Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, announced in a press release on March 13th, 2024 that it will be closing about 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of 2024. It will then shutter an additional 370 Family Dollar stores and 30 Dollar Tree stores during the next several years as store leases expire.
Dollar Tree acquired the Family Dollar chain in 2015 after a bidding war with competitor Dollar General, but it has had difficulty absorbing the struggling chain. After underperforming in 2023, Dollar Tree underwent a review of its stores’ performance in late 2023 to determine what locations to close, relocate, or re-banner.
“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,” the company said in the press release.
“We finished the year strong, with fourth quarter results reflecting positive traffic trends, market share gains, and adjusted margin improvement across both segments,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rick Dreiling, said in the press release.
“While we are still in the early stages of our transformation journey, I am proud of what our team accomplished in 2023 and see a long runway of growth ahead of us. As we look forward in 2024, we are accelerating our multi-price rollout at Dollar Tree and taking decisive action to improve profitability and unlock value at Family Dollar.”
The Associated Press reported that shares of Dollar Tree tumbled more than 14% on March 13th.
Dollar Tree has not yet announced when closures will begin or what specific stores will close.
Dollar Tree, a Fortune 200 Company, operated 16,774 stores in 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of February 3rd, 2024. Stores operate under the brands of Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree Canada.
Our town (Dwight, IL) lost its Shopko Hometown when Shopko went belly-up in 2018. (It was replaced by a Tractor Supply Co., which is great for farmers and for pet supplies, but doesn’t replace most of the product categories offered by Shopko.) Our local Family Dollar has been around even longer (at least 15 years, maybe 20?), and does good service for quick grocery runs and reducing the number of trips required to larger stores in other towns for everyday needs. I will want to see that list of exactly which Family Dollar stores are closing as soon as it has been released — and if it IS slated to close, I would love for that building to be converted to a Dollar General. (Even a Dollar Tree would be better than nothing, so long as it included a “Dollar Tree Plus” section.)