Last week, sign-wavers appeared at a weedy highway margin along Main Street. However, the signs were not political; rather, they were intended to draw attention to the drivers in passing vehicles, informing them that the Family Dollar Store was closing and that customers could receive up to 30% off all their purchases. The closure ends a sevĀen-year competition that started in 2018 when Dollar GenĀeral (the store to the west) built a competing discount store next to the existing Family Dollar that had opened five years earlier in 2013.
When Family Dollar first arrived in town, it caught many locals off guard, as it had been assumed that such discount stores would never have an interest in a place as small as Custer County, which had a population of under 4,500 at the time. Sure, there had been jokes, such as the 2000s April Foolsā edition of the Tribune with a Walmart Photoshopped on the Bluff Park, which riled up those who only read the front page. The letters to the editor section, for months after the joke, called for the town to stop a Walmart from building in the Valley. However, nobody really thought a store would open, particularly when the economy was still emerging from the depths of the Great Financial Recession that began in 2008.
What nobody knew at the time was that Family Dollar was aggressively opening stores in small rural areas starting in 2010, as it had learned that the people living there were looking to cut down on costs, and where Walmartās were a long drive to a different town. Family Dollar was seekĀing a way to compete with the much more successful Dollar General, which had gone public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2009. The aggressive rural expansion seemed like a solution. In 2015, Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar for $8.5 billion, and the combined stores surpassed those of Dollar General, with a total of 13,000 locations.
This move prompted Dollar General to retaliate, and in the region, almost every Family Dollar store had a Dollar General opening nearby. The outright business war reached Silver Cliff in 2018, and Dollar General opened a slightly larger store with more food options compared to Family Dollar. Readers at the time expressed concern with one letter to the editor stating, āIs anybody else asking what all the activity is to the west of Family Dollar? Well, yes indeed, it is the construction of a Dollar General. This is the same scenario that played out 40 miles away in Florence. Where a corporation moves in right next door to put the other out of business, and most of us know the outcome of that sitĀuation.ā The Family Dollar store there closed, leaving the building vacant until it was converted into a True Value and then an Ace Hardware Store.
The Pandemic of 2020 and the massive government payments to the population were a boom time for the disĀcount stores, effectively delaying the results of the contest between the stores in Silver Cliff. However, Family Dollar never proved able to match Dollar General, and in July 2025, Dollar Tree sold its holding of Family Dollar to a priĀvate equity firm for $1 billion, resulting in a $7.5 billion loss over 10 years. Even before the sale, Family Dollar had announced it was closing 1,000 of its roughly 8,500 stores due to continuing losses. The sale of the business seems to have accelerated the closing of stores, which includes the Silver Cliff location.
Next week, the Tribune will explore the potential sales tax consequences for Silver Cliff and the county, as well as the impact of a single Dollar General store on Lowe’s SuperĀmarket and the customers who shop at both locations.
ā Jordan Hedberg
