Family Dollar plans its 20th store in the Columbus-Phenix City market

The Columbus-Phenix City market is getting yet another Family Dollar store to go along with the 19 it already has locally.

A city building permit dated Jan. 19 shows a 9,180-square-foot Family Dollar is landing at 324 Brown Ave. in Columbus at an initial construction cost of $818,000. The online Georgia Bid Network also lists Charlotte, N.C.-based Family Dollar Stores Inc. as having placed a bid submission deadline of late November on potential companies wanting to do the construction.

Heather Briganti, a public relations manager with Family Dollar, said via email Monday that the new location is scheduled to open this summer. The stores typically employ between six and 10 people.

The location where the new Family Dollar is going is at the intersection of Brown Avenue and Cusseta Road, which would be the former home of Kendrick Pecan Co., a business that operated at the site for many years. The property has been for sale for several years. City records show the nearly 17,000-square-foot structure was built in 1942, with a 2,000-square-foot addition coming in 2005.

This will make it store No. 20 in the Columbus-Phenix City market for Family Dollar, which is owned by Chesapeake, Va.-based Dollar Tree, the latter of which also has a strong presence here. Dollar Tree broke ground last fall on its 9th outlet in the area at 3610 Melrich Ave., adjacent to the Walmart Supercenter on Victory Drive and just behind an Advance Auto Parts store.

Dollar General, meanwhile, has nearly two dozen locations in Columbus, Phenix City, Harris County and the Smiths Station, Ala., area. Its most recent addition came last August, with a store being built on Milgen Road.

The dollar-store format has experienced explosive growth across the United States, with the smaller retailers expanding their merchandise base to include food products, making them a small grocery store. That added convenience is credited with helping them compete better against the huge Walmart Supercenters, which some consumers find too large and overwhelming. Thus, Walmart has been expanding its grocery store-only format called Walmart Neighborhood Market.

Dollar Tree now operates more than 14,700 stores across the U.S. and in Canada under the brands of Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree Canada. Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General has more than 14,300 stores nationwide.

This story was originally published January 29, 2018 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Family Dollar plans its 20th store in the Columbus-Phenix City market."