North Carolina-based Family Dollar Stores has confirmed plans to open seven stores in the Fresno-Clovis Area.
And there could be more since the company has announced the opening of as many as 500 stores nationwide by August.
Economic experts say we're living in a dollar store economy where every consumer, not just those with low incomes, want to save money.
The manager at the Dollar Tree store at Cedar and shepherd in North Fresno says business is slow right now. That may be, but the registers are constantly ringing up merchandise from cleaning supplies to party supplies to school supplies.
Mona Cummings lives close by. She said she shops at the Dollar Tree at least once a month.
Cummings says, "I bought cards, sympathy cards, thank you cards and then I bought a dictionary for my daughter for school."
While many retail outlets have seen sales continue to slip, financial anxiety has actually been a boon to dollar stores.
According to the New York Times, sales at the three largest national dollar store chains were up at least five percent in the first quarter of this year.
Dollar General, which operates 98-hundred stores nationwide, plans to open 50 new stores in California this year including one in Clovis in a former Save Mart store on the corner of Minnewawa and Clovis.
An independently-owned Dollar Mania store at Willow and Nees in Clovis opened just as the economy began to decline, but owner Chuck Calvert says his store has been successful and much of his clientele is what he calls "higher end."
Calvert says, "It's a value, and everybody wants a value, and if you can get something at a third of the price or a quarter of the price than what you can get at a drugstore.Then, why not?"
Fresno State marketing professor Bill Rice says it's that value, plus the availability of cheap disposable items and inexpensive seasonal products that draws customers in -- Customers in any income bracket.
Says Rice, "This is an events store. You'll notice that one third of the store is dedicated to like Valentine's, Christmas, Easter, and they change the whole thing and you can buy an unbelievable amount of things for a party and events and things connected to those events here."
Bill Rice and other economists expect the popularity of dollar stores will not likely decline anytime soon since those one dollar values have survived in any economy for as many as 25 years.
