Dirt Cheap retailer opening 37,000-square-foot store in Columbus
A retailer that sells merchandise gathered from other retailers at dirt cheap prices is coming to Columbus.
Hattiesburg, Miss.-based Dirt Cheap plans to locate at 5596 Milgen Road, with its website listing the store as “coming soon.” That location is in Manchester Square shopping center, which now has anchors that include Food Depot, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and Planet Fitness.
A receptionist answering the phone Friday at Dirt Cheap’s corporate headquarters said no opening date has been released. An employee at the company’s store in Phenix City, which opened its doors in mid-February, said the Columbus store could be selling rock-bottom goods by this fall.
(Dirt Cheap sets grand opening date for store in Phenix City)
The new Dirt Cheap location is a 37,315-square-foot space between the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and Planet Fitness, which combined with a Family Dollar store and the budget-minded Food Depot supermarket, would make Manchester Square an oasis for those seeking hard goods, groceries and gym memberships at low prices.
“It’s been very discount and service-oriented, and we’ve found success with that,” Shannon Shuman Martin, a broker and founder of Atlanta-based Retail Leasing Advisors, said Friday of Manchester Square. Her company has been marketing the property. She, too, did not have a date for Dirt Cheap’s debut there.
Manchester Square once was home to a Kmart discount store, which closed its doors in 2012. Parent company Sears Holdings this year has been wiping the Columbus area clean of Kmart and its flagship department stores. It has shuttered the Sears store and auto center at Columbus Park Crossing, as well as Kmart outlets on Macon Road in Columbus and on U.S. Highway 280 in Phenix City, with the latter once located in the center where Dirt Cheap now operates. The final local Kmart on Airport Thruway is now liquidating its inventory, with a target closing date of Oct. 1.
(Liquidation of final Columbus Kmart reaches 40 percent off with store closing Oct. 1)
On top of Manchester Square, Martin’s company also is working to redevelop Midtown Shopping Center on Macon Road for Columbus businessman Richard Waddell, who also owns Manchester Square. The Midtown center is home of the former 110,000-square-foot Kmart store that closed in April.
“We have deals pending and we’re just not able to discuss them yet,” Martin said, explaining it will be a couple of months or so before the “general direction” of the Midtown Shopping Center is determined and what tenants might be landing there. Martin’s company already has improved a large portion of the center, with it in 2015 bringing in a 29,790-square-foot Ross Dress for Less, a 21,754-square-foot Bealls Outlet, a 10,359-square-foot Dollar Tree and a 10,079-square-foot Shoe Carnival.
(New retailers headed for Midtown Shopping Center on Macon Road)
As for Dirt Cheap, the chain markets itself as a seller of goods discounted between 30 percent and 90 percent. The merchandise can come from distributors and retailers that include Walmart, Target, Kohl’s and Macy’s. The discount chain says it purchases liquidation and overstocked merchandise, as well as goods no longer in season, closeouts and items returned by customers. The mix includes clothing, shoes, housewares, home decor, toys, electronics and furniture.
The retailer issues occasional new merchandise alerts for its stores. For example, an alert Thursday for the Phenix City outlet listed “air mattresses, diapers, grills, bikes, strollers, car seats and much more.” An alert for the Auburn, Ala., location touted “low, low dirt cheap prices” for underwear, camping tents large and small, shoes for the entire family, bath and bedding items, dorm furniture and Halloween goods.
The first Dirt Cheap opened in 1998, the company’s website says, with it having grown to nearly 90 stores in the Southeast since.
This story was originally published August 18, 2017 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Dirt Cheap retailer opening 37,000-square-foot store in Columbus."