I went into another Dollar Tree today. This one wasn't very busy and was very neat and well stocked, but there were a few families pushing around carts doing fairly large purchases. One cart was easily going to be $75+. The one who paid in front of me was $40. It took them a few minutes to process the purchase in front of me; I bought one item; there were 3 people behind me by the time I was paying each of whom had 1-3 items.Bagels wrote: ↑February 6th, 2022, 2:34 pm
My local Dollar Tree was very crowded as well. The biggest factor working in their favor is the 99 Cents Only and the local Hispanic dollar stores have raised most of their prices to $1.29. Heck, even Rite Aid’s Dollar Corner is now mostly $2.
Most of the snack foods at 99 Cents Only are still priced at 99c - most of these items are priced at $1 or else at Ralphs, Walmart and elsewhere. Given that Dollar Tree converted / dedicated much of its square footage to these snacks, I’m surprised they raised their prices on these items.
The 99 is having its own problems. Plenty of its shelving space has been bear for awhile, and the quantity of “Momentum Brands” (in house) products seems to be disappearing. Not sure if they’re having supply chain issues or what. Most of their personal & household items are now either name brand close outs or Lucky brand. The Lucky brand is junk (the body wash is so diluted with water that buying the name brand equivalent elsewhere will save you in the long run) and many of the close outs are priced above regular retail. $9.99 for a twin pack of Treseme, $3.99 for a value bottle of Softsoap refill (sold at Walmart for $3.09 at the moment).
Kraft and Tillamook use to dump their excess inventory off at the 99, but seem to be largely using Grocery Outlet. I’m not surprised — a 16 oz tub of Oscar Meyer deli meat use to be $1, but the 99 raised the price to $4.99 (about the same price as a regular Ralphs sale price, for an item expiring in days). I see them at Grocery outlet now for $1.99, generally going down to 77 cents after a few days. Not sure why the switch.
99 Cents Only has serious operational problems in Reno area. There are 3 stores. These stores have fallen into major distress over the years. They are all filthy, poorly stocked, and have various issues from time to time such as fowl odors ranging from rotten food smells to sewage smells, and long checkout lines. It is not unusual to see pallets of stuff that should be refrigerated sitting on the sales floor who knows how long particularly at the Reno and Sparks units. Have never seen that in the Carson unit. Whenever I go into 99 Cents Only around Sacramento I encounter clean and well maintained stores and I am shocked this is even the same chain.
The other thing I have noticed at 99 Cents Only is they have price increased the items that were below 99 cents, up to the 99.99 cents. I used to buy small cans of Pineapple Juice there at 2 for 99.99 cents; now those are 99.99 cents each. I also used to buy 6 ounce Land O Lakes Yogurt there (from the same provider as many private label yogurts in CA) at 2 for 99.99 cents, now those are marked at 99.99 cents each. They also show all single cans of cat food at 99.99 cents now, even brands like 5.5oz 9 Lives which are barely above .50 elsewhere. No longer competitive at all on these types of items.
I also do not like 99 Cents Only's scanning policy. https://99only.com/legal-stuff/pricing-policy I keep encountering unmarked items that scan above 99.99 cents or items in front of 99.99 Cents signs that scan at some higher price. The employees say everything is priced as scanned. I have been referred to this notice on their website which basically says marked prices mean nothing and if you don't like the price something scans then you void the item off before you pay, otherwise after you pay that means you are okay with their price (since their policy is no refunds, though they are capable of processing a refund in the store via manager override).
The 50 ounce (?) Softsoap Refill was recently price increased to $5 at Wal Mart (from $4.70). There may be a couple types on clearance at Wal Mart as they are doing a reset in soap/body wash right now so that may be the $3.09 you are seeing there. It is $7.99 at Safeway and $5.99 (on sale for $5.49 and on the buy 5 save 5 promotion) at Smiths.