Popular dollar store to shutter ALL locations in ‘extremely difficult decision’

Discount retailer 99 Cents Only has announced it will close all 371 locations, citing high inflation and rising theft as reasons for the closures.

The West Coast brand – which has stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada – announced the news in a press release on Thursday without providing a timeline for the closures.

It comes amid a widespread ‘retail apocalypse’, with brick-and-mortar stores struggling to combat rampant theft and increasingly tight margins.

Rival budget retailer Dollar Tree recently announced plans to close nearly 1,000 stores while raising its price cap.

Mike Simoncic, interim CEO of 99 Cents, said in a statement: “This was an extremely difficult decision and is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve.

Rival budget retailer Dollar Tree recently announced plans to close nearly 1,000 stores while raising its price cap

“Unfortunately, recent years have brought significant and lasting challenges to the retail industry, including the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, changing consumer demand, deepening contraction, persistent inflationary pressures and other macroeconomic headwinds, all of which have seriously hinders the functioning of the company.’

Retailers use the term “shrink” to refer to the value of merchandise that is lost or stolen in the store.

99 Cents Only Stores is the latest to close stores this year or announce plans to do so.

Walmart has closed three in 2024 and will close three more within weeks.

Best Buy permanently closed 10 stores this month – leaving it with 100 fewer stores than before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Dollar Tree has announced plans to close 1,000, Macy’s has said it will cut 150 — a third of the total — and drugstore Rite Aid is closing 77.

Last year, major US chains including Target, CVS, Macy’s and Rite Aid were responsible for nearly 3,000 store closures by 2023.

Meanwhile, Trader Joe’s has raised the price of a single banana from 19 to 23 cents. This amounts to an increase of 21 percent

Fascinating data from DailyMail.com shows that inflation has eroded about a third of the $100 supermarket purchasing power over the past five years

While all stores are struggling to keep up with high inflation, it is hitting budget retailers the hardest due to their already tight margins.

Dollar Tree said last month it was raising the maximum price limit for its goods to $7.

Meanwhile, Trader Joe’s has raised the price of a single banana from 19 to 23 cents. This amounts to an increase of 21 percent.

According to the latest available data, annual inflation rose slightly to 3.2 percent in February.

It marks a decline from a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June 2022, but remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.

Fascinating data from DailyMail.com shows that inflation has eroded about a third of the purchasing power of $100 at the grocery store over the past five years.

In 2019, the amount would have bought shoppers a healthy 32-item bag, complete with milk, eggs, cereal, dish soap and more.

However, today, customers would have to remove at least 10 of these products from their shopping cart to maintain the same budget.