# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/41 "2024-04-08T04:11:32Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > I expect there may be some older posters here who remember Five and Dime stores: > > [Five and dime - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_and_dime) > > [Although they were still called Five and Dime, their prices had mostly increased beyond that by the 1950s] Yes, though I was just a kid. Around here they were called five-and-ten-cent stores. I definitely remember Woolworths. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/42 "2024-04-08T05:31:13Z")
I’m surprised they had as good a run as they did. I’m amazed any of these types of places every made it past the planning stage. Somebody spent a lot of money to send me to a real fancy business school, and after seeing Dollar Stores and my wife’s eBay Empire, realized that was all money wasted. They defied most of what I thought I understood about business. 😆 ---
**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 8, 2024, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/43 "2024-04-08T11:48:16Z")
Really? I’d have thought that “make something cheaper and more people will buy it” would be, like, day 1 of business school. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/44 "2024-04-08T14:10:09Z")
I just learned of a new offshoot of the Dollar Tree/Family Dollar family, called [pOpshelf](https://www.popshelf.com/). It seems to be like Five Below but for adults. All the stuff that Dollar Tree was putting in their $3-8 section, now in one store. Watch out, TJ Maxx! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/45 "2024-04-08T23:03:05Z")
When our local dollar store (whatever it’s brand) started upping the prices on some things I was glad. (unlike all the other customers the clerk I was talking to had encountered). I figured they could carry more items, etc. There’s a Five Below in the Death Mall\* near us. I went to it. Good grief what a pathetic place. Surprisingly few items for sale, none of which were really worth it one way or another (too crappy or too overpriced), etc. \* You’ve been there. Used to have a Bed Bath and Beyond. Now the only “name” store is a Kohl’s circling the drain. ---
**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 8, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/46 "2024-04-08T23:28:03Z")
I was gonna mention TJ and others like that. We’ve had a couple run thru a death mall in a bigger town over. I’ll watch for **pOpshop** Sounds like a place to see. My favorite location is a outta the box place in an old car dealership. They buy out on attrition(I think that’s how they call it) kinda thing by bidding. They get lots of Amazon stuff. Books books and more books. On the really cheap. Love that. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/47 "2024-04-08T23:36:32Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I have yet to encounter a Dollar General here in Sacramento…   I was sure that I had seen one, somewhere in the northern part of Sacramento, in an area that I have seldom had occasion to go.  [Checking their web site, just now, I see that there are five claimed locations in and around Sacramento.](https://www.dollargeneral.com/store-directory/ca/sacramento) > [@Seanette](#): > > …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…   About the experience that I would expect of a dollar store, except that the actual dollar stores in the area, at least the two main chains (of which one is now dying) have always managed to do much better.  And _Family Dollar_'s prices, as far as I have ever seen, are too high for it to qualify in my mind as having been a dollar store like _Dollar Tree_ or _99 Cents Only_.   It’s been a long time since I’ve actually been in a dollar store.  I was only slightly startled when, on a day labor assignment from a few weeks ago, clearing out the ruins of a _Dollar Tree_ that had a collapsed roof, to see tags all over the place proclaiming the actual price of everything in the store to be $1.25.  I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising, but last time I was in a _Dollar Tree_, everything was still an even dollar.   At the time I was doing that _Dollar Tree_ job, it was still up in the air whether the location would reopen as such after the building was repaired, or whether it was down for good.  I guess we know, now, don’t we?  The building will surely be repaired, and put back into use, but not as a _Dollar Tree_. I did know, some years ago, that _99 Cents Only_ had been forced to raise it’s prices to 99.99¢. I bet they’re now over a dollar for everything.   Come to think of it, that’s one of two recent jobs I’ve been on, that involved clearing out a building that had been occupied by one business that was part of a chain that had gone or was going out of business, that will have a different business take its place. The other was a former _Buy Buy Baby_, at a much later stage of being cleared out, and supposedly a _Macy’s_ is going to take its place. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/48 "2024-04-08T23:40:20Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > 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.   That seemed to be specific to that on store, not to the chain as a whole.  It seems that store has always been understaffed, by employees that didn’t seem to care much about doing their job well.  Back when we shopped at such stores much more often than we seem to do recently, I nearly always found it worthwhile to go to a more distant _Dollar Tree_ for much better service than we could ever get at the one nearest us. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/49 "2024-04-08T23:45:30Z")
I found a new one on my eclipse trip to Waco. “Ollie’s: Good stuff cheap.” Or maybe “cheap stuff - good” It’s sort of a warehouse discount. Like a cross between Dollar General and @ Home. I needed some Soft Soap for the trip. They had every leftover seasonal version - from Halloween. But…it was all 99 cents. So what if it smells like pumpkins or raspberry ghosts. It cleans the same. ---
**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 9, 2024, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/50 "2024-04-09T00:11:02Z")
> [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > > [@Seanette](#): > > > > 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. > > That seemed to be specific to that on store, not to the chain as a whole. I’ve been in Dollar Trees that are neat and well-maintained, and Dollar Trees that are kinda shabby and sketchy. ---
**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 9, 2024, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/51 "2024-04-09T05:51:31Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’ve been in Dollar Trees that are neat and well-maintained, and Dollar Trees that are kinda shabby and sketchy. As of last time I ventured into the Dollar Tree nearest my apartment, “shabby and sketchy” would have been an improvement. ---
**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 9, 2024, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/52 "2024-04-09T06:09:56Z")
Heh, I know what you mean. They’re pretty tough places around here, too. There’s a particular coffee flavorant the Lil’wrekker likes. She begs us all to go in there, to get it for her. The last time she bribed her brother to do it. I mentioned she wasn’t really saving money that way. I got a snarl for a reply. ---
**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 9, 2024, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/53 "2024-04-09T14:23:23Z")
Perhaps I’m dense, but why is Lil’wrekker unwilling to go in there? Is there a Princess in the family? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/54 "2024-04-09T14:53:33Z")
The 99-cent stores are all over SoCal. A quick search shows at least 50 locations, out of 370 nationwide. Their most valuable asset is going to be the real estate the stores are sitting on, assuming they own the land. ---
**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 9, 2024, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/55 "2024-04-09T15:01:17Z")
Good bet substantially zero modern chain retail stores own the land they’re sitting on. If it’s in a strip center they almost certainly don’t. Freestanding stores in small towns, it’s much more likely the land and building are owned by the same folks as the retail operation inside the buildng. ---
**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 9, 2024, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/56 "2024-04-09T15:15:42Z")
You got it. Her Imperial person cannot be _soiled_ by these menial tasks or caught in such places. La-dee-da! 👑 ---
**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 9, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/57 "2024-04-09T15:16:36Z")
Princesses can only be princesses in the presence of enablers. Just sayin’. ---
**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 9, 2024, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/58 "2024-04-09T15:17:06Z")
Nailed it again. I’m guilty. You would too, if you were around her. She sucks all the oxygen out of a room when she enters. She’s a glorious person to be around and the sunshine I bask in. ---
**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 9, 2024, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/59 "2024-04-09T17:00:06Z")
Sounds horrifically off-putting to me, but I’m a jerk. You do you and I’m genuinely glad it brings you joy. Plus no small measure of Momly pride. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904/60 "2024-04-09T18:48:02Z")
I remember when TG&Y closed its store. It was a Classic 5 and Dime store. It was the first time I’d seen a major chain go under. They once had 900 stores in 29 states. The store in my hometown had been there 25 years. They tried rebranding as Dollar-T but that didn’t save the company. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/99-cents-stores-the-end-is-here/999904.md?page=4)