Dollar Tree has opened 75 new stores in a three-month period with discount chains’ sales booming as Americans report feeling greater levels of financial stress.
The chain did not reveal where the new locations are in its April-June earnings report last week. The openings made up less than 1 percent of the company’s 9,436 stores across the U.S. and Canada.
Dollar Tree, where most items are priced at $1.25, saw overall sales grow by 7 percent in the past year. CEO Mike Creedon said the store had put together a plan in 2025 to increase the number and type of products it offered and make prices more competitive.
“We are enhancing our assortment accordingly so that it is broader and appeals to a wider spectrum of income levels,” he said during the earnings call.
Bargain stores such as Dollar Tree and Dollar General are well-positioned to open new locations, in part, because their store footprints are relatively small, according to retail consultants Retail Strategies.
“Many value retailers operate stores between 8,000 and 25,000 square feet, making it easier to fit into existing buildings,” the company wrote in an April article.
While a big-box retailer like Walmart typically builds new locations instead of occupying existing facilities, bargain stores can do the opposite because of their compact size.
Dollar Tree has seen sales rise from shoppers across all income tiers, including lower-income households who are feeling the greatest squeeze on budgets from rising prices on gas and other necessities. U.S. inflation has risen from 2.4 percent in February to 3.4 percent today. The Iran war has pushed gas prices past $4.
“As our customers look for ways to stretch their dollars, they are increasingly turning to Dollar Tree,” Creedon said.
Dollar Tree has also revamped its stores to be “cleaner and brighter” and easier to shop at, the company said.
The broad shift to discount chains has seen shoppers heading to Dollar Tree, Dollar General and low-price big-box stores such as Walmart to stretch their dollars.
“We’re seeing … that $100,000-plus cohort that’s trading in,” Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said during a June earnings call.
“When [the gas] price hits that $4 mark and then crosses it and then sustains for a while, you start to see that trade-in come in and you start to see that our core customer needs us most. It's exactly what's happening.”
Dollar General’s sales increased in the second quarter of 2026, rising 5.2 percent, or about 75 percent higher than sales growth in the second quarter of 2025. The Dollar Tree competitor opened 125 stores from April to June.
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