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Family Dollar Has Closed At Least 350 U.S. Stores in the Past 10 Months, Analysis Finds

May 15th, 2026, 12:00 AM

An analysis of Family Dollar finds that at least 350 stores have closed between July 7, 2025, and May 12, 2026, a 4.69% reduction in the size of the chain.

The closures are not spread evenly. Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee have each lost more than a tenth of their Family Dollar locations, while six states have not lost a single store.

Local Falcon, a local AI search visibility platform, compared Family Dollar's public store locator at the start and end of the period. Each store listing that had been removed and returned a 404 error was then independently verified against Google Maps.

Key findings:

  • 350 Family Dollar stores have permanently closed across the United States in the past 10 months.
  • Texas lost the most stores in absolute terms, with 35 permanent closures, followed by Ohio at 28 and Georgia at 26.
  • Among the 34 states with at least 50 Family Dollar locations at the start of the period, Arkansas saw the steepest percentage decline, losing 13.9% of its locations.
  • The closures are concentrated in the South and Appalachia. Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee alone account for 73 permanent closures, more than a fifth of the national total.
  • Idaho, Massachusetts, Montana, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming have not lost a single Family Dollar store in the past 10 months.

The National Picture

Family Dollar's public store locator listed 7,462 active U.S. locations on July 7, 2025. By May 12, 2026, 350 of those had been permanently closed. The chain has shed roughly one storefront per day on average over the 309-day period.

States With the Most Store Closures

Texas, the state with Family Dollar's largest footprint, lost the most stores in raw numbers. Thirty-five Texas locations closed permanently in the past 10 months. Ohio came next with 28 closures, followed by Georgia with 26.

Alabama, Kentucky, and North Carolina each lost roughly 20 stores.

Rank State Permanent Closures
1 Texas 35
2 Ohio 28
3 Georgia 26
4 Alabama 21
5 Kentucky 20
6 North Carolina 19
7 Tennessee 17
8 Arkansas 15
9 Florida 15
10 Pennsylvania 15

States With the Steepest Percentage Decline

Filtering for states with at least 50 Family Dollar stores at the start of the period, Arkansas saw the largest share of its footprint disappear. The state lost 13.9% of its Family Dollar locations. Fifteen permanent closures brought its count from 108 to 93.

Alabama followed at 11.9% (176 down to 155), Tennessee at 10.3% (165 down to 148), and Kentucky at 10.1% (199 down to 179). These four southern and Appalachian states alone account for 73 permanent closures, more than a fifth of the national total of 350.

Rank State % Footprint Lost Stores at Start Permanent Closures
1 Arkansas 13.9% 108 15
2 Alabama 11.9% 176 21
3 Tennessee 10.3% 165 17
4 Kentucky 10.1% 199 20
5 Georgia 7.1% 368 26
6 Missouri 7.1% 113 8
7 Ohio 7.1% 393 28
8 New Jersey 6.3% 95 6
9 West Virginia 5.8% 120 7
10 Oklahoma 5.6% 161 9

Vermont is the most extreme small-state outlier. It lost 3 of its 10 Family Dollar stores, a 30% decline. The District of Columbia and Oregon each lost a single store, but those single closures represent a third of their respective Family Dollar footprints because each state had only three locations to begin with.

States That Did Not Lose a Single Store

Six states with established Family Dollar presence have come through the past 10 months untouched. Idaho (54 stores), Massachusetts (87), Montana (34), South Dakota (28), Utah (55), and Wyoming (35) all show zero permanent closures since July 7, 2025.

New Mexico, with 115 stores at the start of the period, lost only one, the lightest absolute hit of any state with a triple-digit Family Dollar count.

Family Dollar Is the Lowest-Rated Major Dollar Chain

Local Falcon also analyzed the Google ratings of nearly 6,000 Family Dollar locations against the wider dollar-store sector. Family Dollar is the lowest-rated of the major national dollar chains, the only one below 4.0 stars on Google.

The chain averages 3.99 stars across 5,797 rated locations. Its nearest direct competitor, Dollar General, sits at 4.06 across more than 18,000 stores. Dollar Tree, Family Dollar's own parent company since their 2015 merger, averages 4.16. Five Below and Big Lots both clear 4.2.

Brand Stores Rated Avg Google Rating Avg Reviews Per Store
Five Below 1,425 4.31 398
Big Lots 1,485 4.21 570
Dollar Tree 8,158 4.16 199
Dollar General 18,106 4.06 208
Family Dollar 5,797 3.99 92

The rating gap is widest in the same states shedding the most stores. Across the ten states with the highest absolute closure counts, Family Dollar is rated lower than both Dollar General and Dollar Tree in every single one, with an average gap of 0.22 stars below Dollar Tree.

Rank State Permanent Closures Family Dollar Avg Dollar Tree Avg Dollar General Avg Gap vs Dollar Tree
1 Texas 35 4.06 4.17 4.07 -0.11
2 Ohio 28 3.98 4.23 4.02 -0.25
3 Georgia 26 3.94 4.19 4.05 -0.25
4 Alabama 21 4.02 4.27 4.11 -0.25
5 Kentucky 20 4.10 4.25 4.18 -0.15
6 North Carolina 19 4.01 4.21 4.08 -0.20
7 Tennessee 17 4.02 4.26 4.11 -0.24
8 Arkansas 15 4.10 4.28 4.13 -0.18
9 Florida 15 3.97 4.20 4.08 -0.23
10 Pennsylvania 15 3.89 4.19 4.09 -0.30

Pennsylvania is the lowest-rated Family Dollar state in this group. Its 223 rated locations average 3.89 stars, trailing the state's Dollar Tree stores by 0.30 stars. Ohio, Georgia, and Alabama all post identical 0.25-star gaps.

Review volume tells the parallel story. Family Dollar stores average 92 Google reviews each, less than half of Dollar General's 208 and Dollar Tree's 199. Either customers visit less often or are less motivated to leave feedback than they are for any other major dollar-store brand.

Methodology

Local Falcon compared Family Dollar's official store directory on July 7, 2025, and May 12, 2026, drawing the earlier archived snapshot and the later one directly from familydollar.com. 376 store listings present at the start of the period had been removed by the end.

Of those 376 listings, 354 returned a 404 error and were then independently verified against Google Maps. Only locations explicitly marked as permanently closed by Google were counted, yielding the final figure of 350 confirmed permanent closures. This count reflects Google Maps' permanent-closure designation and may not capture relocations or stores closed but not yet reclassified.

Customer ratings draw on Local Falcon's proprietary database of U.S. retail locations, which aggregates Google Business Profile data, including star ratings and review counts, for every business tracked across the platform. National brand averages were calculated across all rated locations per brand (counts shown in the comparison table). State-level averages cover only locations within the named state.

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