Dollar Tree Scoops Up 99 Cents Only Stores

A U.S. Chapter Court docket in Delaware has permitted the switch of designation rights for the leases of 170 shuttered 99 Cents Solely shops to trade large Greenback Tree.

The 170 shops, situated in Texas, Arizona, Nevada and California, shall be reopened later this 12 months as Greenback Tree shops, Greenback Tree introduced. Greater than a 3rd of the areas acquired by Greenback Tree are in Southern California.

As a part of its successful bid, Greenback Tree additionally acquired the North American Mental Property of 99 Cents Solely Shops and choose on-site furnishings, fixtures and tools.

99 Cents Solely Shops filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety final month, saying it will shut all of its 371 shops and start promoting off its belongings. Hilco Actual Property was tapped to deal with the corporate’s asset gross sales.

The low cost chain, which began in 1982 in Los Angeles, cited in a launch rising ranges of shrink, inflation and shifting shopper demand as the principle causes of its demise.

In an announcement, Michael Creedon, Greenback Tree’s chief working officer, stated the 99 Cents Solely areas acquired by Greenback Tree are in precedence markets the place it expects robust development potential.

“The portfolio enhances our current footprint and can present us entry to prime quality actual property belongings in premium retail facilities, enabling us to quickly develop the Greenback Tree model throughout the western United States, reaching much more clients and communities,” Creedon stated.

Greenback Tree is buying shops on the similar time it’s shedding them. After posting a loss in This fall 2023, Greenback Tree introduced in March it will shut 970 shops working underneath its Household Greenback model by 2025.

Greenback Tree acquired Household Greenback in 2015 for $8.5B, outbidding low cost rival Greenback Common. Total, Greenback Tree operates practically 17,000 low cost shops, second solely to Greenback Common.

The proliferation of low cost shops, also called greenback shops, is producing pushback in some city areas. In February, Chicago’s Metropolis Council in a 42-7 vote adopted a measure, often known as the small-box retailer ordinance, which blocks greenback shops from opening with one mile of current low cost shops.

Alderman Matt O’Shea, who sponsored the ordinance, stated the regulation is designed to inhibit “over-saturation” of neighborhoods with the shops in addition to pressure homeowners to take higher care of those shops.

“When a greenback retailer comes right into a neighborhood, they undercut different retailers, particularly grocery shops,” O’Shea advised the Chicago Tribune, including that in some neighborhoods greenback shops turn into the one choice, “exacerbating our already very critical meals desert issues.”

In line with O’Shea, there are actually 149 greenback shops working in Chicago, together with Greenback Tree, Greenback Common and Household Greenback, with many of those low cost shops concentrated in the identical neighborhoods.