In a press release published today, Dollar Tree, Inc., explained that this plan is part of their “Portfolio Optimization Review and Impairments,” in which the company has determined that shuttering a thousand of its retail locations is the prudent decision to cut some of their losses.
During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, the Company announced that it had initiated a comprehensive store portfolio optimization review which involved identifying stores for closure, relocation, or re-bannering based on an evaluation of current market conditions and individual store performance, among other factors.
As a result of this review, we plan on closing approximately 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of fiscal 2024. Additionally, approximately 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores will close over the next several years at the end of each store’s current lease term.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, we incurred $594.4 million of charges in connection with the store portfolio review. Additionally, we incurred a goodwill impairment charge of $1.07 billion and a trade name intangible asset impairment charge of $950 million. Details of these charges are provided in the Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures at the end of this release.
The company wrote
Dollar Tree, a Fortune 200 Company, operated 16,774 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of February 3, 2024. However, the company did say that they “opened 219 new stores in the fourth quarter, bringing full-year new store openings to 641,” the company said.
The consolidation has to do with reduced in-store sales. “Enterprise same-store net sales increased 3.0%, driven by a 4.6% increase in traffic, partially offset by a 1.5% decline in average ticket,” Dollar Tree added.
Our biggest problem right now is getting enough merchandise into the stores fast enough so the consumer can respond.
CEO Rick Dreiling, said
Last year Dollar Tree announced they would begin locking-up specific items at certain locations due to an influx crime. Dollar Tree also nudged their prices higher in 2022 to $1.25, instead of everything being a buck as it normally was.
However, CNN noted that their rival Dollar General is seeing great success. They reported:
Dollar General has opened about 1,000 stores a year, making it the fastest-growing retailer in the United States. The company has around 18,000 stores.
The companies are battling for many of the same low-income shoppers. Despite the name, these stores sell mostly food and everyday items for between $1 and $10.
But Family Dollar has lost ground to Dollar General, in particular due to prices: Family Dollar’s prices can be 10% to 15% higher than Dollar General’s and other discount competitors. Dollar General, which is more than double the size of Family Dollar, can offer lower prices because of its scale.
Shoppers have shifted to Dollar General, Walmart, Target and other low-priced chains to stretch their budgets.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Well, if “Bidenomics” is working so well, then why is Dollar General shuttering a thousand locations, especially because the consumer is being forced to spend less?
This is a bellwether for what’s happening in the real economy. When Dollar Tree has to up their prices a quarter and then close hundreds of stores, that’s obviously not a healthy economy. This of course more means more layoffs, and more empty, vacant real estate that’s already in a serious bind right now.
The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Proverbs 10:15
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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I tell ya what, the U.S. economy is dropping like a stone!
Businesses in America, some of them have been around for over a hundred years, I’m not exaggerating, some of these businesses and corporates have been through thick and thin – survived two world wars and the Great Depression, now they’re closing their doors at breakneck speed:
Here is a more updated and refined list:
Kmart
Sears
PayLess
Circuit City
Bed, Bath, & Beyond
Pier 1 Imports
Mervyn’s
RadioShack
Fry’s Electronics
Borders Bookstore
Sports Authority
KB Toys
Toys R Us (now merged with Macy’s)
Walden Books
Sam Goody
Sun Coast
Blockbuster
Hollywood Video
Discovery Channel Store
Disney Store
Warner Bros Store
Club Libby Lou (it was a dress up and party center for girls)
Crazy Eddie (the founder Eddie Antar was a crook so there’s also that)
Zainy Brainy (it was an educational toy store)
Movie Gallery
Papyrus (it was a paper and greeting card company)
Stein Mart
Yellow and Surge (two trucking companies, you made a report on that, Jacob)
Tower Records
A&P (grocery store)
Here’s an honorable mention:
Lord & Taylor. The first ever retail company founded in 1824! It survived not only World War I and World War II, but also the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the Great Recession, but the “pandemic” was the straw that broke the camel’s back and they all shut down in 2020!
Wow, I have been in most of them. I used to love a store named Carson, Pirie & Scott. It was my favorite and it closed a few years back, just before Steinmart closed. As far as Dollar Tree closing, I think the company TEMU has put a dent in the dollar store sales cause they have items that are dirt cheap and even free with no shipping. I still do shop at Dollar Tree though (until they close). I used to like to go to the mall(s), but they closed around here. Well not too much longer to be down here, hopefully this year and then we will be wearing white robes.
This is also an attack on rural Americans. Most rural communities only have the Dollar type stores, Walmart, and scant mom and pop stores to begin with!
Yep, because they want to force people into the cities and out of rural areas.
I realize that causes a hardship for rural folks. A preplanned crisis, I’d add, since these corporate types purposely ran mom and pop’s out of business…..playing it slow & gradual, until they had the market cornered.
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I’d also add that those companies are wicked & I won’t cry over their demise, though no doubt they’ll just shift their assets to some other nefarious & dishonest end until King Jesus pulls the plug.
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I was SHOCKED when I filled out applications for one of those stores at the amoral and self-incriminating MORAL questions that they asked. The Dollar Store at least, and after the Family Dollar Store had already been run out of business in our little town.
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It had been managed by a lady I witnessed to for years in hope….but who knew a little bit more than I did about the inner workings of this little town & its churches than I did….to say the least.
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I understand her resistance, & her open disgust at the churches & community now. She even tried warning me about it in a sideways fashion, having family ties into it. Anyways, her husband had left her with children to raise & she hired on with the Family Dollar and managed the store successfully for many years until things changed corporately.
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We had many conversations where she shared her frustrations with how all ordering, hiring & decision-making was largely taken out of her hands until she came to hate the job as a no-win proposition. Corporate even had a map for where every item was to be, so that she couldn’t market or order to the community needs or wants anymore, & the handwriting was on the wall that the place wouldn’t last much longer.
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To make matters worse, the hotshot arrogant punks who showed up or called to boss her around were a trial in themself! And, of course: the store didn’t last long after that. Her market wasn’t the pink-haired, transgendered, amoral ‘new’ type but just plain folks wanting practical necessary items.
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It was only The Dollar Store left when I applied, & there were no correct answers on the application, nothing about experience, ability or lack thereof: there was only an assumption of some amoral & wicked a,b,c or d non-answer for what conditions under which you would lie, cheat, drink or do drugs on the property, steal from the register etc on the job: there was even a question of how hard you would try to get a parking space close to the store by crowding out some elderly, slower driver clearly aiming to take that space!
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I thought how thankful I was that my husband’s employ was truly enough to support us, & it wasn’t long before the spare time I’d thought to use at such part-time employ was more than taken up attempting to prep & helping family members struggling with a variety of troubles which I believe is more in the line of a keeper at home anyways.
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The marginalization, slander & despising of keepers at home isn’t new; and the lack of support for such a position even in ‘conservative’ and King James Bible churches contributed greatly to that.
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I can also tell you, that I looked at the local folks who DID fill in those applications & worked there differently, as well.
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Were they all really that dishonest, or desperate for a job? Were they so ignorant that they didn’t even realize they were being set-up should some muckity-muck decide to skim some extra bucks….or for a drug sting & some ‘community service’ & good PR for the powers that shouldn’t be, since: ‘Hey, it says right here in writing that you’d do such and such…’
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Or was there already sufficient social media sorting & profiling going on that we were being given different applications?
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I suppose I’ll not know until all of this is but a bad dream & behind me, safely home & with Christ at last….but that experience sure contributed to my waking up.
Unbelievable. I think they hire people sometimes that have a record or can’t get employed anywhere else I know Goodwill does that. They make people work there for no salary for punishment for Community Service. I know this because I have heard it from someone. It wasn’t me that had to do Community Service. ha
One would think stores like Dollar Tree and Family Dollar would be increasing sales since their prices are lower than Walmart and other chains. Our economy is attacking every business so it is likely that we will see more and more small stores closing in the future.