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Nearly 50 years after the first Family Dollar opened on Central Avenue in Charlotte, the Matthews-based discount retailer is unveiling a new model it hopes will set the tone for its future stores - and the rest of the surrounding neighborhood, west of uptown.
The company this morning plans to open its 50th anniversary store, at 1721 W. Trade St., just south of Johnson C. Smith University.
The 8,000-square-foot location replaces a 5,000-square- foot space a block south that opened in 1968 and was last renovated in 1987. It shared a plaza with a shuttered Park 'n Shop store.
"It shows our commitment to the Trade Street corridor and our commitment to the customer," CEO Howard Levine said Wednesday. "They deserved better. But that store could be lifted and put in any area of the country and be something I'd be really proud of."
With brick on all four sides and a new bright, open layout, the new location takes into account customer preferences that have shifted amid the recession, with more space devoted to basics such as food, executives said. That demand has helped the company to record financial performance. Yet the setup also incorporates the flexibility to adapt if buying patterns change again.
The store houses the 6,700-store chain's best current thinking on what customers want, said Mtu Pugh, vice president of business development, as he led a store tour Wednesday. Though some of the changes may seem small, he said, they can add up to major savings and more sales.
The floor, for instance, is polished concrete. That doesn't get dirty as easily as tile, and therefore needs to be cleaned less often. Extrapolate that across 6,700 stores, Pugh said, and the savings add up.
The store also has an open ceiling, which offers an airier look and doesn't cost more than the drop ceilings used in other locations, construction manager Bobbie Merrill said.
The store is more open and easier to navigate than previous locations, Pugh said, with a new register setup parallel to the front of the store. Departments are organized with related items together, and distinguished by color-coded wall and overhead signs - and paper strips along shelves - for each section.
A new shelving setup with a lower, uniform height streamlines seasonal merchandise in the center of the store, forming a clean line back into the paper products section that is a popular customer destination, Pugh said.
Food has been selling well during the recession, and the new store devotes 25 to 40 percent more space to food than in other locations. One whole side of a tall row is devoted to breakfast items, all located near each other: Coffee, syrup, pancakes, oatmeal, granola and twice as much cereal as at a typical location. A small sign overhead reads "Breakfast."
The open ceilings and concrete floors are scheduled for rollout elsewhere, but the company plans to test some of the other concepts on West Trade before expanding them. The hope, Pugh said, is that the revamped environment will spur happier shoppers, higher sales - and serve as a destination in a neighborhood that advocates have called ripe for greater connectivity with uptown.
"It was important," Pugh said, "for to us to make a statement about this community and this location."
