GHENT, W.Va. (WVNS) — Shoppers at Dollar Tree could soon end up with sticker shock.
In an earnings call held this month, Chesapeake-based Dollar Tree, Inc. announced it’ll be adding hundreds of new items to its store shelves – but at a higher cost. The new maximum price of items sold at Dollar Tree stores will be $7.
“This year, across 3,000 stores, we expect to expand our multi-price assortment by over 300 items at price points ranging from $1.50 to $7,” said CEO Rick Dreiling. “But even as our multi-price assortment expands over time, the vast majority of the items sold in Dollar Tree stores will remain at our entry-level fixed price point.”
In 2021, WAVY reported that Dollar Tree raised the base price of its merchandise to $1.25 and set the price cap at that time to $5.
The company plans to expand its offerings across a wider range of price points across a variety of categories, including food and snacks, pet care, personal care and more.
According to Dreiling, the move was made in order to add new products to their shelves. “Over time, you will also see us fully integrate multi-price merchandise more into our stores, so our shoppers will find $5 bags of dog food next to our traditional $1.25 pet treats and toys, and our $3 bags of candy will be found in the candy aisle.”
The recent price limit increase comes not long after Dollar Tree, Inc., which also owns Family Dollar, announced the closure of more than 1,000 Family Dollar stores nationwide.
Dollar Tree plans to close about 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of this year and 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores over the next several years.
Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar for more than $8 billion in 2015 after a bidding war with rival Dollar General, but it has had difficulty absorbing the chain.
“This dramatic cull is the coup de grâce in the rather botched acquisition of the Family Dollar chain, which has caused Dollar Tree nothing but hassle since it was completed back in 2015,” wrote Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData.
“Basically, almost ten years on, Dollar Tree is still sifting through the mess it inherited and has not been able to completely turn around,” Saunders said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
