Family Dollar 2010 Annual Report Download - page 8

PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
General
We operate a chain of more than 6,800 general merchandise retail discount stores in 44 states, providing
primarily low- and middle-income consumers with a selection of competitively priced merchandise in convenient
neighborhood stores. Our merchandise assortment includes consumables, home products, apparel and
accessories, and seasonal and electronics. We sell merchandise at prices that generally range from less than $1 to
$10.
We opened our first Family Dollar store in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1959. In subsequent years, we
opened additional stores and organized separate corporations to operate these stores. Family Dollar Stores, Inc.
was incorporated in Delaware in 1969, and all then-existing corporate entities became its wholly-owned
subsidiaries.
The mailing address of our executive offices is P.O. Box 1017, Charlotte, North Carolina 28201-1017, and
our telephone number is [phone]. Our website address is www.familydollar.com. You can find our press
releases for the past five years on our website. We also make available free of charge through our website all of
our reports filed with or furnished to the SEC pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the
“Exchange Act”), including our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current
Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are
electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. These reports and amendments also are available on the SEC’s
website at www.sec.gov.
Overview of Business Operations
Our Mission and Vision
Our mission is to provide customers with a compelling place to shop, our team members with a compelling
place to work, and investors with a compelling place to invest. Our vision is to be the best small-format
convenience and value retailer serving the needs of families in our neighborhoods.
Our Customers
We serve the basic needs of customers primarily in the low- and middle-income brackets. Typically, our
customer is a female head-of-household. According to Nielsen’s 2010 Homescan®data, approximately 55% of
our customers had an annual gross income of less than $40,000 and approximately 24% had an annual gross
income of less than $20,000. Approximately 34% of our customers were African American or Hispanic, and
approximately 68% of our customers were age 45 or older.
Our Stores
A Family Dollar store is typically between 7,500 and 9,500 square feet and generally serves customers who
live within five miles of the store. Our stores are located in urban, suburban, small town and rural markets. See
Item 2—“Properties” in this Report for more information. The relatively small size of a Family Dollar store
allows us to select store locations that provide neighborhood convenience to our customers in each of these
market areas. Family Dollar stores are generally open seven days a week and accept cash, checks, PIN-based
debit cards, credit cards, and other electronic payment types, including food stamps.
Our Merchandise
We provide customers with quality merchandise at everyday low prices. We offer a focused assortment of
merchandise in a number of core categories, such as health and beauty aids, packaged food and refrigerated
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