Paul Bass Photo
Pregnancy kit in hand, Perez eyes the new Dollar Tree’s cookware.
For the first time in 10 years, cash registers are ringing inside a 9,000-square foot storefront near downtown’s “100-percent Corner” for a steady stream of customers purchasing one-dollar toothpaste tubes, Fudge Graham cookies, picture frames, and Good & Clean dish detergent.
Nonstop, people were buying stuff, lots and lots of stuff, inexpensive stuff, inside a new dollar store on the first floor of an upscale apartment complex at the corner of Church and Chapel streets.
Looking to upgrade New Haven’s central commercial crossroads, city officials had hoped that customers would be buying expensive clothing or other high-end retail inside that storefront instead of patronizing a dollar store. For years the building’s owner tried to comply and sought to lure an upscale retailer. Every such retailer spurned the entreaties.
In the end the market spoke: the Dollar Tree chain fixed up the space and had a soft opening for a new outlet last Thursday. A month of more official “grand opening” events are in the works.
Despite the fears of civic leaders (click here to read about that as well as the broader debate about retail development on the block), first-time shoppers of all stripes gave the new store a thumbs-up during initial visits.
Feeling nauseated, and having a hunch why, Jennete Perez (pictured) came looking for a pregnancy kit. She found one that cost $1, as all the store’s merchandise does. Along her way through the aisles, she stumbled on some one-dollar measuring cups and other kitchen items. She decided she’d like to make a cake.
“There’s so much you can buy here,” she exulted, between winces. “I love it. It has everything I need.”
Sandra Kasongo, who moved here from Congo a year and a half ago, checked out the shower curtains. “It makes people who don’t have money to get what they need,” she said.
Shoppers, some of whom work or live downtown, others who were just passing through, showed up the other day out of curiosity, and ended up exploring seemingly endless rows of brightly-packaged items ranging from Dr. Fresh Spider Sense Spider Man toothbrushes …
… Good & Clean dish detergent and back-to-school spiral notebooks, washable glue pens, and soft rubber Premium heel grippers, to Wise potato chips, Aim toothpaste, and heavy duty aluminum foil.
The packages in the coolers included frozen roasted fingerling potatoes, TJ Farms stir fry blend veggies, Jumbo Hand Rolled miniature shrimp egg rolls. All a buck each.
“It’s nice. It’s very neat. It’s bringing people in,” said Apreia Coper, who visited the store out of “curiosity” and left with sundae ice-cream cones.
Building owner Michael Schaffer said he has noticed the store already drawing brisk, steady business since it opened. On-site store managers referred questions to national Dollar Tree corporate spokeswoman Shelly Davis. Davis said the company “does not divulge” single-store sales or differences in inventory at the over 5,000 Dollar Tree stores located in the 48 continental states.
<i>"It makes people who don't have money to get what they need," she said</i>
Wrong. The goal is the same as in almost any other retail environment: entice the shopper to purchase things they do not need. One could also comment on the ethical implications of performing these kind of tricks on our poorest neighbors.