Dollar Tree Is Making a Big Change To Its Prices That Shoppers Say Is 'Not Cool'

Is it only a matter of time before shoppers are calling the retail giant Ten Dollar Tree?

Dotdash Meredith / Janet Maples

Let it be known that I am the neighborhood Dollar Tree hype girl! For years, the store has been my go-to for a wide spectrum of things. Items like birthday decorations, cards, stocking stuffers, trinkets I know my toddler and her friends will play with just once or twice before losing interest, fun arts and crafts activities, to-go containers for sending dinner guests home with leftovers, educational supplies for skill-building with my toddler at home, wrapping paper, disposable kitchenware and party platters, and even groceries. I will (and do) tell anyone, from near and far, to pay their closest Dollar Tree a visit.

Devoted Dollar Tree shoppers are quite disgruntled after recent reports revealed that the popular discount store plans to implement major leaps in prices across different departments. "This year, across 3,000 stores, we expect to expand our multi-price assortment by over 300 items at price points ranging from $1.50 to $7," Dollar Tree CEO Rick Dreiling said in a fourth-quarter earnings call on March 13, according to multiple media outlets. Read on to learn more about what to expect, and what the changes mean for Dollar Tree shoppers.

Dollar Tree Is Raising Its Pricing

Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar in 2015. The store was applauded for reliability and honest advertising, sticking firmly to a storewide $1 base price. Many other stores with the same “discount friendly” business model tend to claim items cost a dollar, but that’s not actually the case once you start shopping. Jumping ahead to June 2021, Dollar Tree announced an increase in its base price for in-store items, shifting from $1 to $1.25. With this upcoming shift in pricing, as well as the integration of new products, the base price will be increased storewide once again, jumping from $1.25 to $1.50.

But that's just the starting price for items in the store—the store is going to price items at different levels with the highest items costing up to $7. Higher cost items will include food, snacks, drinks, pet supplies, and personal care items. “Over time you will also see us fully integrate multi-price merchandise into our stores, so our shoppers will find $5 bags of dog food next to our traditional $1.25 pet treats and toys. And our $3 bags of candy will be found in the candy aisle," Dreiling said. "This is the next exciting chapter of the Dollar Tree value story. New items, more choices and more savings." Fortunately, while the cap is $7, not all items will be affected by the increase.

Why Is Dollar Tree Raising Prices?

Not only are we living in an unpredictable inflation nation. But also, in a case of what we can now call foreshadowing, Dollar Tree previously capped their max price at $5.00 back in June 2023. Given the state of price jumps nationwide, this doesn’t come as a complete shock. But it's still a disappointment for people who not only enjoy discount and bargain shopping at Dollar Tree, but for individuals living on an extremely tight budget, and who have relied upon the store for household staples like toiletries, personal care items, cleaning products, cooking tools, and more.

Reports also allude to the possibility that the price increase may also be a direct response to the fact that in 2023, most Dollar Tree shoppers were coming from households with a higher net worth. Yahoo! Finance reports that “as prices for food and other household goods increase, more high earners are shopping at discount retailers, including Dollar Tree, Aldi and Five Below.”

Dollar Tree Is Adding Even More Items to Stores

As the company prepares to increase its prices, there is some comfort to having dug a little deeper into this news. After all, not everything will cost $7, and plenty of in-store items will still have a price tag of $1.50, which is still a great deal for something that may cost nearly four times the price at other stores.

In addition to this, new items will be available on shelves. I can personally and honestly share that back when the cap jumped to $5 in June of 2023, it did not impact my shopping experience, as the majority of items I generally turn to Dollar Tree for did not change in price beyond the base increase to $1.25. That being said, is anyone else starting to feel a little less comfortable calling the store Dollar Tree?

Read the original article on All Recipes.