# 99 Cents stores, The end is here **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 5, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904 "2024-04-05T22:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/1 "2024-04-05T22:44:39Z")
> **[99 Cents stores to close down all 371 locations](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/05/1243072754/99-cent-stores-close-california-arizona)** > > The discount chain is winding down operations at its stores across California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada, as dollar stores nationwide buckle under inflation, shoplifting and other factors. Too bad, that store really help me when I was unemployed for a few months 3 years ago. Now it will be Dollar General or Family Dollar. Both not generally a dollar, and unfamiliar with one dollar items. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/2 "2024-04-05T22:49:24Z")
Oh, DG has a whole $1 aisle. It’s mostly junk and undersized stuff. But, hey, I like a $1 item. Just cause. I never did a 99 cents store. Still, I grieve. 😔 ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/3 "2024-04-05T22:55:00Z")
A Dollarama is about to open right near here. While waiting for my supermarket order I saw a Lay’s truck unloading 20 or so cases of chips into the store, so I assume it will open very soon. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/4 "2024-04-05T22:55:59Z")
I expect there may be some older posters here who remember Five and Dime stores: > **[Five and dime](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_and_dime)** > > Five and dime (also known as five-cent stores, dime stores, and ten-cent stores) is a type of store that was popular in the United States in the early to mid-20th century. They sold many different items, most of which were worth five or ten cents. Popular five and dimes included: [Although they were still called Five and Dime, their prices had mostly increased beyond that by the 1950s] ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/5 "2024-04-05T22:59:28Z")
I have yet to encounter a Dollar General here in Sacramento, and the one Family Dollar in my part of town, which only came in a few years ago, is itself shutting down. No loss, the layout was cramped, jumbled, and generally awful, and I’ve seen better prices at less unpleasant stores. For the “squeeze the nickels” shopper, Dollar Tree seems to be what’s left and they’re deteriorating. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/6 "2024-04-05T23:01:05Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Now it will be Dollar General or Family Dollar. It may not be Family Dollar. A lot of those are being closed down. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/7 "2024-04-05T23:08:29Z")
Not a 99 Cents store, but I was driving through Fulton, NY last week and I saw the Real Deals Dollar Store is having a closing sale. They’re a small chain in central New York. I don’t know if the whole chain is closing or just some branches. You kind of have to wonder. If these stores were successfully able to rebrand themselves from “every item cost a dollar” to “every item costs $1.25” why don’t they just make another jump and raise all their prices to two dollars if inflation is killing their business? I feel that with inflation driving up prices, it’s actually a good time for the bottom feeders of the retail trade. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/8 "2024-04-05T23:20:41Z")
There are some items that you just can’t find anywhere but Dollar Tree, at any price. Including some for which there’s really no distinction of quality to be made. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/9 "2024-04-05T23:29:03Z")
Family Dollar and Dollar tree are connected somehow. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/10 "2024-04-05T23:29:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You kind of have to wonder. If these stores were successfully able to rebrand themselves from “every item cost a dollar” to “every item costs $1.25” why don’t they just make another jump and raise all their prices to two dollars if inflation is killing their business? I feel that with inflation driving up prices, it’s actually a good time for the bottom feeders of the retail trade. The store could sure rebrand to $2 or $5 or $10. The problem is the pyramid of people’s free cashflow is steep down there. For every person who can barely afford to buy at the $5 store, there are 10 who can barely afford to buy at the $1 store. So if the store is forced to go up-price following inflation, their customers don’t (or more precisely can’t) follow, and sales crater. Now comes desperation shoplifting, stores scrimping on staff & cleaning, and the whole economic doom loop. The whole “dollar store” model already cut cost of goods sold and overhead to the bone back in the 90s when they became commonplace. There’s very little blood left to squeeze out of that turnip. So they’re forced to pass all their cost increases through to their customers pretty much 1 for 1. Which doesn’t work for people who’re getting no pay raises and who’s back was already to the consumer wall. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/11 "2024-04-05T23:29:50Z")
I’ve found stuff I never knew I needed. For reals☺️ ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/12 "2024-04-05T23:48:16Z")
Heck, I’m old. I still miss F. W. Woolworth & G. C. Murphy. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/13 "2024-04-05T23:50:03Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I have yet to encounter a Dollar General here in Sacramento IIRC, Dollar General’s strategy is to locate their stores in small towns that are too small to support a WalMart or similar sized store. You’ll find them in little towns like Foresthill up in the foothills. Although looking at their locations they do have a few stores around Sacramento, mostly in neighborhoods like North Highlands, which makes sense for a dollar store since that’s the poorer side of town. I think I’ve heard that Dollar General is the most successful of the dollar stores, due to their strategy of putting stores in places where they’re pretty much the only game in town and don’t have to compete with WalMart. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/14 "2024-04-06T00:12:51Z")
I’ve never seen a “99 Cents” store. They must be in a different part of the country. The last true dollar stores in these parts were Dollar Tree, but a year or two ago they changed to a $1.25 store. I fondly remember the days, in the 1990s and 2000s, when there were quite a few dollar stores around, many of them independent, so you never knew quite what you’d find going into a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/15 "2024-04-06T00:26:07Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I have yet to encounter a Dollar General here in Sacramento I recall Dollar Tree being in that area. When I was a student at UC Davis, I’d sometimes hit up the DT in Woodland just up the road from my apartment in Davis. (I lived smack dab next to the city limits.) ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/16 "2024-04-06T00:28:16Z")
There’s a Dollar Tree across the street from the entrance to my apartment complex. I hate the place. Badly understaffed, and what employees exist don’t seem interested in actually doing their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/17 "2024-04-06T00:41:47Z")
The last Dollar tree I was in was just as terrible as that. Maybe worse because kids had the run of the place. It was next door to an indoor play park in an almost abandoned strip mall. I told myself $1 anything is not worth this. Never been to another. But, in my small village Dollar General is it. I mean IT. There’s no other store except the gas station which recently has trouble getting gas in their tank things. Anywhere else is 30-35 miles away. I don’t know what some of these people who live there do. It’s a very poor place. An older demographic. Barely living on subsistence pay. No delivery service for stuff. I can’t imagine Amazon does them any good. The doctor comes through 2 times a month. There’s a old sleepy cop if you have a true emergency. I guess he could dial 911. Fred’s ain’t got no store to give away, anymore. Dollar stores and grocery stores have gone the way of _Big box_. Dollar general is the last hope of this place. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/18 "2024-04-06T01:49:41Z")
Nothing like coming home from 99 Cents Only with a nice 99¢ bottle of off-brand wine from Montana or Bulgaria or some place. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/19 "2024-04-06T01:55:54Z")
I said in a thread back in 2021 that it’s not possible to continue to sell items in a store at the same price over a long time or to choose a name that accurately reflects those prices if the name is unchanged over time. The average amount of inflation in the U.S. from 1914 to 2021 was 3.4% per year. The name of stores like this must change. There used to be five and dime stores. Now there’s Five Below stores. In about 204 years from now, there will be Only a Grand stores. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/20 "2024-04-06T03:26:53Z")
I read this and it reminded me of the oddest place I’ve ever seen a bottle of Ripple: at a Japanese “bottle bar” in Roppongi, Tokyo. The owner asked me why I was staring at it and I just couldn’t tell her. Same place was also “graced” somehow witha bottle of Four Roses whiskey, something I’ve never seen before nor since. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904.md?page=2)