Dollar Store News in Indiana

As retailers are getting tight and shutting down stores, dollar stores are still growing in large numbers, filling the gap for many store shoppers looking to save money on everything they can from hardware to toys to cleaning products.

“Dollar stores are one of the few stores right now that are expanding. They typically do well when the economy is not going well,” said Mark Perlstein, a principal at Sitehawk Retail Real Estate Group in Indianapolis.

All the big three of the NYSE traded dollar store chains that operate in the Indianapolis area have big plans of getting bigger on their books.

Dollar General will be constructing 2 dollar stores in Indianapolis, as the Tennessee company moves ahead with more plans to build almost 200 new stores and remodel another 450 nationwide in 2008 and 2009. Dollar General has now presently 303 stores in Indiana.

Family Dollar is building a new Southside store, one of 220 store openings the North Carolina chain plans to open in 2009. Family Dollar, which now has 196 Indiana stores in total, is also getting money to store remodeling as it adds refrigerated foods to its product line.

Dollar Tree is on an expanding too, adding 199 new stores so far this year in the USA. The Virginia company hasn’t announced any expansion plans for the Indianapolis area, where it has 23 stores. Dollar Tree has now 98 stores in Indiana.

Known in the market as “super discounters,” dollar stores are successful in cutting mainstream retailers by re-stocking leftovers, low-priced brand names, at great discounted wholesale prices.

Dollar stores are now improving the image by upgrading the stores.

Dollar store owners now want spaces of 4,000 to 10,000 square feet near anchors, to get more customers. Near Target, Wal-Mart, where the traffic is.

At Dollar Tree for example everything sells for $1 or less, unlike other dollar stores that often sell items for more than a dollar. Frozen and refrigerated foods are now offered across the country. Sales of food and other consumable goods, mainly cleaning supplies and health and beauty care items have become a larger and larger portion of sales in 2008.