Dollar Tree, Inc. to Acquire Family Dollar Stores, Inc. to Create North America's....

[steve2470]

Dollar Tree, Inc. to Acquire Family Dollar Stores, Inc. to Create North America's Leading Discount Retailer

(yes the actual headline)

http://preview.tinyurl.com/nyt4a52 (real url is gigantic)

Will Operate More Than 13,000 Stores Across 48 States and Five Canadian Provinces, with Annual Sales Exceeding $18 Billion

Will Continue to Operate and Grow Both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Brands, Offering Fixed- and Multi-Price Point Formats to Provide Consumers Greater Value, Convenience and Choice

Expected to Achieve an Estimated $300 Million in Annual Run Rate Synergies by the End of the Third Year Post-Closing

Estimated to be Accretive to Cash EPS within the First Year Post-Closing

more at link

[Armstead]

1. I normally dislike monopoistic mergers....But in this case Family Dollar is so shitty...

..that it could only be an improvement.

Dollar Tree where I live is actually fairly well-managed, and a good source of cheap stuff. I wouldn't buy a hammer there for fear the head wold fall off, but they have a lot of things that you can buy for $1 that is similar to what you're pay $3 or $4 or more for elsewhere.

Family Dollar on the otehr hand, is often just as expensive as the mainstream supermarkets and discount stores, they sell a lot of dubius crap and their aisles are filled with unpacked shipping boxes.

[linuxman]

2. Couldn't agree more.

Dollar tree is cool and has it's uses. Sometimes you need a $1.00 glass serving tray that you don't mind leaving at the party.

Family Dollar is a shitty Walmart with poor selections.

[lpbk2713]

8. This is true.

Just a few days ago I decided to go to the local Big Lots just because I hadn't been there in a while. I found several items marked three and four dollars that I know I could get for a buck at the the local Dollar Tree. And the Dollar Tree is a lot closer to my home. I wouldn't buy food items there or health/medical type items but you can't beat the prices otherwise.

[GoCubsGo]

11. Often, one CAN beat dollar store prices at a regular grocery store.

I often find better deals using coupons with grocery store sales. It's especially great when the store doubles coupons. For instance, one of my local chains has a deal on certain brands of toiletries (shampoo, etc.). One has to buy 5 items to get the discount, but if one has the right coupons, one can get them all for free. I pretty much did that this morning. Got a free toothbrush on top of it.

But, yeah, there are some things in the Dollar Tree that can't be beat. BTW, the majority of their food is actuallypretty good. Most of the name-brand products are just discontinued stuff, or closeouts from chains that went under. Nothing wrong with them. A lot of the cookies and jams are from Europe, Canada, and Turkey, and are quite good. Better than any of the big US food conglomerate products, actually. I see a lot of brands from other regions popping up there every so often, too. I just avoid anything produced in China, which is my general rule of thumb when it comes to food, drugs and toiletries.

[TlalocW]

3. I wonder how this will affect my sister's hobby

Of finding items that have been, "pennied out." Dollar General has some sort of system that you can figure out from the tags what items have been on the shelf long enough that they just cost a penny. The store employees are supposed to remove them - supposed to. She's showed up at my place to show her latest haul of clothes, toys, etc. that have filled her car's entire back seat which cost her less than $5. She used to donate them through her job which works with foster kids, but she was let go so now the Ronald McDonald House has been the recipient of her charity wrath.

TlalocW

[RoverSuswade]

4. The big question is:

Will they call it the "Family Dollar Tree" ?

[davidpdx]

6. You are confused

That's Wal-Mart

[RoverSuswade]

9. No

Walmart is "The Chinese Dollar Tree"

[davidpdx]

13. That is a good one

I remember people used to make fun of K-Mart and call it K-mart fall-apart. I guess it should be Wal-Mart fall-apart now.

[CK_John]

5. Their next target will probably be Kmart/Sears.

[davidpdx]

7. Last I heard Kmart/Sears was still in pretty big trouble

That was a stupid merger. Kmart should have just gone bankrupt. They can't keep competitive anymore and are kind of a relic like JC Penny's. Sears in my opinion was worth saving as it is a good brand.

[Liberal Veteran]

10. I usually like to hit the clearance racks for clothing at Sears.

You can get some pretty decent deals on stuff they are trying to rid themselves of.

[davidpdx]

14. I live in South Korea and finding anything that fits

Well good luck with that if you aren't super skinny. I just came home on vacation and have a list of stuff to bring back. Lots of clothes to buy. We may try Sears at some point. I'm just really picky about clothes.

[jmowreader]

12. Dollar Tree is the ONLY place to go for drinking glasses!

They charge $12 per dozen and most of what they have is Libbey - a good brand.

Family Dollar, OTOH, is worse than Walmart. Hopefully the people running Dollar Tree not only fire the people currently running Family Dollar, but work hard to ensure the only jobs they can get involve asking people if they want fries with that.