The steady drumbeat of retail closures continues to assault the buying public today as word comes that 20 Family Dollar Stores will be closing across the state of Michigan including the Family Dollar store located in the Benton Square Shopping Center on M-139 in Benton Charter Township.
That local store is one of 20 that were owned by a North Carolina firm called Dollar Express but they have elected to liquidate and shutter all of their Michigan stores by the end of June. Nearly three dozen people will be out of a job as a result of the closures, including the six employees who had been working at the store at 1606 M-139 near Sav-A-Lot Foods. Three other Benton Harbor stores are not touched by the action.
A couple of years ago there was a lot of competition to buy up the various dollar store genres and Sycamore Partners acquired a number of stores with plans to convert them to the Dollar Express brand in the wake of the merger that brought together Dollar Tree and Family Dollar.
Now, Dollar General is taking over 323 Dollar Express properties in three dozen states across the nation from Sycamore Partners and will convert many of them to the Dollar General brand or close some down permanently due to in-market conditions.
The bottom line on all of that is that the Benton Square Family Dollar will cease to exist by the end of June. Other Michigan stores included on the closing list include three in the Grand Rapid-Wyoming market, five in the Detroit region and one each in Highland Park, Eastpointe, Inkster, Mount Morris, Holland, Portage, Ferndale, Lansing, Burton, Oak Park and Saginaw.
Not affected by the shutdown are a number of other stores in Berrien County including one just a few blocks away at 1240 M-139. These stores are not affected by the closing announcement today:
- 1240 M-139, Benton Harbor
- 9091 US-31, Berrien Springs
- 2830 Niles Avenue, St. Joseph
- 481 Pipestone, Benton Harbor
- 335 Riverview Drive, Benton Harbor
- 251 N. Paw Paw Street, Coloma
- 415 N. Main Street, Watervliet
- 700 E. Front Street, Buchanan
- 90 E. Main Street, Niles
- 12829 Tatro Street, Sawyer
- 6722 US Hwy 12, Three Oaks
There are also Family Dollar stores in South Haven, Paw Paw, Bangor, Cassopolis, Dowagiac, Hartford, Decatur, and multiple stores in South Bend, Elkhart and other communities in Northwest Indiana.
