Dollar Tree Stores, Inc.

The daily routine at Dollar Tree Inc. is very basic and is usually minimally manned. Problems such as stray items, wrong inventory and cash drawer mismatch arise due to employees not having the proper training.

Since Elijah Heart Clinic patient inflow has increased, there are plans for a $75 million dollar expansion and improvement project to manage the patient inflow. The plan is to open a new facility with 100 private rooms and include the latest technology. Not only will there be new construction but the clinic will also renovate the existing facilities. I based my decisions on the focus of the clinic. The focus is to make sure that the changes will continue to provide patients quality care. Also when making my decision, I have to keep in mind that the strategy chosen will result in the success or failure of the clinic. To choose the best option, I had to analyze the cost of funding, the net present value, collateral requirements, prepayment limitations, and deadline for using the fund.

If we analyze Dollar Store, we will see that it has established over 140 stores across Canada since its inception in 1998. As it has been considerably increasing its market reach across Canada; they are considered a direct competitor to Dollarama. On the other hand, Great Canadian Dollar stores are extending their reach in eastern Canada. Additionally, they are very present in the community by offering both charitable and communal support. At last, Dollar Tree is a growing chain of discounted retail stores in the United States. It operates over 4400 retail stores in 48 states of the US and in Canada. Thus, they are ready to expand their customer base into Canada. Also, Dollar Tree offers a much broader range of products compared to Dollarama, for example frozen foods and dairy items. As such, there is a very high competition in the discounted retail stores industry. However, in such a high competitive environment, Dollarama is still able to open over 150 stores in the past four years only. Also, considering their stock trend, their share price had increased from 25$ to 56.90$ per share in only one year. That represents a growth of 128% in a single year. We can conclude that their shares are in demand in our current market environment. Thus, we can assess that they are very well positioned in today’s competitive environment.

The Dollar Tree Cooperation provides inbound, import, domestic transportation and outbound transportation services to 48 locations in the United States and five locations in Canada (Dollar Tree Inc., 2014). Using 10 distribution centers, the Dollar Tree is

There are numerous stores that fall into this category around the United States including a west coast competitor 99 Cents Only stores that has continued to grow. Until the Dollar Tree fully determines the ongoing plan for its traditional stores and the recent acquired Family Dollar locations, I believe that the Dollar Tree now operates in two separate groups one above the $1.00 threshold and one below. The traditional Dollar Tree stores have begun to lose profits as emphasis on cost reductions have been overshadowed by the acquisition. As of right now, it does not appear to be determined if the Dollar Tree will continue to operate in each of the segment groups of if future alignment is

Currently, Dollar Tree has found itself a niche in the retail market by offering products that usually cost more than one dollar or less. From a consumer perspective, this is an ideal position to be in, because it places a consumer in a position where he or she does not have to search for the best bargain, it is readily available from this organization’s store chain. Therefore, the products from this company grabs the attention of consumers due to low cost pricing.

The Dollar Tree brand of stores has been around since 1986, when Douglas Perry, Macon Brock, and Ray Compton founded the chain as a compliment to their other business, K & K Toys (Parnell, 2014). Through the years, Dollar Tree has acquired several different dollar store and low-end retail chains to grow their business to over 4000 stores (Shetty, 2010). One of the first and most strategic moves that the company made was to shift away from carrying closeout merchandise and to become more of a traditional variety store with a wide variety of basic goods all priced at a dollar or less. To accomplish this change, the chain had to discontinue their current purchasing strategies and had to begin buying directly from manufacturers to change the type of merchandise that they had available for consumers. The second major strategic move involved changing the location of where stores are usually located. Up until this point, the stores had been being in enclosed malls. With this change,

ft. facility. There is no need for that additional facility since it increases direct and overhead costs. It should be eliminated. The DC is cluttered with merchandise everywhere, under conveyors and scattered across aisles. Tony considered three strategies: improving the physical structure and process flow in the distribution center, the modernization of distribution systems and business processes, and to reallocate human resources. He had to obtain goods from the companies international suppliers and quickly distribute them to their stores within Canada to gain competitive edge.

5. Proposed location of the new warehouse and transportation distances from the new location to each retail outlet/customer

Locating a central distribution center will increase the control over inventory for Consolidated. Having small point of operations will reduce the amount of inventory that will be maintained at the sites. Each location will have different needs and only stocking the immediate customer needs at each location will reduce overall costs. The purchasing discount will be easier to maintain if all shipments come to one location which will also save the company money. Having a couple small vans deliver to regional locations within an hour is less costly than ordering extra just to meet the minimum purchase discount. The cost of shipping to small locations will be minimal and will save the company and customers money in the long term. If the contractors know of items that they will need for a job they can inform Consolidated and the special items can be delivered to the job site or picked up at the regional office. Communication is key and willing to provide the best service in a timely manner will reduce cost and increase profit.

10^(1.5986  +  (-­‐.323)*  Log(MxCrtn/Yr))   Predicted  vs.  Actual   $0.220 FC / Unit $0.200 $0.180 $0.160 $0.140 $0.120 0 20,000,000 40,000,000 Max Carton Capacity / year 60,000,000 Effect  on  Total  DC   Cost   Fixed and Variable DC Costs Sensitivity Parameters BC Current Sq Ft. (1000) 603 Capacity Carton/Yr 22,117,639 FC / Unit at Full Cap $0.168 Var Cost*

The recommendation provided for Target Corporation is choosing the Stadium Remodel project. There were three main factors used for choosing this project. First, its low

Operating such dynamic distribution centers is usually very expensive and allows possibilities of product wastage. The high capital requirement to run such large distribution centers produces a natural barrier to entry and smaller firms frizzle out if they try and compete with the larger firms.

     We need to consider a number of relevant information prior to making the decision. The information that needs to be considered is:

1. Relative to the U.S. distribution network, calculate the cost associated with running the existing system. Assume that 40 percent of the volume arrives in Seattle and 60 percent in Los Angeles and the port processing fee for federal processing at both locations is $5.00 per CBM. Assume that everything is transferred to the Kansas City distribution center by rail, where it is unloaded and quality checked. Assume that all volume is then transferred by truck to the nine existing warehouses in the United States.