Why are ‘HUGE!!!’ dollar stores popping up in Fresno, Clovis? Here’s what happening
Walk into the new Dollar Tree in Clovis and most shoppers immediately notice one thing: It’s really big.
“When I tell you it’s HUGE!!! I mean HUGE!!!” said one shopper on the website Reddit.com.
The store opened last week on Shaw Avenue near Willow Avenue, in the same shopping center as Smart & Final Extra!
It’s so big because it used to be one of the chain of 99 Cents Only Stores, which are on average twice the size of Dollar Tree stores.
Typically, Dollar Trees are between 8,000 and 12,000 square feet. The 99 Cent Only Stores average 20,000 square feet.
The Clovis opening follows the August opening of another 99 Cents Store converted into a Dollar Tree at First Street and McKinley Avenue in Fresno.
The 99 Cents Only Stores company filed for bankruptcy and closed all its 371 stores earlier this year.
Dollar Tree took over 170 of the leases with the approval of bankruptcy court, said Greg Bethke, vice president of Manco Abbot, which operates the Clovis shopping center.
“Even though it’s a little bigger, I think they probably got a pretty good deal as far as being able to just jump in and take over the leases because 99 Cents Only typically didn’t pay a ton of rent,” he said.
Dollar Tree appears to be filling the extra space with even more of its typical products, including aisles of food and drink that give it a grocery store feel.
Most products cost $1.25, with some $3 and $5 sections.
Some discount stores are struggling as their cash-strapped customers pull back on spending, which is part of what killed the 99 Cents Only Stores. Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, announced in June that it plans to close 1,000 stores, most of them Family Dollar locations.
Sales at the Dollar Tree portion of the business are growing, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company.
“Store expansion, including the conversion of some former 99 Cents Only stores, helped with the total number,” he said in an email.
