other companies head into the red, these national chains say they're seeing increased amounts of green.Shopper Sebrina Slade hasn't just changed product brands."We've never done the shopping here like we do now," Slade said.She's swapped stores. "I used to have a negative connotation about shopping at thrifty places, but that's a thing of the past," Slade said.Because of the current recession, Slade heads to the South Knoxville Family Dollar store at least once a month to try and save, just in case."I know FedEx has had some layoffs so...