Gas Hikes Stall Dollar Tree

CHESAPEAKE, VA-Dollar Tree’s same-store sales during its Q2 fell 1.5%, in part due to rising gas prices, executives said during their quarterly conference call. Total sales for the quarter, which ended July 30, were $769 million, up 9.2% from the same period last year.

“We expect higher gas prices will continue to pressure our customer,” said Kent Kleeberger, the company’s CFO. For the company’s third quarter, officials are predicting slight negative same-store sales.

However, they did say that stores opening this year are performing better than the units the retailer opened in 2004. At an average of 13,800 sf, last year’s new units average $1.3 million in annualized sales. Meanwhile, this year’s new stores, at 12,500 sf, are coming in at $1.5 million to $1.6 million.