Family Dollar
Family Dollar store in Pawtucket, Rhode Island | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| NYSE: FDO | |
| Industry | Retail, Variety, Discount |
| Founded | November 1959 Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Founder | Leon Levine |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 8,200 |
Area served | United States (except Alaska and Hawaii) |
Key people | |
| Products | Clothing, cleaning supplies, home decor, and grocery. |
| Revenue | US$ 10.489 billion (2014) |
| US$ 284.5 million (2014) | |
| Total assets | US$ 3.857 billion (2014) |
Number of employees | 59,330 |
| Parent | Dollar Tree (2015–present) |
| Website | FamilyDollar.com |
| Footnotes / references *Previously traded on NYSE as FDO before DLTR merge. "Family Dollar Merge SEC datafile". www.sec.gov. Published 10/23/2014; access-date10/03/2024. Retrieved 2024-10-03 | |
_(51601641545)_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
Family Dollar Stores, Inc. is an American variety store chain founded in 1959 by Leon Levine in Charlotte, North Carolina. With over 8,000 locations in all states except Alaska and Hawaii, it was once the second largest retailer of its type in the United States until it was acquired by Dollar Tree in 2015. Its headquarters operations were then moved from Matthews, North Carolina, to Chesapeake, Virginia.
In June 2014, activist investor and major shareholder Carl Icahn demanded that Family Dollar be immediately put up for sale. On July 28, 2014, Dollar Tree announced that it would buy Family Dollar for $8.5 billion. The sale delivered a windfall to the company's biggest shareholder, Carl Icahn, who had acquired his 9.4 percent stake in June 2014. On January 22, 2015, Family Dollar shareholders approved the Dollar Tree bid.
Family Dollar, and dollar stores in general, have been alleged to create food deserts: areas with poor access to healthy and affordable food. In 2022, Family Dollar was sued by the Arkansas Attorney General following an investigation by the FDA into a rat infestation at its West Memphis, Arkansas, distribution center. The lawsuit ended in a $41 million fine to the company and the temporary closure of 400 stores.
In 2024, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar's parent company, announced that it would consider a potential spin-off or sale of the Family Dollar brand.