Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Family Dollar To Close
LINCOLN STORE IS ONE OF 370 BEING CLOSED ACROSS COUNTRY
LINCOLN — Though new businesses are opening in Lincoln, one older business is closing — Family Dollar Store.
The store will close by Aug. 30, according to Bryn Winburn, public relations for Family Dollar.
Laura Ibarra, Lincoln store manager, said all merchandise in the store had been marked down 10-60 percent off the original price except for food, paper products, home cleaning products, washer and dishwasher detergent and tobacco products.
“The decision was made three weeks ago to close the store,” Ibarra said. “No reason was given that I can disclose.”
“Family Dollar is taking decisive action to position the company to be more successful in an adverse operating environment,” Winburn explained in an email to the Enterprise-Leader.
“The company conducted a comprehensive business review to identify opportunities to provide customers with more value, increase operational efficiency and improve financial performance,” Winburn said. “As part of this review, Family Dollar identified 370, of 8,246 stores, that do not meet our profitability requirements. As a result, we have decided to close these under-performing stores.”
The Lincoln store is one of the stores, according to Winburn.
Bryan Snyder, president of the Lincoln Area Chamber of Commerce, said the Chamber didn’t like to see any business close.
“The store’s closing takes away one of the shopping options here,” Snyder said. “We don’t like to lose out on employment opportunities either,” adding it also would cause a loss in Lincoln sales tax revenues.
Winburn said Family Dollar currently operates 115 stores in Arkansas.
“Over the next several weeks, we plan to close seven under performing stores,” Winburn said. “Each of our stores employs between 8-10 team members, and we will do everything we can to reassign impacted team members to nearby stores.”
Fo rbe s magaz ine announced earlier this year that Family Dollar reported $2.7 billion in its 2014 second quarter fiscal revenue, which marked a 6-percent loss from the year before. Same store sales for the second quarter fell by 3.8 percent, which the company said was a result of decreased customer sales. Looking ahead, Forbes reported Family Dollar projected earnings was expected to continue to fall for the year.
Family Dollar in Lincoln is located at 113 E. Pridemore Drive.
It currently has a banner at the front of store announcing its closing.