Dollar Tree CEO ‘encouraged’ by price changes made at 1,600 stores with thousands left to ‘convert’ after shopper outcry

DOLLAR Tree’s CEO has said he’s encouraged by the recent price hikes across 1,600 stores, despite shopper outrage.

The bargain retailer announced it would increase its price cap from $1.50 to $7 in March, leaving customers furious .

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Dollar Tree

CEO Rick Dreiling said Wednesday the plan was to continue transforming the discount store despite feeling “immense pressures” from uncontrollable external factors, such as inflation.

“We are encouraged by the continuous progress we are making in the transformation underway at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, despite immense pressures from a challenging macro environment,” he said in a statement after the company’s second fiscal quarter results were released.

It comes after it was announced that customers would see merchandise price increase between $1.50 and $7 in March.

During the fourth-quarter earnings call, it was confirmed that over 300 items would get a price point adjustment.

Since the announcement, Dreiling said the changes are sitting well with its customers.

“Customers are responding favorably to initiatives like our expanded multi-price offering and we are already seeing a meaningful sales lift at the 1,600 Dollar Tree stores that have been converted to our newest in-line multi-price format,” Dreiling stated.

Despite his comments, the price changes haven’t sat well with a number of shoppers.

“Just call it 7 below… No longer a dollar,” wrote one Facebook user.

“Dollar Tree not even a dollar anymore… what has the world come to??????” said another.

This isn’t the first time the discount giant has changed their price range.

In 2021, items went from $1 to $1.25. Last year, in June, the price cap was increased to $5.

With the new initiatives, Dreiling revealed that thousands of stores will convert to the new prices during the rollout.

“With thousands of stores left to convert, we believe we are still in the very early innings of this rollout, with many years of runway left ahead of us,” said the CEO.

Additionally, they’ve opened 127 new Dollar Tree locations despite announcing the closure of underperforming stores.

ALL-TIME LOW

While Dollar Tree plans to open new locations, Chief Operating Officer Mike Creedon shared reasons shoppers stopped turning to the chain for deals.

“Beginning this quarter, we started to see inflation, interest rates, and other macro pressures have a more pronounced impact on the buying behavior of these customers,” Creedon shared.

Dollar Tree Second-Quarter Highlights

During the Second-Quarter Fiscal 2024 report, CEO Rick Dreiling revealed a plan to expand their multi-price locations to thousands of stores. Here are a few highlights from the statement.

• “Customers are responding favorably to initiatives like our expanded multi-price offering and we are already seeing a meaningful sales lift at the 1,600 Dollar Tree stores that have been converted to our newest in-line multi-price format,” he said in a statement.
• “With thousands of stores left to convert, we believe we are still in the very early innings of this rollout, with many years of runway left ahead of us,” he continued.
• 127 new Dollar Stree locations have opened
• Dollar Tree looking to make between $30.6 billion to $30.9 billion within the 2025 fiscal year

During the fourth-quarter earnings call, Dollar Tree shared they would be closing at least 1,000 dollar stores in the coming years.

Dollar Tree, who bought Family Dollar in 2015, said they would close 600 Family Dollar locations within the first half of this year.

Additionally, they revealed they would close about 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores over the coming years.

Dollar Tree currently has over 16,000 stores across 48 states and five in Canadian provinces.

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