The Smithville Family Dollar branch will be a casualty of the retailer’s plans to close 370 stores and slow the pace of new store growth. It was recently announced that the local store, which has been in operation since 1986, will be closing due to declining sales and lower profits company wide for the second quarter of 2014. Company representatives said plans are to cut prices on many items in its stores in hopes of attracting more shoppers as well.
Howard R. Levine, chairman and CEO of Family Dollar Inc., cited higher than expected promotional costs and low sales during the 2013 holiday season and severe winter weather for the dilemma.
While the company did not release a list of locations it plans to close, officials said they were generally older stores with sales of about half of the average annual sales amount per store of $650,000.
While no date has been set for the closing of the Smithville store, the company expects most of the store closures to occur in the last half of this year. Local employees said the expect the store to close near the end of June.
The company also said it will be slowing new store growth beginning in fiscal 2015. It now plans to open 350 to 400 new stores in fiscal 2015, down from the 525 it had planned.
Family Dollar currently operates more than 8,100 stores across 46 states.