Dollar Tree stores are raising prices above $1 for the first time in 35 years.
Image by Scott Olson / Getty
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Photos by Scott Olson / Getty
Dollar Tree stores are raising prices above $1 for the first time in 35 years.
Image by Scott Olson / Getty
For 35 years, discount chain Dollar Tree is committed to selling almost anything for $1. It’s time to pass: The price of most items will go up to $1.25.
Each year, the value of the dollar is eroded by inflation, making the commitment to the dollar price harder to maintain. Last monthInflation reached its highest level since 1990.
Dollar Tree’s competitors have shied away from the strict $1 price tag – or even $5, in the case of the Year Below. Now, the last sticky player is conceding a goal. Dollar Tree plans to roll out the higher prices to all stores as early as 2022.
The company has been testing higher-priced products for months, adding to Dollar Tree Plus stores with products at $3 and $5. In September, the company said shoppers have had a “positive response,” and announced plans to try $1.25 and $1.50 at select brick-and-mortar Dollar Tree locations. On Tuesday, it says the test has also produced “extremely positive” results from undisturbed shoppers.
To comply with the $1 restriction, the discount chain had to stop selling some products and sizes – which it hopes will return to its store shelves.
Dollar Tree CEO Michael Witynski argues that a price increase above $1 “is not a response to short-term or transient market conditions”. in a statement. But Witynski also added that “additional price points [affords Dollar Tree] More flexibility to manage the overall business, especially in a volatile, inflationary environment. ”
Dollar Stores is one of the fastest growing chains in America, hundreds more locations during the pandemic.
