“Family Dollar is really reasonable,” said Carmen Williams, 63, who lives near the store and visits it several times every week. “I like Family Dollar.”
The companies say they are closing underperforming stores. But some West Dayton residents say they feel that once again their neighborhoods are getting overlooked by corporations while other parts of the community continue to see new businesses move in.
Closing time
The Family Dollar at 440 N. James H. McGee Blvd. in Dayton’s Roosevelt planning area is going to shut down, possibly within weeks.
The store is selling all items at 30% off. In coming days or weeks, the store is expected to offer even steeper discounts.
Dollar Tree Inc., which owns the Family Dollar and Dollar Tree chains, announced last week that it plans to close about 600 Family Dollar locations in the first half of this year and about 370 stores in the next several years when their leases are up.
A company spokesperson said, “In the fourth quarter of 2023 we initiated a comprehensive review of our store portfolio to identify and address underperforming stores and invest in improved store standards and growth.”
Family Dollar has more than 8,000 stores in the United States and Canada, including about 25 in Montgomery County, three locations in Miami County and a few stores in Greene County, according to records and information from local public health departments.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office says Family Dollar has about 460 stores in Ohio. ScrapeHero, a data services company, says Ohio has more Family Dollar stores than all but two other states, Texas and Florida.
Meanwhile, a Walgreens store at 4121 Hoover Ave. also plans to shut down on April 1. The store, which opened around 2000, is about 1.5 miles away from the Family Dollar.
A Walgreens spokesperson said the store is closing because foot traffic has declined, leading to “an unsustainable business performance.”
“We are sorry for the inconvenience. We know that our customers and patients rely on our stores and trust our team members for their healthcare needs,” said Marty Maloney, a spokesman. “And, when we must close a store, it affects them and their community. Our priority is to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and team members during this time.”
Issues
Williams said Family Dollar has really good prices that often beat the big box stores, like Walmart. She said she purchases a wide variety of items at the store, such as food, drinks, detergent, clothing and home goods.
Williams said the neighborhood definitely will miss the Family Dollar store when it closes. She wishes it wasn’t going to shut down but admits she’s looking forward to the going-out-of-business sales.
On a recent weekday, 65-year-old Rokeiver Johnson swung by the Family Dollar to pick up tomato sauce to make spaghetti.
Family Dollar stores sell food items like canned goods and frozen meals.
Johnson said he’s not pleased that he’ll soon have a longer drive to get household goods and food.
“How much is gas now? You do the math,” he said. “Either way you look at it, I’m losing money. I have to travel farther to get my groceries.”
Other Family Dollar shoppers say that section of West Dayton already has limited shopping options and losing popular chain stores isn’t going to help.
Multiple community members also said the closure of the Walgreens will hurt an area that is already a “medical desert” that has limited access to medical and pharmacy services.
“This will leave us without another resource in our neighborhood,” said Tasha Rountree, a West Dayton resident.
She said senior citizens who live in the neighborhood no longer will be able to walk to the pharmacy to get their medications.
There are other places to shop on James H. McGee Boulevard and Gettysburg Avenue, near the Walgreens. The Family Dollar shares a parking lot with Mor for Less, a food market, and there’s also a Dollar General store less than 0.4 miles south on James H. McGee Boulevard.
However, multiple shoppers told this newspaper that they prefer Family Dollar to other businesses, like Dollar General. They said some people walk to the Family Dollar and the company’s other locations aren’t in walking distance from where they live.
Dollar stores often are found in low-income and minority communities, where residents have less access to transportation, said Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.
“If the dollar stores are closing because their market viability is shrinking because of compounding loss of employment/wages/population in a given neighborhood that foretells an even worse economic scenario for those residents,” she said.
Ken Marcellus, chair of the West Priority Land Use Board, said West Dayton residents rely on Walgreens and Family Dollar for their goods and services and it’s frustrating that decisions about closing these stores are being made by corporate leaders and not at the local level.
He said community members understandably feel taken advantage of by these companies because they move in, make money and then leave whenever they want, with no thought about what will happen to the people they served.
Marcellus said he wishes there was a way for communities to hold these companies accountable.
“There’s going to be a short-term and a long-term impact, because where do these people go, how do they get there?” he said.
Some jurisdictions have tried to crack down on dollar stores through new legislation.
A variety of cities, including Akron, Chicago and Tulsa, have passed ordinances that prohibit small box discount stores from opening near each other, often within one mile.
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