The Dollar Tree

When I was but a wee lad.... (I’ve always wanted to refer to myself that way. Must be the Scottish in me.) there was a local store we called “The Five and Dime store” or sometimes “The 5 and 10 cent store”. I think it was actually a Woolworth store. I always felt the moniker “Five and Dime” a little misleading because there weren’t that many items for sale for exactly five cents or ten cents. And some items were several dollars. But they did have a good variety of almost anything you could buy for less than a dollar – something we called “sundries” back then.

With inflation and time, I guess it’s not surprising that the stories occupying that market niche now are called The Dollar Tree, The 99 Cent Store, The Dollar Store, etc. (In Japan they’re called 100 Yen stores) They’re a lot of fun.


This week I realized that we were almost out of corned beef hash which we used to buy at the nearby 99 Cent Store because Ralphs or Safeways charge over $2.50 for the same stuff. Since our 99 Cent Store stopped carrying it, I visited various Dollar stores in search of hash – the legal kind, that is – corned beef hash. I finally found it not too far away from where our kids live but far enough away that I wasn’t taking any chances. I bought half the supply they had on the shelf – 24 cans. It keeps well enough so even a two year supply will be okay.

And since I was there I thought of all sorts of other things that sound really good for $1 – a couple of measuring cups, measuring spoons, an extension USB cord. And that doesn’t count all the items I put back on the shelf when I remembered that even at a good price, it doesn’t pay to buy things you don’t need.