99¢ – Hiring Again

Fans of the recently shuttered 99 Cents Only stores across the Southland received a glimmer of retail hope Wednesday when the owners of competitor Dollar Tree announced that the company has acquired leasing rights for 170 of the closed locations.

“As we continue to execute on our accelerated growth strategy for the Dollar Tree brand, this was an attractive opportunity to secure leases in priority markets where we see strong profitable growth potential,” Michael Creedon Jr., Dollar Tree’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “The portfolio complements our existing footprint and will provide us access to high quality real estate assets in premium retail centers, enabling us to rapidly grow the Dollar Tree brand across the western United States, reaching even more customers and communities.”

According to the Virginia-based Dollar Tree, the leases it acquired were for former 99 Cents Only locations in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. The company did not provide a specific list of locations, however, Bill Read of the real estate firm Retail Specialists published a list online that includes dozens of locations across Southern California.

The Commerce-based operators of 99 Cents Only stores announce in April that the company was closing all 371 of its locations, and it immediately began holding liquidation sales that led to rapid clearing of store shelves.

CEO Mike Simoncic said in a statement at the time that “the last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment, including the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting consumer demand, rising levels of shrink, persistent inflationary pressures and other macroeconomic headwinds, all of which have greatly hindered the company’s ability to operate.”

The 99 Cents Only stores were founded in 1982.

Dollar Tree officials said the company could reopen some of the locations as early as this fall.