Business Insider/Jessica Tyler Dollar Tree and Five Below both had a lot to offer, but Dollar Tree was a mess.
- Dollar stores are having a moment. Dollar-store sales in the United States grew from $30.4 billion in 2010 to $45.3 billion in 2015.
- Dollar Tree currently has 14,000 locations, with plans to open hundreds more in 2018. Comparable sales were up 1.8% at Dollar Tree in the second quarter.
- While not a traditional dollar store in that its products are priced up to $5, Five Below currently has 625 stores, and it plans to open 50 more this quarter alone. In the second quarter of 2018, Five Below's comparable sales grew by 2.7%.
- We shopped at Dollar Tree and Five Below and found that Five Below offered a superior shopping experience.
Dollar stores have been growing like crazy over the past few years.
From 2010 to 2015, dollar-store sales grew from $30.4 billion to $45.3 billion in the United States. Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar have all announced plans to open hundreds of stores this year.
Dollar Tree, which recently acquired the Family Dollar chain, currently has around 14,000 locations. In the second quarter of 2018, Dollar Tree reported comparable sales were up 1.8%. USA Today reported that Dollar Tree plans to open 350 more namesake locations, 300 new Family Dollar locations, and rebrand 50 Family Dollar locations as Dollar Tree stores.
While not a traditional dollar store in that its products are priced up to $5, Five Below announced its own plans to grow earlier this year. In the second quarter of 2018, Five Below's comparable sales grew by 2.7%. It has opened 67 new stores so far in 2018 and plans to open another 50 this quarter in addition to the 625 stores it already operates, CEO Joel Anderson said in an earnings call last week.
One of those stores will be a flagship location on New York's Fifth Avenue, one of the most expensive shopping destinations in the US, CNBC reported.
We compared what it's like to shop at the two rapidly growing dollar stores and found that one offered a far better experience. Here's the verdict: