99 Cents Only Stores

A popular discount store will soon be going away. The 99 cents only franchise will be closing all of its stores. There are about 20 locations here in San Diego County. We are outside of the Mountain View location just off of Imperial Avenue. Now we spoke to shoppers who say this store has been a resource for low income families who may find it hard to shop elsewhere. Community is already being underserved. Now you're taking away things of value. A lot of people depend on this for groceries and things of that nature. It's a lot of elderly around this area too. So kind of sucks. It speaks vol It's just it'scary and this should be I don't know if we want to say a wake up call. Shoppers tell us there aren't a lot of grocery stores in this neighborhood and people depend on this 99 cents only store. There are 371 stores across the country. We're told store employees started marking down items Friday morning. The CEO says this was an extremely difficult decision. In a statement, he said quote, unfortunately, the last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment, including the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting cons University of San Diego economics professor Alan Jinn says more brick and mortar stores have closed down as internet shopping has increased in recent years. But he says business shutdowns They'll have a negative impact on people with lower incomes if no other options come into existence. So I'm hoping that maybe this will allow an expansion by other chains. The decision to shut down the stores was made in agreement with Hillco global, which will manage the sale of the company's real estate assets for all locations in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. In Mountain Unite homes, ABC 10 News.