Why You Wouldn't Recognize The First Dollar Tree
Do you love great deals? Who doesn't, right? Then you probably often frequent discount stores like the Dollar Tree. These stores are fun simply because you don't know what you may find on each visit, which definitely adds to the experience. Maybe you have several Dollar Trees in your vicinity and you opt to go to a different store each time if the products vary. Although there may be variations of items on offer, the layout of the store is practically the same or very similar at each location.
But you may be surprised to know that the first Dollar Tree wasn't exactly what we experience today. Although the original shop and then a new store almost two decades later would help create the inspiration and basis for what we now think of when we want to get our discount fix. The concept of selling everything for a dollar is the same, but the space, name, and even what items it sold were different, according to an article in Money Inc.
The original idea and store inspired the concept for Dollar Tree
K.R Perry opened the first shop and called it Ben Franklin in 1953 and then renamed it renamed K&K 5&10 (via Companies History). This shop was located in Norfolk, Virginia, and sold an array of goods all for the price of one dollar. But there were other people with the same business concept of operating a store where all items sold were one hundred pennies, according to Dollar Tree. So in 1970, three men, Macon Brock, Doug Perry, and K.R. Perry, decided to join forces and open a shop called K&K Toys.
Basically, their store is what we consider a "mall" today, with a wide variety of products sold at the same place. This toy store, situated on the East coast, had 130 stores and counting and would later become the basis for what is now known as the Dollar Tree in the United States and Canada. The current headquarters for the Dollar Tree is in Chesapeake, Virginia, a little over six miles from the original spot, according to Money Inc.