Dozens of recently closed 99 Cents Only stores across the Southland could reopen with another bargain retailer’s logo outside: Dollar Tree.
The Chesapeake, Va.-based company, which operates hundreds of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores in California, announced Wednesday that it had taken control of the leases at 170 recently shuttered locations of 99 Cents Only, which announced last month that it was going out of business.
As part of the deal, which Dollar Tree executives said was approved by a bankruptcy court in Delaware, it also acquired 99 Cents Only’s North American intellectual property and some furniture and equipment from inside its stores.
“Dollar Tree looks forward to welcoming customers from 99 Cents Only Stores as early as fall 2024,” the statement reads.
The development, first reported by the Orange County Register, involves a handful of stores in Arizona, Nevada and Texas, but the vast majority are in Southern California, including in Lancaster, North Hollywood, Burbank, Long Beach and Riverside, according to a LinkedIn post from Bill Read, executive vice president of the real estate firm Retail Specialists.
A representative for 99 Cents Only could not be reached.
The 99 Cents Only chain — a longtime icon of L.A.’s discount retail world — started in 1982 with a single store on La Tijera Boulevard and expanded rapidly.
Before the City of Commerce company abruptly announced its closure in April — citing several factors, including shifting consumer demands and inflation — the chain had 371 locations.
But shelves quickly emptied out during liquidation sales, and several of the locations today are covered in graffiti.
Dollar Tree has faced financial turmoil of its own.
In 2014, Dollar Tree Inc. announced a plan to buy its big rival Family Dollar Stores Inc. for more than $8 billion — an acquisition that, according to the company’s website, brought its total to 15,000 stores. But this year, Dollar Tree announced a plan to close nearly 1,000 locations, including about 600 Family Dollar stores, in the first half of 2024, as well as several other Dollar Tree stores in the years ahead.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.