99 Cents stores to close down all 371 locations

[TBoneTX 45,251]

This used to be one of my favorite stores; in fact, Mrs. T-B. & I would drive 12 miles to what was then the nearest one to us.  However, they went straight to hell even before the lockdown.  Almost nothing was 99.9999 cents any longer, shelves were bare, and the stores all looked trashed-out.  Will miss my memory of them, but not "them now."

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99 Cents stores to close down all 371 locations

 

Shoppers across large swaths of the country are mourning the bargains they'll soon never bag again behind the bright-pink-branded storefronts.

99 Cents Only Stores — a discount chain with stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada — is winding down its business operations at all 371 locations, the company said Thursday.

After more than four decades in business, the chain has succumbed to financial pressures affecting many retail spaces coming out of the pandemic, including inflation and shrinkage — a term for inventory losses due to factors such as shoplifting, employee error and product damage.  [...]

 

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/05/1243072754/99-cent-stores-close-california-arizona

[TBoneTX 45,251]

California 99 Cents Only Stores May Be Saved—Investors Hearken Back to a 'Treasure Hunt' Form of Shopping

 

The former president of Big Lots (formerly Pic 'N' Save) is putting together a group of investors to save the 99 Cents Only Store locations in California.  On Friday, the stores' operators began liquidation of the merchandise and fixtures at locations, and that will continue.  But 90 days after the completion of the closures, the investors hope to do a grand reopening of the 143 California outlets with a return to the original vision of the bargain hunt, found treasure atmosphere.  [...]

 

https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2024/04/06/99-cents-only-store-may-be-saved-in-california-this-group-of-customers-is-priced-out-of-other-chains-n2172415

[Dashinka 24,479]

Honestly never heard of them, must be regional.

[Pooky 3,780]

They’re being shut down because it’s too much effort to shoplift enough to get close to the felony limit but not over it and still be able to walk out of the store. 😗

[TBoneTX 45,251]

13 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Honestly never heard of them, must be regional.

They're in the 4 states mentioned in the original article.  There are so many 99 Cents stores around, I thought they were national.  Guess their shutdown won't hurt as many people, then.

 

They ceased to be a destination for me, but I was always willing to pop in when near one.  Now, I'll have to time the always-uncertain shutdown process to still have a selection of items but at a decent percentage discount.

[TBoneTX 45,251]

I didn't know that the discounts were already this big.  I'd better visit pronto.

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Scary Bidenomics:  Say Good-Bye to 99 Cents Only Stores

 

All of the more than 300 99 Cents Only stores across the country are closing down.

 

This doesn't just affect the shoppers who depend on low prices but it will be a loss of jobs for the workers in the stores.

 

Right now everything is 30% off and business is brisk in the California-based chain.  Shoppers are stocking up and many are waiting in line to get inside a store.  [...]

 

https://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2024/04/08/scary-bidenomics-say-good-bye-to-99-cents-stores-n3786098

[TBoneTX 45,251]

I visited probably the nearest store, ~12 miles away.

Regarding the discounts, the reporter above was uncharacteristically wrong.

Cleaning/paper products, personal care, frozen foods, and milk/butter are only 5% off.

Canned goods and refrigerated deli products are 10% off.

Only some other stuff is 30% off.

Regardless, the store was mobbed, with 3 register lanes heavily populated.

 

Chief among my purchases were a dozen cans of Dinty Moore beef stew for $2.70 each.

The price was better than elsewhere, and I wanted to stock up while the product was available.

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The process behind store-closures has always fascinated me:

 -- the start-to-finish timing*, of course dependent on individual factors like bankruptcy

 -- the stagewise reductions in price

 -- the products chosen for biggest reductions

 -- what products consumers wait on or pounce on at what reduction level

 -- what's left over when the whole store is 80% to 90% off during its last days

 

*In response to my query, the cashier predicted a couple of months, because they had product in warehouses that would be delivered.  I did notice staff stocking shelves.

 

I wonder whether any research has been done to indicate how store-closures are best done, and whether there are any journal papers on the subject.

 

Edited April 10 by TBoneTX

[TBoneTX 45,251]

Interesting article.  I certainly agree with the analysis of Family Dollar.

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Dollar stores are shutting down across America.  They did this to themselves

 

[...] Years of strategic mistakes and underinvestment have plagued Family Dollar and 99 Cents Only, retail analysts say.  [...]

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dollar-stores-shutting-down-across-103026987.html