Dollar Tree has now become Dollar-Twenty-Five Tree because of the recent change in prices, and customers are not happy about the sudden increase. Established in 1986, the dollar store chain was the latest of its kind to ditch its namesake prices, raising them to $1.25.
Since news broke of the franchise’s new prices, customers have taken to social media to express their frustration and anger. On YouTube, several influencers, such as user Josh Pray, shot videos of their own reactions to the price hike. In the comments, fellow Dollar Tree shoppers shared their thoughts.
“This is preposterous! I’m gonna have to investigate my local dollar tree! There’s going to have to be a name change if they’re gonna do that!” one shopper wrote.
Another said, “When they raise prices over a Dollar I will never walk in those doors ever again.”
Even Rhode Island beauty influencer, Leniza Costa, responded to Dollar Tree’s changes. According to Costa, she is a frequent customer of the franchise, but she doesn’t have a problem moving her shopping to Walmart to hunt for $1 deals.
“I wish they wouldn’t have done that because most of their shoppers are people who are not getting paid a lot of money,” said Costa, per CNN. “This is the worst time to increase the price, when everything else is so much.”
According to Dollar Tree’s CEO, Michael Witynski, the added quarter will help combat rising supply chain and labor costs. At the time of the announcement, he pledged that the company would raise prices any higher.
Dollar Tree May Begin to See Shortage in Customers
While customers have voiced their concerns about the new prices, the franchise, itself, has retained a positive outlook on the response.
“We have had a very positive response from the overwhelming majority of our customers around the $1.25 price point and the extreme value and broader product selection it has enabled, especially in these inflationary times,” a Dollar Tree spokesperson said in an email to CNN. “We look forward to providing more details on this initiative during our next earnings call.”
But the numbers don’t seem to match this sentiment.
The franchise administered the $1.25 prices to more than 2,000 of its 8,700 U.S. stores in December. Already, Dollar Tree has seen a drop in sales. Coresight Research conducted a weekly online survey of around 500 consumers and found a “6.2% drop from December 27 to January 3 in the number of customers who said they had bought non-food items at Dollar Tree compared to the prior two weeks.”
This decline almost doubled for shoppers in the age range of 45 to 60. While these figures are based on only one week’s worth of data, they may point to consumers’ resistance against the new prices.
