Family Dollar 2013 Annual Report Download - page 8

PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
General Overview
We operate a chain of more than 7,900 general merchandise retail discount stores in 46 states, providing
value-conscious 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.
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. In addition, the public may read and copy any of the materials
we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington DC 20549. The
public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-
0330. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other
information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that website is http://
www.sec.gov.
Our History
Our company was founded by Leon Levine in 1959 with the opening of the first Family Dollar store in
Charlotte, North Carolina. Family Dollar Stores, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in 1969, and all then-existing
corporate entities became its wholly-owned subsidiaries. In 1970, the Company initially offered its common
stock to the public, and today the Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker
symbol ‘FDO.’
Our Mission and Strategy
Our mission is to provide our customers with a compelling place to shop, our team members with a
compelling place to work, and our investors with a compelling place to invest. Our strategy is to provide
consumers with value and convenience in a small, easy-to-shop environment.
Our Company Goals
We believe balancing initiatives targeted to deliver short-term financial results with investments that may
require longer-term development will enable us to provide value and convenience to value-conscious customers,
help us weather difficult macro-environments and enable us to achieve our long-term financial goals. During
fiscal 2013, we remained focused on achieving our four corporate goals: build customer loyalty and experience;
deliver profitable sales growth; drive continuous improvement; and develop diverse, high performing teams.
Build customer loyalty and experience
In today’s challenging economic environment, value and convenience continues to resonate with consumers.
To capitalize on this opportunity, we have launched several new initiatives in fiscal 2013 and have executed on
several other initiatives designed to increase our relevancy to customers by enhancing their shopping experience
and to improve their perception of our value and convenience proposition.
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