Kelowna-based dollar store franchise Your Dollar Store with More will fill the last seat after the great game of musical chairs at Alpine Village Mall is complete.
So far, the Bargain! Store rebranded into Red Apple and moved to the former home of Field’s. Lordco is finishing up renovations on the Bargain! Shop’s former location. Once they’ve moved, People’s Drug Mart will take up residence in the current Lordco location.
Your Dollar Store with More will then take over the People’s Drug Mart location, confirmed Jeff Simla, the company’s director of marketing.
Simla is on the hunt for a local franchisee to partner up and open the new location sometime in the spring of 2013. “It allows somebody to get into their own busienss, with some guideance,” he said. “We’re not in the corporate model like other dollar stores are.”
If they’re unable to find a franchisee, they will reluctantly operate it themselves, Simla said.
“The stigma of dollar stores has kind of left,” he said, adding that dollar stores are the fastest growing retail sector in Canada. “More and more people are shopping dollar stores these days. People are pulling up in Mercedes and BMWs.”
He said Your Dollar Store with More focuses on creating a “cleaner, brighter, well merchandised” shopping experience compared to other dollar stores.
Your Dollar Store with More opened their first store in Merritt in 1998, soon expanding to Kelowna before expanding into franchising. The company has expanded to 120 stores. They focus on creating a less cluttered and well merchandised store. Their website is at dollarstore.ca.