NEW YORK — Family Dollar will close nearly 400 stores this year and make big changes to the stores it is keeping open as the discount chain seeks a turnaround.
Family Dollar sells a variety of items for under $10 at rural and urban locations. Dollar Tree bought the company in 2015. But Family Dollar has struggled, and Dollar Tree is under heavy pressure from an activist investor to sell or revitalize the ailing line.
Dollar Tree, which sells everything for $1 and caters more to mid-income customers with suburban stores, has a plan for Family Dollar: Close stores, re-brand some locations as Dollar Tree, and renovate others with $1 Dollar Tree merchandise sections.
“We are confident we are taking the appropriate steps to reposition our Family Dollar brand,” Dollar Tree CEO Gary Philbin said in a news release Wednesday.
The company have not released a list of the stores that will be closing.
