Dollar Tree set to open new store July 29
Workers put the finishing touches on installation of window glass on the front of the new Clinton Dollar Tree store on Tanner Lane on Monday. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The Chesapeake, Virginia-based Dollar Tree Corp. obtained a building permit for the stand-alone facility at the west end of the Tanner Place shopping center in January, with plans calling for 9,998 square feet of floor space and construction costs of $939,506.
Constructing the building is Summit General Contractors of Knoxville. The exterior of the building now is mostly complete, and Dollar Tree’s corporate green trim has been added to the top front of the store over the past several days.
Dollar Tree Corp., which also owns the Family Dollar store chain, said the new store will be only a Dollar Tree, and not one of its new combination Dollar Tree-Family Dollar stores that it has been building recently. At least 50 of the combination stores have already been opened.
Company officials declined to say why they did not choose the new Clinton site for one of the combo stores. There is no Family Dollar store in Clinton now; the nearest one is in Rocky Top.
“Dollar Tree stores provide great value and a broad assortment of merchandise priced at $1,” the company said in an email to The Courier News.
The store will feature “seasonal décor, household products, Hallmark greeting cards, balloons and party supplies, dinnerware, food, teaching and school necessities, health and beauty essentials, toys, books and much more,” the company said.
Clinton’s new store “will also offer Dollar Tree’s expanded Crafter’s Square section, which includes wood crafts and picture frames, art paper, staple-backed canvases, acrylic paints and brushes, glitter, colored pencils and crayons, markers, jewels and beads, make-your-own wreath supplies, ribbons and yarn, scrapbooking stickers, portable sewing kits, and containers for easy storage solutions, all priced at $1,” the email noted.
“Additionally, the store will include Dollar Tree’s Snack Zone, an expanded selection of beverages, candy, snacks and nostalgic favorites.”
The company said Dollar Tree stores of this size “typically employs 12 to 20 associates,” and the store already is hiring.
People may “apply online at DollarTree.com/careers or in person at the store location,” the message said.
There were no company officials at the site Monday to take applications, however, and a construction manager said that because it is still an active construction site, no one is allowed on the premises. But Dollar Tree does already have a Clinton store in the Centre Plaza shopping complex at 1115 N. Charles G Seivers Blvd., near the United Grocery Outlet. Presumably, applications could be filed there.
Despite rumors to the contrary on social media, Dollar Tree will not be closing the current store after the new one opens, said company spokeswoman Kayleigh M. Painter.
The current store is about three miles from the new store, but the new location is adjacent to Interstate 75 Exit 122, which would make it more accessible to shoppers east of I-75, such as in Norris and Andersonville.
There are no other dollar stores in the I-75, Exit 122 area, but there are two Dollar General stores nearby – one next to Big Lots on Charles G. Seivers Boulevard and another on Andersonville Highway in Norris. Dollar General and Dollar Tree/Family Dollar are the two national leaders in the dollar-store segment.
Dollar General has two other Clinton stores, plus another on Lake City Highway.
As of May 1, the Dollar Tree chain had more than 15,772 stores in the 48 contiguous United States and five Canadian provinces under the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar brands. Dollar Tree Corp. bought the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Family Dollar store chain in July 2015.