The Family Dollar/Dollar Tree store in Britt is closing, after it was announced last week that parent company Dollar Tree, Inc. will close nearly 1,000 stores. Officials blame low customer count and location between Algona and Forest City where there are stores with better customer count and sales. The Britt store has already begun to liquidate stock by marking down merchandise by as much as 50%.
Britt store manager Patsy Lansaw posted on Facebook that the entire store merchandise minus cigarettes and beer is 50% off this week. Next week the store merchandise will go to 75% off, followed by the third week at 90% off until everything is gone.
Dollar Tree, Inc. acquired Family Dollar for $8 billion in 2015. The acquisition encompassed all of the nearly 8,000 stores for Family Dollar nationwide including in 48 cities in Iowa. Dollar Tree, on the other hand, has twice as many stores nationwide and Canada with 61 cities in Iowa having at least one store.
Many of these closures would be when the lease agreements would expire, according to corporate officials. The Britt store lease expires in April. The store is the only site in operation in the Burgardt Commercial Park in Britt and is currently leased through MDC Coast 22, LLC headquartered in San Diego, CA. At this time, there is no anticipated replacement tenant. With current economic conditions during a period of still high inflation, while many area families say they are living paycheck to paycheck, stores like Family Dollar/Dollar Tree have allowed them to stretch their dollars.
Britt City Administrator Elizabeth Ibarra expressed concern for the employees and for the potential loss in tax revenue for the city. This unsettling news comes when the city of Britt has proposed a 1.022% tax rate increase and a $19,404 loss in tax generation overall. This is the third business in recent months that is closing or has closed in Britt. The others are the Cobbler Shoppe and Allen Auto & Tire, while the future of the Britt Golf Course is yet to be determined.
