Dollar Tree, etc.

[Alpha8472]

Dollar Tree slashes profit citing unfavorable product mix and shrink. Customers are shifting towards consumables. The rest of the product mix is terrible.

https://chainstoreage.com/dollar-tree-s ... -sales-mix

[Romr123]

Sometimes with these condiments I prefer a smaller size also because I know I won't go through a full size container before expiration. In many cases the large chain grocers no longer carry small size items so 99 Cents Only is a great place to go for those small size items. I haven't usually considered Dollar Tree for small sized condiment type items due to a lack of brands in the past but I am going to give them another look to see if anything has changed with the 1.25 price point.

Was wandering around and they had 8 ounce jars of Kraft Miracle Whip in stock which weren't particularly short dated. That's exactly the kind of thing that would keep me coming back (I was actually looking for mayonnaise, not Miracle Whip so wasn't successful...)

[storewanderer]

I think Dollar Tree's problem is Family Dollar which has very major performance issues, as well as the new noncompetitive $1.25 price point in some categories.


Dollar Tree should have thrown a few bones out and kept some additional categories at $1. Something like- "all food $1 period."

Dollar Tree has absolutely improved its mix at the $1.25 price point in some categories and for that I am impressed with them. They have too many stores that are a disaster though.

Dollar General continues to kick Family Dollar so hard that it isn't even funny. I don't really understand how Family Dollar even continues as a chain they are so weak.

This Dreiling who is running Dollar Tree now is a very strong operator, I'm not even sure what he is doing there and why he didn't stay at Dollar General where he seemed to do an excellent job, but he has his work cut out for him in my opinion.

Years ago in Reno there was a Dollar Tree on Keystone Ave. (building is now an O'Reilly I think) which opened as a 98 cents Clearance Center. This Dollar Tree despite being in an area you'd think was perfect for Dollar Tree (lots of foot traffic, lots of car traffic, lower income area) ended up closing and not being replaced. This was back around 2006 or something. It was surprising since the place looked like a busy store. The issue was the store had extremely high theft and the lowest per customer transaction value of any store in the area, and the sales mix was primarily consumables.

[veteran+]

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... violations

And yet..................they continue to be supported by consumers and "pundits" and bargain shoppers.

Interesting........................

[storewanderer]

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... violations

And yet..................they continue to be supported by consumers and "pundits" and bargain shoppers.

Interesting........................

Do you really think they make much profit from customers like me at Dollar Tree? I rarely buy more than 1 item and always pay them with a credit card. I also always ensure I receive a bag for said 1 item purchase.

Usually there is no cashier up front and someone has to stop whatever they are doing to come ring me up. This is not efficient at all for a $1.25 transaction and even worse when I go for just a greeting card (still 50 cents last time I bought one).

Maybe I can do better. I'll ask for the greeting card to be wrapped in one bag then put in a 2nd bag for me to carry out. Don't worry I'll reuse both bags for lunch/trash/pet/to touch the filthy door handle of the store exit. I'll carry on a 5 minute conversation with the cashier to delay their task on the floor (not sure what they're accomplishing anyway given what a disaster the stores are), and get an American Express card (higher processing cost) to pay.

I do tend to buy a bit more at Dollar General, but it is virtually all clearance and coupon merchandise. The coupons though are digital and some manufacturer (I like to stack with their Saturday $5 off $25 since the $25 is before deduction of manufacturer coupons). Since they have self checkout I don't waste any of their labor on checkout so that plus the digital coupons they get reimbursed for, perhaps I throw them some profit.

[BillyGr]

Sometimes with these condiments I prefer a smaller size also because I know I won't go through a full-size container before expiration. In many cases the large chain grocers no longer carry small size items so 99 Cents Only is a great place to go for those small size items. I haven't usually considered Dollar Tree for small sized condiment type items due to a lack of brands in the past, but I am going to give them another look to see if anything has changed with the 1.25 price point.

Was wandering around and they had 8-ounce jars of Kraft Miracle Whip in stock which weren't particularly short dated. That's exactly the kind of thing that would keep me coming back (I was actually looking for mayonnaise, not Miracle Whip so wasn't successful...)

And even if you do use enough of something (such as that Miracle Whip), you may still save a bit - has gotten hard to find the regular bottle (which is 30 oz., as are most of the "quart" mayo items these days) for under $5, so four of those 8oz. ones at $5 is similar, possibly a bit less cost, with a couple extra oz. of product.
Much like (but not as good a price deal as) the A-1 5oz. bottles (where the 10 oz. one in most stores is $4+, vs. 2 5oz. ones for $2.50 here).

[mbz321]

Usually there is no cashier up front and someone has to stop whatever they are doing to come ring me up. This is not efficient at all for a $1.25 transaction and even worse when I go for just a greeting card (still 50 cents last time I bought one).

Dollar Tree has added self-checkouts to a few locations in my area. At one of them, there was absolutely no staff anywhere up front, self-checkout was your only option. I think a few, but not all the machines took cash (maybe a few were broken already). I'd wish they add them more of them as without fail, it is one cashier on and I get stuck behind someone buying half the store . The only thing I've been buying from Dollar Tree lately is they actually have really good 'fresh-ish' bagels (maybe a regional as they come from a bakery called Elie's in Massachusetts) but they always seem to be hard to find and/or sell out quickly. They have a long shelf life so I grab several when I see them!

Oh, and I skip the plastic bags because they are so crappy and I think they come with holes in them already from the factory

[storewanderer]

Usually there is no cashier up front and someone has to stop whatever they are doing to come ring me up. This is not efficient at all for a $1.25 transaction and even worse when I go for just a greeting card (still 50 cents last time I bought one).

Dollar Tree has added self-checkouts to a few locations in my area. At one of them, there was absolutely no staff anywhere up front, self-checkout was your only option. I think a few, but not all the machines took cash (maybe a few were broken already). I'd wish they add them more of them as without fail, it is one cashier on and I get stuck behind someone buying half the store . The only thing I've been buying from Dollar Tree lately is they actually have really good 'fresh-ish' bagels (maybe a regional as they come from a bakery called Elie's in Massachusetts) but they always seem to be hard to find and/or sell out quickly. They have a long shelf life so I grab several when I see them!

Oh, and I skip the plastic bags because they are so crappy and I think they come with holes in them already from the factory

I am glad they are rolling more self checkouts out. The last I heard they had them in one store in VA near their HQ but that was over a year ago. I don't know of any Family Dollars with self checkout.

How did the Dollar Tree self checkout work? I know it is the NCR software, but is it reasonably fast? Their normal registers are very, very slow for the cashier to scan items (processes card payments pretty quickly though).

I think 100% self checkout is completely appropriate for a store like Dollar Tree. There is no liquor, item value is low, no PLU-based produce. These Five Below Stores that have opened in my area are 85% self checkout and there are no issues with it either, but they do always have an employee up there watching the door (employee is not allowed to leave from some "dot" on the floor or something is what I was told). That employee who stands behind the one cash register isn't supposed to walk out and help self checkout either, they are supposed to call someone else up.



Their bag can hold a greeting card just fine. But a roll of paper towels is likely to cause a small centimeter sized hole. That is okay- those work as lunch bags or trash bags for dry trash (office space, etc.).

[veteran+]

And the beat goes on............................


https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... violations

[storewanderer]

And the beat goes on............................


https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... violations

One store out of thousands cited... meaningless and sounds like an isolated incident.

What are these inspectors doing? There should be an army of them driving around looking at these stores. They could hit many different stores in a day. Completely inefficient and inept. Slap on the wrist.

The beat goes on all right...