Ollie's Got Their Hands On 11 Former 99 Cents Only Stores in Texas

Ollie's Bargain Outlet just landed a great deal of its own, winning a $14.6 million bankruptcy auction for 11 former 99 Cents Only store locations across Texas.

The discount retail chain pounced after 99 Cents Only abruptly went out of business in March, shuttering all 371 of its stores in California, Arizona, Texas, and Nevada. Ollie's quickly made an opening "stalking horse bid" to grab over a dozen of the empty properties.

“We are very excited to be announced as the winning bidder of these store locations,” said Ollie's CEO John Swygert. “These stores are the right size, located in good trade areas, have attractive rents and leasing structures, and have been serving value-oriented customers for many years. Texas is a great market for us that has tremendous growth potential and continues to benefit from strong population growth.”

Of the 11 locations changing hands, three are owned properties while the other eight are leased spaces. All are spread across key Texas markets great for Ollie's expansion. The discount chain hopes to reopen them ASAP once the sale closes in early June.

We are focused on getting these stores up and running as quickly as possible, given the occupancy expenses we will begin incurring at closing,” Swygert added. “We are maintaining our target of 50 new stores, less two planned closures, for fiscal 2024 and are in the early stages of evaluating the impact on our new store opening cadence this year.”

The bankruptcy property sale is a perfect chance for Ollie's to grow its discount retail presence in the Texas market. The chain currently operates 516 stores across 30 states, offering discounted brand-name merchandise spanning housewares, food, toys, beauty, and more.

Despite the extreme bargain focus, Ollie's had 13% more customer visits in 2023 than the year before according to data firm Placer.ai. Now 99 Cents Only's bankruptcy closings have given Ollie's a prime opening to keep that bargain shopping drive across Texas.