Dollar Tree’s Startling Admission: Announces Store Closures

(KMDL-FM) Dollar Tree is a popular shopping spot in South Louisiana. The state has over 300 locations. Baton Rouge has the most Dollar Tree stores, with 38. In Lafayette, there are 8 Dollar Tree stores, but there is a growing concern that those numbers could be shrinking.

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Dollar Tree executives have confirmed that the chain has plans to close at least 75 stores over the course of this year. But even more surprising is the brutally honest transparency Dollar General executives used in describing some of the stores they will be keeping open.

42% of Dollar Tree Stores Have This in Common

Michael Creedon, the CEO of Dollar Tree, admitted that some 42% of the chain's stores have been operating at or below company standards. The honest appraisal is seen by many in the retail community as a sign that Dollar Tree is very serious about addressing the shortfall in quality at its locations.

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In his comments on a quarterly earnings call, Creedon suggested that the chain had already made strides in reducing the number of underperforming stores, not by closing them but by bringing the locations up to company standards.

For clarity, the average retailer with multiple locations generally has 10% to 20% of stores that underperform against company goals; the fact that Dollar Tree was at 42% suggests that the operational changes were something that had to be made.

READ MORE: Dollar General Expands Key Service to Smaller Louisiana Towns

As far as the Dollar Tree locations that are being considered for closure, that information has not been made public. Although one website suggested some closures had already taken place. 

It should be noted that while Dollar Tree does have plans to shutter some stores, it has even bigger plans to remodel others and actually open several hundred new locations in the near future.

Are Dollar Tree and Dollar General Owned by the Same Company?

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No, they are not. Dollar Tree and Family Dollar are owned by the same publicly traded company, Dollar Tree Inc. Dollar General is its own distinct publicly traded company. As we alluded to earlier in this article, Dollar Tree operates over 300 stores in Louisiana. Dollar General operates almost 700 locations in the state.

READ MORE: Louisiana Shoppers Not Thrilled with New Dollar Tree Policy

There are 263 Family Dollar stores operating in Louisiana, so even if you combine the Dollar Trees and the Family Dollar locations, they still don't add up to the number of Louisiana locations of Dollar General.