Goodbye, 99 Cents Only

We were so sad to see our local 99 Cents Only store close in May 2024 along with 40 other stores in Arizona.

We liked this store. For one thing, it almost always had fresh produce at great prices. You could always pick up essentials there like canned beans and condiments. 99 Cents Only mostly had off-label brands, but if you took time to read the labels you’d find their ingredients were usually the same as the brands carried in grocery stores.

Did you forget someone’s birthday? 99 Cents Only had a decent selection of cards, gift bags, and wrapping paper. Are you short on cash and need cookies to keep the kids or visiting in-laws happy? 99 Cents Only had those fancy English-style tea and “digestive biscuits” with chocolate in the middle.

Sometimes you’d even score off-brand Oreo-style cookies. And even when they cost more than 99¢, they weren’t much more.

What Happened to 99 Cents Only?

99 Cents Only was one of the larger stores in our Indian River Plaza shopping center. Many of our customers say they discovered (or re-discovered) us shopping at 99 Cents when we relocated several years ago -another reason we like them.

By the way, we have our own $1 rack outside our store every day. It hasn’t gone up in price in decades!

During the pandemic, we read that dollar stores were doing well. So what happened to 99 Cents Only?

Inflation and shrinkage happened. You know what inflation is – prices go up, wages stay the same. Regardless of who you blame for this, inflation was only part of the problem. Shrinkage is a polite way to refer to items lost to shoplifting or arrive damaged and can’t be put out for sale.

(As a thrift store, we review every item consigners bring in to us before we put it out on our floor.)

Finally, employees make mistakes no matter how carefully shipments are checked and stocked.

Another factor is that fewer people now receive benefits from the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since the COVID pandemic officially ended.

And finally, there was stiff competition from other dollar chains.

Dirty Dollars?

Dollar Tree, which also owns Family Dollar, says it will close some of these chains as well, mostly the Family Dollar name. The company has been fined over and over for repeated safety violations at the same stores for things like blocking access to fire doors, fire extinguishers, and electric panel boxes.

Rather than fix the problems and stay open, the company has paid millions of dollars in fines for the same problems over and over again.

One Family Dollar warehouse in Arkansas was fined $42 million in February 2024 for rat infestation and other repeated violations.

Why would any business allow this to…fester? We were relieved to read that Family Dollar issued a recall, which included national name-brand foods from Knorr and Hungry Jack.

Dollar General is Expanding Stores

In the middle of all this, Dollar General is expanding and opening new stores, including some under a new name, pOpshelf in suburban areas.

Dollar General already has more than 16,500 stores in the US and Mexico. Most of its Arizona stores are in rural areas, with three locations in Phoenix and additional stores in Chandler, Glendale, Maricopa, and Sun City.

If anyone asks, we know another place where they’d be welcome!