By this summer, International Falls will be home to two, “dollar” stores.
Family Dollar Inc. is gutting the former Snyder Drug Store at Eleventh Street and Highway 53 to make way for its latest venture across the nation. It should be open by this summer sometime, a company spokeswoman said this week.
Family Dollar also will have a familiar rival, Dollar Tree, at 1905 Valley Pine Circle, off Highway 11 near the mall, Menards, County Market and Kmart. But no one from either of the behemoth companies or the city seemed concerned at all.
Some city leaders said there appears to be plenty demand for the low-lost, high-volume shops in the Falls, especially considering the difficult financial times America still faces. And the stores, while they sound similar, do not necessarily carry the same kind of products.
Not everything is a buck at the stores.
Dollar Tree items are sold for $1 or less with lots of variety, such as snacks and beauty products, along with the option to buy party and school supplies individually or bulk, the latter particularly online.
Meanwhile, Family Dollar is arranged in more of a supermarket or “price-point” setting focusing more on food, clothing and household items in the $1 to $10 range.
The stores will be located off the city’s two major highways and far apart.
At-Large City Councilor Pete Kalar applauded the company for investing in the Highway 53 corridor into town and taking over a vacant space in one of the city’s most visible locales.
“The building will get spruced up, and they are on different ends of town,” Kalar noted.
“There are many communities around the country in which we are in direct competition from other small-box retailers,” wrote Bryn Winburn, public relations manager for Family Dollar out of Matthews, N.C., when asked about the competition in a small town, but with a lot of international transit and tourism.
She said she’d provide a specific opening date when it becomes known.
“Our team and connection to the local community help us maintain that neighborhood feeling in our stores, and we feel the compelling shopping experience we provide, will allow us to keep customers coming back to Family Dollar,” Winburn wrote in an email to The Journal this week.
In fact, according to the companies’ websites, Family Dollar has more than 7,600 stores in 45 states, almost half of which opened over the past decade.
And by the end of 2012, Dollar Tree was no sapling either.
It had built more than 4,500 stores in 48 states and counting with $7 billion in sales. A great deal of Dollar Tree’s growth also occurred since 2000.
Both also are publicly traded companies, have Southern roots, (Family Dollar is based out of Chesapeake, Va.) and do not sell franchises.
Dollar Tree’s history dates back about 50 years through acquisitions of dimestores such as Ben Franklin, while the Dollar Store got its start around the same time and stuck with its original concept.
Kelly Meyers, Falls city building inspector, said Family Dollar acquired the storefront some time ago. They just began remodeling the building more than a week ago with mostly their own contractors, he said.
A Dollar Tree spokesman did not immediately return messages including comments.
