Dollar Express Chain Sells Out To Competitor Dollar General After 1.5 Years

Image courtesy of Waldo Jaquith

Remember back in 2014, when two different retailers fought for the affections of Family Dollar? Dollar Express, the new retail chain born because federal regulators required the chains to sell off stores to preserve competition, has been acquired by competitor Dollar General.

Back in 2014 when Dollar Tree’s acquisition of Family Dollar went through, the company sold off 330 stores to a new chain, Dollar Express. The Federal Trade Commission required this sale, or divestiture, to keep any one company from controlling too much of the discount store market in area where the two chains overlapped too much.

There were two different types of stores involved in this transaction, dollar stores and dollar-ish stores.

The hometown paper of Dollar Express, the Charlotte Observer, reports that the chain has been sold to competing discount chain Dollar General.

The Observer reports that at least some store employees have been told that they will lose their jobs in June if the FTC approves the sale, and their stores will be liquidated. There are about 100 employees who work at the Charlotte headquarters of the company whose jobs are also at risk if the sale goes through. The company would not elaborate on its plans for stores or employees to the Observer.

Whether individual stores stay open or not may depend on how many nearby Dollar General stores there are. Dollar General announced last year that it would expand, opening as many as 2,000 additional stores and remodel hundreds more, but hasn’t yet announced how the Dollar Express acquisition fits into those plans.

(via Drug Store News)

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