Family Dollar to close 6 locations in Philadelphia

Six Family Dollar stores are closing in Philadelphia next month.

The local store closures come after Dollar Tree, the parent company of Family Dollar, announced earlier this month it would close nearly 1,000 stores with around 600 Family Dollar stores closing in the first half of this year.

“The closing of these stores is the result of a nationwide closing of multiple underperforming stores,” Michael Atcovitz, vice president of human resources for Family Dollar Stores said in a layoff notice required by federal law.

The company is also closing multiple stores in New Jersey on April 20, which will affect 94 employees, according to a separate notice.

Dollar Tree has faced recent challenges including inflation and store theft, according to the Wall Street Journal. Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar in 2015 for over $8 billion, and has also experienced “difficulty absorbing the chain,” according to the Associated Press.

“Basically, almost 10 years on, Dollar Tree is still sifting through the mess it inherited and has not been able to completely turn around,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a retail research agency, told the Associated Press earlier this month.

Philadelphia store closure locations

The stores will close in Philadelphia on or around April 20 and will affect 62 employees. The company is working to relocate employees to nearby stores if desired and possible, according to the notice.

The company does not plan to sell the stores and will maintain other stores in Philadelphia, according to the notice.