Yes, it’s true. Sad, but true. The ‘99 cents only’ grocery chain is closing. Bumba, along with thousands of Los Angeles bargain shoppers are heartbroken. However, you could see it coming for a while now. The shelves weren’t always fully stocked. There were fewer customers. The 99 cent stores, already a bit shabby, were even shabbier. You could see the end coming. Still it’s a tough loss, a punch to the chin of Angeleno consumers. The 99 cents only store was a beacon of light for us.
George Packard, roving reporter for Bumbastories, ambled over to the 99 cents store this morning to see if he could achieve some journalistic scoop, a breaking news story. The sign outside announced a clearance sale.
Alas, there was no news story, no scoops to be found. The shelves were nearly empty. No bargains, either. They were only taking 10 % off. Like I say, it was sad.
Bumbastories has been reporting faithfully and glowingly on the 99 cents only store for years.
Here’s a re-post from an old Bumbastories Magazine from 2015:
CONSUMER CORNER
Here’s to the bargain hunter’s paradise: the 99 cents store, nothing over 99 cents. Mostly job lots, but also very decent merchandise – often the same products they have in the supermarket but at half, sometimes a third of the price. In terms of consumer awareness, the 99 cent stores have been highly educational. We shoppers didn’t realize just how badly we were being ripped off.
The first 99 cents store, which is located in Los Angeles on 6th St. just around the corner from the one pictured below, opened in 1982. Dave Gold, a retailer who lived in the neighborhood, founded the store and quickly built the 99 cent store into a huge corporation, which went public in the nineties and which sold in 2011, after Dave’s death, for $1.5 billion.
Hats off to the 99 cents only store, a venerable and venerated Los Angeles institution. To our great sorrow and disappointment, the 99 cents store now sells things for over a dollar. The packages are also smaller than they used to be. But generally they try to stick to the 99 cents standard.
The stores are perhaps a bit more hectic than most. It’s not a store for the upper classes or for the creme de la creme of LA society, which is fine with me. But overall, like I said, every one I know likes the 99 cents store. And everybody has their favorite 99 cents items. For me it’s the pretzels, the LED flashlights, also the dollar watermelons, the cookies, the toothpaste (and you’ll need the toothpaste after those cookies) …….All items that cost double at the pharmacy or super.
So a hearty 99 thanks to the 99 cents store.
So reported Bumbastories in 2015. Today the final chapter of the 99 cents store is being written. The 99 cents only store will remain forever in our hearts.