Dollar Tree to be open for business Thursday morning

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

In this day and age of mass communication, instant messaging, mobile devices and viral social media, businesses still sometimes use a centuries-old, tried-and-true method to get the word out to customers.

They hang a sign on the door.

This is how Pizza Ranch in Charles City let its customers know it was closing its doors this past weekend, (see article in today’s Press), and it’s also how The Dollar Tree announced it will be opening its doors later this week.

“Dollar Tree will open on 6-28-18 @ 9 a.m.,” read a sign on the Dollar Tree door on Monday, announcing that the establishment will open its doors for business first thing Thursday morning.

Earlier this month, Dollar Tree local general manager Darret Hazlett said the store will have a “soft opening” in late June. At that time, he wasn’t quite ready to put an exact date on that opening, but estimated it was two or three weeks away.

A “soft opening” means the Dollar Tree won’t make a formal announcement — it’ll just open the doors and let people come in and shop.

Hazlett said that Dollar Tree will have a formal grand opening, with a ribbon-cutting, in early July, shortly after the Fourth of July holiday. In the meantime, shoppers can take business there starting Thursday at 9 a.m.

The new store is on the site of the former 3C Bistro restaurant, which closed last year. Completion of the new building was initially planned for July, with the new store opening 45 to 60 days after that. It was announced at the beginning of June that the building was finished and would be stocked and ready for business, with employees in place, way ahead of that initial schedule.

“I was surprised at how quickly the construction was done,” Hazlett said.

Dollar Tree stores are owned by Dollar Tree Inc., with headquarters in Chesapeake, Virginia. The chain of discount variety stores that sells items for $1 or less. The Fortune 500 corporation operates more than 14,000 stores in the continental United States and in Canada, according to the company website, dollartree.com.