99 Cents Only Store Closing All 46 Texas Locations

Sad news in the discount shopping world as the national chain of 99 Cent Only Stores has announced it will be shutting down operations.

The reason? Operators are blaming it on unmanageable inflation and theft.

How many stores are there across the country?

There are a total of 371 locations across four states - California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.

In Texas, the company has 46 stores throughout the state. The biggest concentration of stores is in Houston, with a total of 16 stores.

What the boss had to say about the closure.

The company's current CEO, Mike Simoncic said in a statement that the retailer has been struggling for years as a result of the pandemic, changes in consumer demands, inflation, and rising levels of product "shrink." This is a measure that includes losses from employee theft, shoplifting, damage, administrative errors, and more.

“This was an extremely difficult decision and is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve,” said Simoncic, who will be stepping down. “Unfortunately, the last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment.”

An unfortunate trend among discount store chains

This news comes in the wake of Dollar Tree's announcement last month that it would be closing 1,000 stores between its namesake general discount stores and subsidiary chain, Family Dollar.

The 99 Cents Only Store Story

The Commerce, California-based chain has been in operation since 1982. The first store was opened by Dave and Sherry Gold on a "lucky" Friday, August 13th of that year.

To celebrate the grand opening, Dave decided to sell television sets for only 99 cents to the first 13 families. More than 300 people showed up to stand in line and wait for the store to open. That huge line caught the media's attention and more than 10 TV stations covered the store's first day.

The success of this first store spawned a tradition with new stores continuing to offer 99-cent deals for TVs and other products.