You pay top dollar? At emerging Swedish discount chain, just one is often enough

Known for its cheap goods and ever so slightly tacky branding, Dollarstore reasons that the timing is perfect to cash in on discount-hungry Denmark

Ben Hamilton

Mar 28, 2023

Don’t be confused by the name. ‘Dollarstore‘ is in fact a Swedish discount chain with 118 stores since opening its first in 1999. And now, according to Finans, following a satisfactory entry into the Danish market, it now has its sights set on opening many more stores.

As the name suggests, its products – a wide range that includes groceries, homeware, cosmetics and garden equipment – are cheap. Mostly imported from Southeast Asia, they can afford to be.

Granted, it won’t fill the gap caused by the departure of Irma, but there is every chance the heavy media coverage has made it crystal clear to Dollarstore’s owners that Danish shoppers are more discount-inclined right now than at any time in recent history.

“The Danes are happy with discounts and low prices, which is why we appeal to all population groups,” its head of establishment, Peter Jakobsen, confirmed to Finans.

In Denmark, Dollarstore is known as ‘Bigdollar’ due to a prior company operating with the same name in Bellahøj.

Sights set on major city centres
With Bigdollar stores already established in Næstved and Brønderslev, Dollarstore harbours plans to open 50 more across the country, its expansion manager, Peter Jakobsen, confirmed to Finans.

Two more stores in north Jutland, in Hjørring and Thisted, will open by the end of the year, while Frederikshavn and another four or five towns in Jutland will follow in 2024.

Its minimum size requirement for a suitable premises is 3,000 sqm, so most of its stores tend to cater to customers in cars, rather than pedestrian shoppers, but that could change if the right plots become available, confirmed Jakobsen – particularly in the centres of major cities like Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg.

“We can easily get space for 50 stores in Denmark, although it might be another three years until many of them open. It is very ambitious, but within three to five years I would think it is realistic,” he said.

“I don’t want to rule out us opening close to city centres, but our stores must be at least 3,000 sq m. This makes it an obvious fit to open in retail areas, where at the same time we get good neighbours and become a point of attraction for many customers, but in the long term we are also looking towards the centre.”