"99 cents store" and "Dollar store" redirect here. For the former dollar store chain, see99 Cents Only Stores. For the type of store in Cuba, seeDollar store (Cuba).
99 Cents Only Stores in Dallas, TexasF. W. Woolworth andS. S. Kresge stores on Lackawanna Avenue, in downtownScranton, Pennsylvania. The two stores were often found near each other in downtown areas.An art gallery in Seattle'sInternational District preserves thefaçade and some features of Higo Variety Store, an independent Japanese-American five and ten.
Dollar stores that sell food have been alleged to createfood deserts: areas with limited access to affordable and healthy food. This is alleged to occur when dollar stores outcompete local businesses, and soon become some of the only grocery store–like businesses available in some areas.
Some items are offered at a considerable discount over other retailers, whereas others are at the same price point. There are two ways variety stores make a profit:
Buying and selling vast amounts of goods at heavily discounted prices provides a smallprofit margin multiplied by the sales volume.
Pricing many items at prices that are higher than regular retailers. These goods are commonly bought by consumers who perceive them to be bargains based on the heavy discounts on other items in the store. In the case of fixed price-point retailers, this can be achieved by reducing the package size.[2][3]
Variety stores with single price points buy products to fit those price points (while making a profit) that are:
Not all variety stores are "single price-point" stores, even if their names imply it. For example, in the United States,Dollar General andFamily Dollar sell items at more or less than a dollar. Some stores also sell goods priced at multiples of the named price and, conversely, multiple items for the price. The discrepancy with the nominal price is also compounded ifsales tax is added at thepoint of sale.
In many countries, stock can be imported from others with lower variable costs, because of differences in wages, resource costs or taxation.[citation needed] Usually, goods are imported by a general importer and then sold to the storeswholesale.[disputed –discuss]
Another source of stock is overruns, surplus items and out-of-date food products. Real Deals, a regional dollar store in theSyracuse, New York area, is stocked almost entirely with surplus goods such as these.[4] The legality of selling out-of-date goods varies between jurisdictions: in general, most items (with a few exceptions, particularly certain perishable food items depending on the state) can be sold in the United States regardless of their sell-by date,[5] but in the United Kingdom it is illegal to sell goods after their "Use by" date.[6]
Although some people[who?] may link variety stores with low-income areas, this is not always true. For example,Atherton, California has a variety store within its city limits, even though it has a median household income of nearly $185,000 a year.[7] Studies of food discounters in Great Britain show quite a varied demographic,[8] and99p Stores reported an increase in higher-income customers after the2008 financial crisis.[9]
Dollar stores have been alleged by a number of studies, individuals, and organizations to proliferatefood deserts: areas with limited access to healthy and affordable food.[10][11][12][13][14] Dollar stores are alleged to outcompete local grocery stores, and end up being one of the few options available for purchasing food in some communities.[15][13] Dollar Tree has disputed this claim; it claimed that in a number of cases it created food options in food deserts.[11] In 2023, Dollar Tree reportedly stopped selling eggs when the price of eggs increased.[13] In line with these allegations, a number of U.S. states have passed restrictions on where new dollar stores can be opened.[15]
Miniso is a Chinese variety store chain that specializes in household and consumer goods includingcosmetics,stationery, toys, and kitchenware.[16] In 2016, the company's sales revenue reached $1.5 billion.[17] Miniso has expanded outside of the Chinese market and operates 1,800 stores in Asia, Europe,Oceania, Africa, North America, and South America.[18]
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2018)
In Japan,100-yen shops (百円ショップ hyaku-en shoppu or 百均 hyakkin) have proliferated since around 2001. This is considered an after-effect of a decade-long recession of the Japanese economy.[19] Despite the emphasis on value, however, some items, such as chocolate bars, may be priced higher than they are at other stores.
For a few years, 100-yen shops existed not as permanent stores, but as vendors under temporary, foldable tents. They were (and still are) typically found near the entrance areas of supermarkets.
A major player in 100-yen shops is theDaiso chain. The first store opened in 1991, and there are now around 2,400 stores in Japan. This number is increasing by around 40 stores per month. Daiso has also expanded into North America, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East.[20]
In China,¥2 (or ¥3, depending on the area's economic prosperity) shops have become a common sight in most cities. In Hong Kong, major department stores have opened their own$10 shops (US$1.28) to compete in the market, and there are now "$8 shops" (US$1.02) and even "$2 shops" (US$0.26) competing at lower prices, especially in poorer communities. Low prices are helped by Hong Kong's lack of a sales tax and its access to the mainland.
InTaiwan, fixed price stores can be found in many locations, including night markets, regular shopping streets, regular market stalls, and department stores. Two typical price points areNT$39 and NT$49. Given that the retail environment in Taiwan is already highly competitive, it is not unusual to see such stores fail.
In India,US Dollar Store, founded in 2003, is a pioneer of single price stores. The merchandise for pilot stores was sent from America. As sales grew over the years with more than 200 operational stores in India, the merchandise is now imported from China, Indonesia, Thailand, Spain, Portugal, UK and various other countries as well as the US. US Dollar stores were founded by entrepreneur Gaurav Sahni, owner of Nanson Overseas Private Limited. Nanson, operated by Gaurav Sahni and his brother Gautam Sahni, has had an established sourcing and consolidation network for over two decades, with supply bases worldwide. Direct sourcing without intermediaries and stocking a large variety of merchandise as and when needed has given the company an advantage.
InGermany, there areToBi (German:Total Billig, "Totally Inexpensive") stores where most items cost one or two Euro or less. Other chains includeAction,EuroShop,HEMA,Mäc-Geiz (240 stores),Pfennigland,Pfennigpfeiffer (110 stores),TEDi (1400 stores across Europe), Thomas Philipps (200 stores), andZeeman
InHungary there are100 forintos bolt ("100forints store") stores, but they do not form a single chain, instead of being operated by small, independent companies.
In theNetherlands:HEMA chain started in theNetherlands, sold goods using standard prices of 10, 25 or 50 cents, and later also 75 and 100 cents. AfterWorld War II, this model could not be sustained and the standard pricing system was abandoned.[21] HEMA is the abbreviation ofHollandish standardized prices company (Dutch:Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij). The HEMA had some 500 Dutch stores in 2011 and also operates in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and France. Since 2016 the chain is expanding in to other European countries such asSpain and theUnited Kingdom. Other chains includeAction,Big Bazar,Euroland, andZeeman.
InPortugal there wereTrezentos shops (300 escudos, €1.50), but with the introduction of the Euro currency, this designation is not used nowadays and the terms 'bazar' or 'euro store' are preferred. Chains includeEupoupo - Tudo a €0,99 ou €1,49
InSpain there areTodo a 100 shops ("everything for 100pesetas" (€0.60)), although due to the introduction of the euro and inflation, most products cost a multiple of €0.60 or €1. Most of these shops maintain their name inpesetas, and most of them have been renamed asCasi todo a 100 ("almost everything for 100 [pesetas]"),[22]Todo a 100, 300, 500 y más ("everything for 100, 300, 500 or more") orTodo a un euro. Colloquially, the expressiontodo a 100 implies that something is either cheap, kitsch or low quality.[citation needed]
InSweden: Bubbeltian, called by some Tian, a colloquialism for tenkronor, US$1.20. Another chain that has been spreading in Sweden during the last seven years isDollarstore, a chain where everything costs either 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and steps of 50 up to 500 kr.
In Russia,Fix Price started selling all its items at 30 roubles and as the business grew, up to 55 roubles. It has now cancelled this practice and has become a typicaldiscount store).
According to IBISWorld, dollar stores have grown 43 percent since 1998 and have become a $56 billion industry.Colliers International claims there are more dollar stores than drug stores. With stores of other types closing in large numbers, dollar stores often replace other types of stores in shopping centers. They succeed partly because ofimpulse purchases.[25] The common term in North America for a small general merchandise store isgeneral store.
Frank Winfield Woolworth had seen the success inMichigan andwestern New York of so-callednickel stores, where everything cost five cents (anickel). On February 22, 1879, Woolworth opened hisGreat Five Cent Store inUtica, New York, which created the American institution of the "five and dime", and became theF. W. Woolworth Company.
There were many names for this type of store:
five and ten cent store, five and ten, five and dime (adime is the name of a US ten-cent coin).[26]
Before Woolworth, the prevailing thought was that an entire store could not maintain itself with low-priced goods only, but with Woolworth's success, many others followed their lead.[29]
Of these, only Ben Franklin continues to exist in this form, while Kresge becameKmart and Walton's becameWalmart.Beginning around the 1960s, others tried the larger "discount store" format, such as TG&Y Family Centers,W. T. Grant, and Woolworth'sWoolco stores.[citation needed]
With suburbanization in the 1950s and 1960s, Americans shopped more and more in malls rather than downtown shopping districts and although Newberry's and Woolworth's stores did open in the malls, starting around the 1970s, variety stores lost business to other retail formats such as office stores, low-price shoe chains, fabric stores, toy stores and discount drug stores such asThrifty Drug Stores. Grocery stores and drug stores sold more and more candy.[31] The last US Woolworth's closed in 1997.[32] Newberry's was sold to McCrory, who maintained the brand, in 1972; McCrory itself went bankrupt in 1992 and all its brands disappeared in 2002.[33][34][35]
Starting in the late 1990s, dollar stores expanded enough to gain the attention of the national press. They were popular not only for their value but because freestanding smaller stores were located in small towns, downtowns, and across the cities and suburbs, they were often more convenient than mall stores.[36] They continued to grow and by 2019, for example,Dollar Tree had higher annual sales thanMacy's.[37] Dollar and variety store revenue reached $77 billion in 2018.[38]
As of 2018, main dollar store chains in the U.S. wereDollar General,Dollar Tree,[39] (which ownedFamily Dollar[39] until 2025), the99 Cents Only Stores, andFive Below. Increasing revenue has led to growth for dollar store chains: by 2018, Dollar Tree had 14,000 locations in the U.S., and its expansion continued; in 2019, Dollar General had 15,000 locations in the US, and its expansion continued; and Five Below had 745 stores.[40]
Dollar store, $1.25 store, 99-cent store, etc. in the United States and Canada plus other names. Dollar store is used predominantly, even when the maximum price is higher than one dollar. Some chains emphasize that the price is an even amount: $2, $5, etc., instead of having odd, "uneven" prices.
Dólar y Algo Extra, La Reina, Almacenes Caravana inPuerto Rico
dime store
Five and Dime
Five and Ten
Nickel and Dime
Nickel and Ten
5 y 10 in Puerto Rico, and in Mexico (5 and 10 pesos, or 5 and ten U.S. cents in border cities) - incidentally,Cinco y Diez, meaning "Five and Ten" in Spanish, became an inner-suburban shopping district in Tijuana
In Argentina, variety stores are calledtodo por dos pesos (everything for 2 pesos).
Brazilians sometimes use the expressionum e noventa e nove (R$ 1,99) to refer to cheap, low quality things or even people.
InChile, they are calledtodo a mil (referring to the one thousand Chilean pesos banknote). They are commonly located in middle-class neighbourhoods where big retail stores don't usually venture and in small commercial districts like the ones inSantiago.
Variety stores inColombia include Dollar City (Colombia version of Dollarama), D1, Ara,Miniso
In South America, variety stores may be known as:
Dolarazo (US$1.00) and Cincuentazo (US$0.50) inEcuador
^Hayward, Walter Sumner; White, Percival; Fleek, John Sherwood; MacIntyre, Harry (1922).Chain stores: their management and operation. McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc; printed by The Maple Press (York, Pennsylvania).
_-_2024-12-28.jpg)
.jpg)
Media related toVariety stores at Wikimedia Commons
