Family Dollar Shoppers Don’t Want Change

Mother and daughter Hinasta L and Celeste Burrell left Family Dollar with Rockin’ Protein, hand sanitizer, period pads and heavy hearts — as they prepared for potential closure of the only store in the city keeping their pockets lined with more than lint.

Shoppers stocking up on basic goods and spontaneous buys repeated that sentiment Monday amid news that Dollar Tree plans to shut down nearly 1,000 of their 8,000 stores — including Family Dollars — across the country. 

Which stores get closed, for now, is a mystery. One that the shoppers feel a stake in.

Dollar Tree did not respond to requests for comment from the Independent by this article’s time of publication. The New York Times reported inflation, theft and the end of pandemic-era additional benefits from the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as reasons for the closures.

Nor did workers or management at Family Dollars across New Haven weigh in, with the exception of cashier Josh Reed, who declared that ownership ​“has to do what they have to do,” while he purchased sleeves of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies and hot pockets to take home from his shift. 

Customers of two Family Dollars at 81 Whalley Ave. and 1168 Whalley Ave. had more to say on the matter. 

“I buy everything here,” L told the Independent. By ​“everything,” she means: Paper towels, Chef Boyardee, pads and tampons, Shamrock Farms’ ​“rockin’ protein” shakes, and cat food. Garbage bags come 400 for $4 at Family Dollar, Burrell said, compared to $15 for the same thing at Target. Laundry detergent is a few bucks there, L pitched in, compared to “$37,000 at Walmart.”

But, seriously, she said, ​“six dollars for detergent versus ten dollars at Walmart — at the end of the day, it makes a big difference.”

L, who works in fashion, and Burrell, a preschool teacher, said they shop at the Westville Family Dollar around three times a week. ​“You come here to make up loose ends,” L said, a weekly project for the mother of five. The crew had moved to New Haven from New York prior to the pandemic to avoid escalating rents — but now rent is just as high here, the duo remarked in disbelief. 

“We don’t play — life is a science,” L said of her shopping tactics, listing off the price points of various toiletries, groceries and household supplies at stores across New Haven. 

“Now, all the mom and pop stores are shutting down. They’ve even closed a lot of Walmarts. And now with Family Dollars closing, it’s gonna mostly impact minority communities, and drive them into these even bigger stores they can’t afford with no choice to go elsewhere.”

S hopes the Family Dollar at 1168 Whalley makes the corporate cut. Because even the difference between dollar stores themselves, she said, is ​“stark” — another Dollar General located on the other side of New Haven, she offered as an example, ​“is, like, bottom dollar.”

But at 1168, ​“you’ll find anything,” another patron, Josephine Bailey said. ​“You’ll find stuff you’re not even looking for!”

The 63-year-old and her 67-year-old boyfriend, Alex Ankrah, stopped by Family Dollar for a daytime date on Monday after attending their biweekly senior citizens program, ​“Aging with Grace,” hosted by Community Action, and before stopping at the cobbler next door to get some old shoes repaired.

She had stumbled upon the elephant planting pot only incidentally — the same way Ankrah had laid his eyes on Bailey during their weekly classes on independent living and decided she was the one. 

Ankrah nodded along with that narrative. Bailey said she’d like her boyfriend ​“to plant herbs in there.” What kind of herbs? ​“Marijuana.”

“No, no, no!” Ankrah interrupted. 

Back to the issue at hand, ​“it would be a problem” if the store shut down, Bailey said, ​“because all these people in Westville will have nowhere else to go.”

“You might find another dollar store similar to this,” she said, but it won’t be the same. It might be downtown or in Hamden, for example. And it might not stock the elephant planting pot ($3, not $1, and pictured below) that she discovered while perusing the gardening aisle to find a gift for her lover of six months. 

Over at 81 Whalley, Abdul Barr was more abstractly bummed by the general deforestation of Dollar Trees across CT. While hanging out in his van that he drives around to odd construction jobs, ​“tryna figure out my next move,” the East Havener said he stopped at Family Dollar to get laundry detergent and dog food. 

“Any dollar that you make right now you gotta save,” he said. ​“The prices are becoming ridiculous now.” That’s not because of inflation, he opined, but due to corporations’ incessant price gouging. 

Another woman, who identified herself only as May, said she maintained a specific emotional bond to her Whalley Avenue store.

“I hope they don’t close it. I come here everyday. It’s convenient for me. I’ve walked the distance for years.”

“I come here for cookies and ice cream,” she said. On Monday, she held just one object under her arm — a wireless boombox.

“I’m getting it to put in my front room,” May stated. When the news is too cruel, she said, she’ll turn up the volume and turn her attention — towards Janet Jackson and The Whispers.