A dollar might not buy as much as it once did, but a flood of new dollar-retail outlets will be peddling more stuff for a buck in the Spokane market soon.


Three dollar-store chains have solid plans to expand their presence here in the next six months. Meantime, a large dollar-store retailer is rumored to be about to enter the Spokane market.


The dollar stores have been successful, and this area is ripe for them, says David Black, CEO of Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc. Theyve identified a demographic that works for them, and theyre going after it.


The influx is coming just months after Spokane-based SDCM Inc., which operated Flahertys 99-Cent Stores, filed for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and closed all of its locations, including four 99-Cent stores here and several outlets in other Pacific Northwest cities. Opinions vary, however, on whether the departure of Flahertys has played a role in other dollar-store chains maneuvering in Spokane.


Altogether, three chains plan to open a total of at least six stores in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area by the end of the first quarter of next year. Long term, they plan to open as many as 17 additional outlets in this market.


The companies that are expanding their presence here include LOI Distributing Co., a Lakewood, Wash.-based company that operates its outlets under the Dollar Store name; Greenbacks Inc., the Salt Lake City-based Greenback All-a-Dollar store chain; and Your Dollar Store With More Inc., of Kirkland, Wash.


LOI Distributing opened its third Spokane-area store in July and currently is negotiating leases for its fourth and fifth outlets here, says Bill Desaulniers, the companys vice president of purchasing. He declines for now to disclose the locations of the two prospective new outlets, but says one is in the Spokane Valley. Both are expected to open during the first few months of next year. LOI Distributing already has stores on the South Hill, North Side, and in the Spokane Valley.


The chain eventually plans to have a total of eight outlets in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene market, Desaulniers says. Eight outlets likely would be the most that the Spokane-Coeur dAlene market could support, he says.


Meanwhile, Greenbacks has secured sites for two more stores in the Spokane area, which will give it three outlets here. Its first Greenbacks All-a-Dollar store opened last spring in part of the former Huckleberrys Fresh Market grocery store, at the southeast corner of Sprague Avenue and Sullivan Road in the Spokane Valley.


That store has performed very well, and we recognize (Spokane) as a strong market, says Joe Norwood, Greenbacks director of marketing.


The Utah company has leased retail space at 7414 N. Division, on the North Side, and plans to open a store there by year-end. It also has leased a portion of the former Heights Home Center building, at 2520 E. 29th, on the South Hill and expects to open a store there early next year.


Black, of Tomlinson Black and owner of the ex-Heights Home Center building, says Greenbacks also is negotiating to lease part of the old Rosauers Supermarkets Inc. building at the northeast corner of U.S. 95 and Appleway Avenue, in Coeur dAlene, which he owns. Norwood, however, declines for now to comment on the companys plans there.


Your Dollar Store With More recently opened its first store here in the Shadle Center, on the North Side. Stan Taylor, the companys Kirkland-based vice president of operations, says the company plans to open two more stores in Spokane and one in Coeur dAlene over the next year. Long term, he says, the company envisions having a total of eight to 10 stores in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.


Meanwhile, Dollar Tree Stores Inc., of Chesapeake, Va., is rumored to be entering the Spokane market soon.


Kim Rouke, a spokeswoman for Dollar Tree, declines to comment on any plans the company might have for the Spokane market. In general, however, she says that the company plans to increase its total retail square footage by 25 percent next year, and much of its expansion is occurring in the Western U.S. Dollar Tree currently operates almost 2,200 stores in 38 states.


As the store names suggest, dollar-retail stores offer a variety of items, from canned foods to toys, for a dollar or less. They describe themselves as being part discount store, part variety store, and part convenience store.


After Flahertys


Bruce Miller, vice president of Spokanes WAM Enterprises Inc. real estate development company, believes the closure of Flahertys sparked part of the influx of new dollar-store openings here.


When they went down, there were all of these other ones that contacted us, Miller says.


In addition to its Spokane-area holdings, WAM Enterprises owns retail centers in Colville, Wash., and East Wenatchee, Wash., in which Flahertys had operated stores, and other dollar-store retailers have competed for those spaces. LOI Distributing has leased the space in East Wenatchee, beating out another dollar-store chain, Miller says. In Colville, WAM Enterprises is negotiating with a couple of dollar-store retailers and expects to sign one of them for that space in the next few weeks.


So far, however, none of the planned dollar stores in Spokane is slated for one of the former Flahertys locations, and dollar-store operators say that Flahertys demise wasnt a factor in their decisions to grow here.


Desaulniers says LOI Distributing had stores in some of the same cities as Flahertys, but didnt consider the Spokane company a competitor toward the end. He says when the Flahertys stores closed, Dollar Stores in the same market didnt see a sales jump, which occurs when a competitor leaves a market.


For the last year or so they were in business, they didnt really stock their stores, he says. Their stores were 70 percent empty much of the time.


Both Desaulniers and Norwood say the companies would have penetrated this market regardless.


Were not afraid of any competition, Norwood says.


In addition to opening more stores, LOI Distributing is opening larger stores, Desaulniers says. Dollar stores typically range in size from 9,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet. The Flahertys stores each included about 10,000 square feet of space, the exception being its 19,000-square-foot space at 5415 E. Sprague, near the Costco Wholesale Corp. store.


LOI Distributing, however, has begun looking for retail spaces that include more than 20,000 square feet of space. Desaulniers says the company now is able to retail some larger-volume items for a dollar or less and wants more space to feature such items.


Desaulniers says that in general, people are looking to spend less money in the current tight economy and seek out dollar stores more frequently.


Desaulniers and Norwood separately say that some manufacturers have begun to cater at least a portion of their business toward dollar-store retailers.


Desaulniers says some major manufacturers have formed dollar-store divisions that make products specifically for dollar-store chains. Some make name-brand personal-care goods, such as beauty products, that wouldnt have been found in a dollar store a few years ago.


Norwood says, For the most part, the wholesale industry has recognized the value of the dollar stores, and that they arent affected by swings in the economy.