Dollarama

Dollarama Inc. is a Canadian dollar store retail chain headquartered in Mount Royal, Quebec. Since 2009, it has been Canada's biggest retailer of items for five dollars or less. Dollarama has over 1400 stores and is active in all of Canada; Ontario has the most stores.

History

Rossy S Inc.

The first all-dollar store was founded in Montreal in 1910 by Salim Rassy, a Lebanese immigrant, whose name became Rossy. His son George took over the retailer in 1937 and led the company until his death in 1973 when grandson Larry Rossy assumed leadership of it when it had 20 stores.

Dollarama

The discount retailer grew to 44 stores by 1992 which until then operated under the corporate name Rossy S Inc. but traded simply as Rossy (not to be confused with Rossy Michael Ltd., a similar chain founded in 1949 by another son of Salim Rassy). That year, Larry Rossy opened the first Dollarama at the shopping center "Les Promenades du St-Laurent" in Matane. The Dollarama division rapidly overtook Rossy S as the primary source of revenue for the Rossy family. Locations of Rossy S were rare after 1997 and the chain quietly disappeared by the turn of the new millenium with all of its stores either closed outright or converted into Dollarama branches. After converting all the locations to the dollar store concept, Larry Rossy continued to open new stores eventually reaching 1,000 stores in 2015. In November 2004, 80 percent of the chain was sold for $850 million US, to a private equity fund, Bain Capital, of Boston, Massachusetts.

Post IPO

Dollarama's initial public offering took place on October 9, 2009. In 2013, Dollarama was planning to expand its market to Latin America, and made an eight-year agreement to share its business expertise and offer sourcing services to Dollarcity, a Salvadoran chain of dollar stores in Central America and Colombia.

In 2016, Dollarama established a partnership with the Marco G. R. Enterprise, resulting in the sponsorship of the first edition of the Formula Windsor Championship.

In 2018, Dollarama recalled over 50,000 children's toys due to dangerous levels of phthalates.

The number of stores in October 2021 was 539 in Ontario, 379 in Québec, 134 in Alberta, 111 in British Columbia, 42 in New Brunswick, 41 in Manitoba, 40 in Nova Scotia, 40 in Saskatchewan, 25 in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 5 in Prince Edward Island. The company announced that it would open 700 new locations across Canada (including a few replacements for some of the Great Canadian Dollar Store locations) in the aforementioned provinces as well as their first store in the Yukon Territory.

Acquisition of The Reject Shop

On 26 March 2025, Dollarama announced they would be acquiring Australian discount retailer The Reject Shop for CA$233 million (A$259 Million). The investor presentation says it will deliver a “dollarama shopping experience” with a new store layout, design and merchandising experience. As a result, all stores under The Reject Shop banner will be progressively converted into Dollarama stores, effectively spelling the end of The Reject Shop in Australia. The conversion of these stores to Dollarama is currently pending.

Business practices

Many items are priced at $1.00 or less, and initially almost all items were priced as such. In early 2009, Dollarama began to introduce items priced up to $2.00 (including $1.25 and $1.50 price points). Due to the positive response from consumers to the multi-price point strategy, the stores introduced items at $2.50 and $3.00 in August 2012. It again increased price points to include $3.50 and $4.00 items in August 2016. In 2022, Dollarama announced that its maximum price point would be increasing to $5.00. This price level increase allowed the chain to acquire products from a greater variety of sources, including closeout sales. Adjustments may eventually happen to all prices. Dollarama has always had a No Return and No Exchange Policy, stating an item cannot be given back to the store once a purchase is complete.

Payment in Dollarama stores was once by cash only, until Interac debit cards were added as a payment option beginning in 2008. Gift cards began to be offered in 2011. As of 2015, all Dollarama stores also support contact-less Interac Flash payments. In March 2017, Dollarama announced that credit cards would be offered as a payment option at all stores by the end of summer 2018. Customers will be able to pay with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, following a successful pilot program.

Many Dollarama stores were opened in place of former locations of the now defunct BiWay, which closed after a series of dubious financial transactions involving a new owner of the parent operation. Dollarama launched its online store on January 21, 2019 where it will sell many of its products in bulk. Only 1000 of the roughly 4000 products offered in Dollarama stores will be sold online, namely items that are easily purchased in bulk.

See also

* A Buck or Two
* Dollar Tree
* Great Canadian Dollar Store
* Your Dollar Store with More

References

External links

Official website

CNW: Dollarama
, press releases

{{Morningstar National Bank Québec Index

Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange
Franchises
Variety stores
Discount stores of Canada
Companies based in Montreal
Private equity portfolio companies
Bain Capital companies
S&P/TSX 60
Retail companies established in 1992
1992 establishments in Quebec
Canadian brands
Office supply companies of Canada