Books-A-Million's 3rd Chapter in Merritt Island

Books-A-Million #624

780 E. Merritt Island Causeway, Merritt Island, FL - Sabal Pointe Plaza

Today's post is a presentation of Brevard County retail

     In an era where I feel like I'm constantly falling behind on blog stuff and trying to work on my massive backlog of years-old photos, for an interesting change, here's some fresh photos of mine taken not all too long ago covering some current events - happy current events too! After sliding into a slump in the 2000's and 2010's, book stores seemed to be on a decline as digital devices seemed to be on track to make print media obsolete. During that time we lost Borders completely to bankruptcy, while its rivals Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million chugged along, although not without closing a number of stores during that time and culling new store openings to almost nothing. In 2019, it seemed like it was a matter of when, not if, the other two major bookstore chains would succumb to the same fate as Borders, however, something very interesting began to happen. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, bookstores began a revival. Credited to a number of reasons (which are explained in that linked article) such as technology angst, a desire to find a home-away-from-home following lockdowns, and a viral TokTok trend called "BookTok", people began returning to book stores and buying print books again. As such, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million have both unveiled new store prototypes, begun opening new stores at a brisk pace, and embraced the new trend to unprecedented results. It's quite interesting how a dying category of retail came back to life like that, and in today's post, we'll check out the latest store design from Books-A-Million to see what a bookstore of the future looks like. While both bookstore chains are seeing a net growth, many of the new stores from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million have been replacements, typically replacing larger, obsolete older stores with smaller modern designs. The Merritt Island Books-A-Million is one of the replacement cases, so before we jump into the modern incarnation of that store, let's look back at how Books-A-Million relocated not once in Merritt Island, but twice through the years to end up where they are now. Like any story, let's begin with Chapter 1, titled "The Original Location":

     Books-A-Million first arrived in Merritt Island in August 1995, moving into a 23,000 square foot slice of the island's original Walmart store (which had moved down the road a year prior). The new Merritt Island Books-A-Million marked the chain's debut along Florida's Space Coast, although later in 1995, a second Brevard County Books-A-Million store would open in Melbourne, across the street from Melbourne Square Mall.

The original Merritt Island Books-A-Million is now occupied by a Harbor Freight Tools, and Harbor Freight's facade is a carry-over from Books-A-Million. Between Books-A-Million's closure in 2000 and Harbor Freight's opening in 2013, that space housed a Bealls Outlet for a few years too.

     Books-A-Million would be joined by Big Lots (closed 2009) and Scratch and Dent World Appliances (now Appliance Direct) to fill the remainder of the former Merritt Island Walmart space, however, this location would not be long lived as a bookstore. Citing increased competition from the arrival of Barnes & Noble to Brevard County in 1996, Books-A-Million had some tough decisions to make.

     It seems like the arrival of Barnes & Noble had a negative impact on both of Brevard County's Books-A-Million stores, as Barnes & Noble's two new stores in the county were located a mile or less away from each Books-A-Million. After 5 years in operation, Books-A-Million surrendered to Barnes & Noble in Melbourne, closing that store outright in 2000. That same year, Books-A-Million also made the decision to downsize its Merritt Island store, relocating from the old Walmart to a 17,000 square foot space within Merritt Square Mall - its Chapter 2. It appears Books-A-Million was hoping mall traffic would drive business to their new store compared to the freestanding Barnes & Noble across the street, and it seems like that logic paid off.

     Books-A-Million would remain at Merritt Square mall for the next 25 years, outlasting the Barnes & Noble across the street which closed at the end of 2016. I'm sure the closure of Barnes & Noble helped drive a little more business to this store, however, Merritt Square began a decline of its own in the years following the closure of Barnes & Noble.

     While Merritt Square isn't a dead mall, it's hurting in places. The mall has been struggling to keep in-line tenants over the last decade, and a lot of people in the area will tell you the mall is old and depressing looking. As such, I'd have to guess foot traffic in the mall has been on a decline, and that on top of a rumor I heard about Books-A-Million wanting to stray away from mall-based stores probably led to the decision to move across the road to the latest freestanding location - Chapter 3.

     Directly across Route 520 from the mall was this former Pier 1 Imports store, which Books-A-Million would relocate to in 2025. Ironically, this store is located next door to the former Merritt Island Barnes & Noble, bringing a bookstore back to this small retail strip called Sabal Pointe Plaza. After a decently thorough remodel of the former Pier 1 space (which had been sitting empty since that chain's bankruptcy in 2020, outside of a few seasonal runs as Spirit Halloween), the new Books-A-Million would hold its grand opening on August 1, 2025.

Photo courtesy of Robert Redd on Google Maps

     A small grand opening celebration was held over the weekend of August 1st, including a ribbon cutting, author signings, an appearance by the Disney Princess Belle, and also free cookies:

Photo courtesy of Kate RedHatStudio on Google Maps

     Pictured above was a tray of cookies from the grand opening celebration, iced with a special inscription for the Merritt Island store's opening. Certainly a neat way to celebrate, but not really an item I could have stashed away in my retail collection had I been able to attend grand opening weekend!

     After the festivities had died down, I eventually made it up this way to check out what a modern Books-A-Million store is all about. At roughly 8,000 square feet, the new Books-A-Million is half the size of its predecessor at the mall across the road (which we toured on my old flickr account a number of year back - click here and scroll right for a refresher on that store). The size reduction has been a trend for modern book stores, cutting a lot of departments like movies and music, as well as cafes, for a more compact selection focused on books and toys. Entering the store, here's a look across the front portion of the salesfloor. Upon entering, you're welcomed by the new release book section, featuring various displays of the latest from a variety of categories.

Photo courtesy of Kate RedHatStudio on Google Maps

     When I visited the store, the cashier was quite bored and was lingering around the front of the store, so I was unable to get many photos of that area. As such, I had to turn to Google for this photo of the new release department's major display prop - the Best Sellers countdown shelf. This shelf changes weekly, showcasing the top 10 books across different categories such as fiction, non-fiction, and kids books. As soon as you walk in this shelf was placed to grab your attention, as I'm sure these are some of the highest-selling items in the entire store.

     Leaving the front of the store and the new release displays, there is a main center actionway off which all the store's aisles branch, typical of most Books-A-Million stores of late. The photo above is looking toward the front of the store and all the new release items, with fiction located just behind me.

     In this new store there are three primary departments to be found - fiction, non-fiction, and childrens' books. The front left half of the store is home to fiction and its various sub-genres (novels, graphic novels, manga, etc.) followed by a small aisle of toys, with that serving as the transition into the childrens' department in the back left half of the store. The entire right side of the store is home to non-fiction books of all kinds, as well as a small periodical display up by the cash registers. 

     The toy aisle located about halfway down the left side of the salesfloor is pictured above, and occupies a double wide aisle with some displays in the center and a fancy shelving fixture at the back. At only 8,000 square feet, there wasn't a lot of room to spare for extra merchandise, so much of the non-book related items were cut back in the downsizing, like toys. Overall though, roughly three-quarters of the salesfloor space was dedicated to books in this store, with other stuff like toys, gifts, and collectibles taking a backseat. Larger bookstore buildings tend to fluff the salesfloor with that extraneous merchandise to fill void area, so these compact newer stores don't have that problem and can go back to pushing books first.

     Being a smaller space, a few other major departments were cut by Books-A-Million in the move across the street. Two major categories this store cut were the sale of all movies and music, although unlike Barnes & Noble (who still carries a small amount of that product), Books-A-Million seems to have been straying away from those categories in most of their stores (with the exception of some of the chain's largest). Also cut in the move was the store's Yogurt Mountain frozen yogurt shop, which was a reimagining of the mall store's former Joe Muggs' Cafe in the early 2010's when frozen yogurt was all the rage. Like Barnes & Noble's new stores, Books-A-Million tends to cut the cafe out of their new stores and relocations too, with new cafes only opening in spaces that skew on the larger side and have easy access to water hookups.

     Looking down the store's left side, the children's book department lies straight ahead in the back left corner.

     While not quite as whimsical as its predecessor, Kids-A-Million has been downgraded to just "Kids" on the wall signage, with the same book illustration-style graphics seen around the perimeter wall continuing through that department. While this department was designed to match the rest of the store, it seems pretty formal for a kids book department (although that just may be me thinking back to the days when Borders, Books-A-Million, and Barnes & Noble all designed their kids department to be an island of their own with special theming, story-time stages, and train sets to play with).

     The main center actionway dead ends at the back wall, where another decorative book display serves as the transition between childrens' books and non-fiction. Unlike Barnes & Noble's newest stores, which go all-in on fancy lit shelving, Books-A-Million saves the lit shelving for only these centerpiece displays, allowing them to pop out more from the rest of the store.

     This store isn't all that wide, as we look across the back wall toward non-fiction. While 8,000 square feet sounds small, there was still quite a bit of variety to be found here in terms of books. 8,000 square feet is around the same size stores like Waldenbooks and B. Dalton would occupy, so it seems like we're going full circle on what bookstores should be like!

     While Books-A-Million redid most of this space, there was one major carryover from Pier 1 present in here - the ceiling grid. That grid was a staple of Pier 1 stores, and Books-A-Million only repainted the grid black from its original brown color in the remodel. While Barnes & Noble tends to go exclusively with open ceilings in their newest stores, Books-A-Million appears to adapt to what they inherited, as I've seen a variety of ceiling styles in the latest Books-A-Million openings. For example, while this store has the Pier 1 ceiling grid, this other recent Books-A-Million opening in Beaufort, SC has a complete drop ceiling it inherited from the Citi Trends that was in that space prior.

     Unlike Barnes & Nobles' blank brown walls, I like how Books-A-Million is using these pen-ink illustration-style graphics on the walls to break up the empty space. These graphics are subtle and fit the theme of a bookstore well without being too overbearing.

     Looking at the store's right side wall back toward the cashier, we're within the non-fiction department here. It appears the bookshelves along the wall are in fact lit, with small lights running across the top of them. A nice touch, and still more subtle than we saw at that linked Barnes & Noble store earlier!

     The sign for the non-fiction department is the only one I got a close-up of, featuring the bottom mounted letters on a bracket that juts out from the wall, a typical modern style used also in Publix's Evergreen decor as well as Winn-Dixie's Winn Win 2.0 to create a 3D effect.

Photo courtesy of Kate RedHatStudio on Google Maps

     For our last interior photo, we'll turn to Google once again for a close-up of the cash register area, tucked into the store's front right corner behind a small gift item area. To the left of the registers was this store's severely reduced magazine display (3 sections of shelves now compared to this at the old store), and behind the counter itself was a decorative sign featuring Books-A-Million's logo (with "Founded 1917" underneath - I actually didn't realize the company was that old!). Next to that is a quote from author Carl Hiaasen - "Everybody's idea of a great book is different, of course for me it's one that makes my jaw drop on every page". Carl Hiaasen is a fairly prominent author, but interestingly enough, he actually is a bit of a local in these parts - his primary residence is about 50 miles south of Merritt Island in Vero Beach. If you've ever read any Carl Hiaasen, whether it be any of his books for adults (like Strip Tease - a crime classic) or younger readers (Hoot was a favorite of mine), his books are very Floridian, so it was appropriate of Books-A-Million to choose a quote of his for this store! I don't know if this quote is used in all of Books-A-Million's new stores or if the local connection was just a coincidence, but I liked it nonetheless!

     Back outside, here's one final look at the new Books-A-Million's exterior. Hopefully Books-A-Million's "Chapter 3" will be successful here in Merritt Island, however, being the only major bookstore in Northern Brevard County probably helps bring people to this location.

     As for the former locations of major bookstore chains in Northern Brevard County, all I had to do was tilt my camera just a little to the left of the new Books-A-Million for a glimpse at the former home of Barnes & Noble. After closing in 2016, the Merritt Island Barnes & Noble sat empty until Aldi took over their space in 2020. As you'd imagine, Aldi totally gutted and rebuilt the former Barnes & Noble space to look like a typical Aldi, so not much to see there. Next door to Aldi is a Michaels store, which was previously home to a Toys R Us that closed in 2012.

     On my way out, I decided to pull into the parking lot of Merritt Square across the street for a quick photograph of the previous Merritt Island Books-A-Million store - Chapter 2. The signage was gone and the place was emptied out, and with the current state of the mall, I wonder if anything will ever fill this space. Merritt Square did manage to pull off getting Ollie's Bargain Outlet to take over the former Sports Authority, so maybe there will be interest in this space, as a former 17,000 square foot bookstore should be easier to fill than the former 100,000 square foot former Sears at the other end of the mall that's been vacant since 2021!

     Anyway, I'll be interested to see what everyone has to say about the latest store design from Books-A-Million. While it lacks the cozy feeling of its predecessor, the store still looked nice overall, and that's essentially the same feeling I have for the latest Barnes & Noble stores I've seen photos of online. I've still yet to visit a new Barnes & Noble myself, but that visit will come before long, as my area is getting a few those over the next year or so. In particular, since we've been talking about the rotation of bookstores in Brevard County, it was just recently announced that the last Barnes & Noble in the county, located in West Melbourne (across from Melbourne Square), will be relocating to a new prototype store in a former Party City a few doors down in the Shoppes at West Melbourne, following the expiration of the current store's lease in 2026. Interestingly, the Shoppes of West Melbourne was where the ill-fated Melbourne location of Books-A-Million closed back in 2000, bringing a bookstore back to that strip after a 26-year hiatus in this game of bookstore musical chairs! Maybe we'll see some coverage of that relocation effort in the future, but for now, we'll close the book on this MFR post until we see what the next chapter unfolds!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

Pop(Shelf) Goes The Dollar General

Publix #124 / Dollar General Market + Popshelf #9859

239 Crockett Boulevard, Merritt Island, FL - Merritt Crossings

     Casually roaming around Merritt Island on my day off, I had to make a quick pit stop to drop off something at the post office, which is located right behind this plaza on Crockett Boulevard. After turning onto Crockett from Courtenay Parkway, I happened to glance over at the Dollar General Market and noticed it had new signage on the front. While new signage is one thing, what really caught my attention was that in addition to the DG Market sign, a sign for "Popshelf" had gone up as well. For those of you who aren't familiar, Popshelf is a new line of stores launched by Dollar General in October 2020 (which I'll explain in more detail in just a moment). Seeing Popshelf in person for the first time, I was quite intrigued, so after taking care of things at the post office, I had to pull in here to check the place out...

     While most of us are familiar with what Dollar General is (and how ubiquitous their stores are), Popshelf is still a bit rare, as the concept is just now nearing its first full year in business. Dollar General created Popshelf to be a more fun and upscale version of a dollar store, with a focus on home goods and having a strong appeal to middle-income suburban women. So in the words of Dollar General on what exactly Popshelf is: "This new store [Popshelf] aims to engage customers with a fun, affordable and stress-free shopping experience where they can find on-trend seasonal and home décor, health and beauty must-haves, home cleaning supplies, party goods, entertaining needs and much more— with approximately 95 percent of items priced at $5 or less!" I think Dollar General summarized what Popshelf is quite well in that statement, although in the words of AFB, I would describe Popshelf as being "Five Below's mother". Popshelf stores give off the same vibe as Five Below and follow a similar pricing model,  however Five Below focuses on appealing to kids and teenagers, while Popshelf is going after adults.

     Popshelf was developed as its own stand alone concept, so there are Popshelf stores out there that run solely on their own, and more stand-alone Popshelf stores are planned to open nationwide in the coming years. However, in August 2021, Dollar General announced that the company would start putting Popshelf "stores-within-a-store" inside select Dollar General Market locations. Dollar General Market is the company's largest store prototype, as these stores run full grocery departments in addition to carrying all the standard Dollar General merchandise. Considering their size, Dollar General was able to squeeze a Popshelf into about half the existing Dollar General Market space, infilling the remainder of the salesfloor with the full grocery department and items a normal Popshelf store wouldn't carry. That description might make this concept sound strange at first, but once we head inside, you'll see the concept actually works well.

     While the store's remodel was 100% complete at the time of my visit, there were still signs placed next to the entrance mentioning the remodel. While the remodel wasn't super intensive (as the salesfloor space remained the same size, and heavy construction was limited), Dollar General put a lot more effort into this remodel than I'd have thought. All the aisles on the salesfloor were rearranged, new decor was added, and some new flooring was installed around the perimeter of the Popshelf department. The remodel made this place look really nice, and I'd have to say this is the nicest Dollar General I've been to now.

     Stepping inside, we enter into the grocery department. The grocery department occupies the right side of the building, the same as it had prior to the remodel. As we'll see in a little bit, the entire center salesfloor behind me was converted into the new Popshelf store-within-a-store, the remaining Dollar General merchandise lining the far left side of the building beyond Popshelf.

     The produce department here actually looks quite classy with its new woodgrain decor and accents (wow, I never imagined I'd be using the word "classy" in a post about Dollar General!) We can see the produce department's prior decor here, from my original tour of this store posted to flickr a long time ago (but now resides in this MFR post). The prior produce decor looked pretty decent for something created by Dollar General (whose traditional stores don't have much decor to begin with), although the new decor definitely has a more upscale vibe than the prior look.

     From produce, here's a look toward the store's front end, which we'll see more of toward the end of this post.

     From produce, here's a look at the store's refrigerated and frozen food cases, which line the right side wall. The coolers also wrap around to the back wall, where the dairy department is located.

     New paint and signage came along with the remodel, continuing the gray and woodgrain theming we saw in the produce department. The new decor is much more sedate than its predecessor, but not so sparse that it looks super cheap. The fact the signs are 3-D and mounted onto the faux woodgrain background helps give the new look some substance.

     Beer and wine was moved into aisles 1 and 2 as part of the remodel, the new cooler to my left installed for the chilled beer and sodas.

     Dollar General Market's old grocery aisle setup had a much stronger warehouse/Save-A-Lot vibe, but with some rearranging and new signage, feel much classier now.

     At aisle 4 on the grocery side of the store, the grocery aisles switch from being parallel with the store's front wall to perpendicular. This is a big change from the old layout, where the grocery aisles ran parallel to the front wall all the way to the back of the store. Also from this vantage point, we get our first glimpse at Popshelf, which we'll be touring in more detail momentarily...

     As you'd expect from Dollar General, the "deli" department is nothing more than a fancy name for the store's pre-packaged meat selection. This photo looks into the store's back right corner, where dairy is also located.

     The main aisle seen here separates the grocery department from Popshelf, as seen looking toward the front of the store. That soda pallet actually blocks most of our view of the new Popshelf department, so therefore, what Popshelf looks like will have to wait until the next photo:

     And there you have it: Popshelf. In a testament to how successful Dollar General expects Popshelf to be, half of this store's salesfloor went to the new concept, with all the "normal" Dollar General merchandise pushed to the two far sides of the building. In order to give Popshelf so much floor space, Popshelf's core departments (housewares and other home items, toys, office & crafts, seasonal, and party supplies) essentially replaced the standard Dollar General versions of those same departments, allowing this store to offer Popshelf, yet still provide Dollar General's complete merchandise selection.

     As you probably noticed in the previous photo, the Popshelf section of the store has its own vibe, with a unique layout and lower-than-normal shelving. Popshelf also has its own decor on the back wall, and fancier displays than your typical Dollar General. The photo above shows some of the fancier merchandising done for Popshelf, showing off some of the newly-arrived fall decor to shoppers entering the store.

     Here's some more examples of the different tables and shelves used by Popshelf. To further Dollar General's quest to give Popshelf its own feel within this larger Dollar General store, a faux-wood flooring was installed around the perimeter of Popshelf's space, designating its bounds.

     The back wall showcases a small glimpse of Popshelf's decor, which uses a predominantly purple and white color scheme. Unfortunately, since only a small portion of the Popshelf space abuts a wall, the only three Popshelf departments got signage of their own: crafts, party, and home.

     While there were still traditional Dollar General Market baskets to use by the front doors, the Popshelf department got its own stacks of custom branded baskets, some of which can be seen here. I just wonder how much longer it will be before one of the store's normal DG Market baskets ends up getting discarded in this stack?

     From the front of the Popshelf department, here's a look toward the back of the building and the small section of Popshelf decor. Popshelf's area is filled with a lot of short aisles than run in all kinds of crazy directions, so it's a bit maze-like in here (which I believe was done to add to Popshelf's treasure hunt concept, as when wandering through the maze, you never know what you'll find).

     Here's another look across the Popshelf department, looking into the department's seasonal and home goods zones. Before Popshelf was installed, the center of the store just had long traditional aisles filling up this space, like this one. Removing all those tall shelves makes the store feel bigger, as you don't have all the shelves blocking your view across the store. 

     Toward the back of the Popshelf department are toys and party supplies, with crafts and office supplies along the back wall.

     Here's our overview of Popshelf's back wall, which prior to the remodel, was home to much-less-classy-looking warehouse steel shelves holding paper products (which I don't have a comparison photo of, as it appears my original tour of this store was a bit light on photos - I think I was more into hunting down Publix relics during that photo blitz than actually photographing a DG Market back then).

     What remained of Dollar General's paper department got condensed into the store's back left corner, situated upon normal shelves instead of the big warehouse counterparts from before. Also note the department signs on this side of the store (the "general merchandise" side, I guess you can call it), lacks the wood-grain back panels from the store's grocery side.

     Turning to the left, here's a look down the aisle that separates Popshelf from the general merchandise aisles. So essentially, whatever a typical Popshelf store wouldn't carry (such as clothes, hardware/automotive, and baby products, for example) is located to my right.

     From the left side wall, here's a look toward the front of the building.

     Thanks to Popshelf's low shelves, a photo across the store like this was made possible. Before the remodel, the results weren't as great.

     The general merchandise side of the store had an entire aisle dedicated to $1 Deals, in which I found this interesting product. I always find it intriguing going to various closeout/dollar stores and seeing well known brands putting their name on products completely unrelated to what they usually sell - for example, the Hostess Wax Paper seen here (which was in addition to the Hostess Plastic Wrap on the shelf above). I guess if you can't finish your Twinkie, this is the perfect stuff to wrap it in for later.

     Moving further toward the front of the store, Health and Beauty products occupy the front left corner, which was previously home to a large clothing department. Clothing was a department that got cut in size quite a bit here following the remodel, with that department now occupying a single standard aisle of mostly socks and underwear that we saw two photos back.

     Officially, the new beauty department falls under Popshelf, as this new setup uses Popshelf's color scheme, lower shelving, and branding. To add to Popshelf's more "upscale" image, some round pendant lights were added over the beauty section, making it stand out from the rest of the store. Two images down you can see the new pendant lights from a more drawn back perspective, and I think the more upscale look these lights give off will be more apparent then.

     Looking across the front of the store, we find ourselves taking a look at the front end. The front end couldn't escape the remodel either, and was reconfigured to add a bank of 4 self-checkout lanes at the far end by the doors, with four regular lanes stationed next to those.

     Here's one last look at the salesfloor, looking back toward the beauty department (which is easily identifiable from the sight of those new lights).

     While Dollar General has been using self-checkouts for a while, per this article, this was my first time ever seeing self-checkouts in person at Dollar General. The self-checkouts were laid out nicely here, but considering how cramped the front ends are at most standard Dollar General stores, I can only imagine how these things are getting shoved in elsewhere.

     So there you have it folks - our first look at a Popshelf store. While this particular Popshelf was integrated into an existing Dollar General Market, a standalone Popshelf location offers exactly what we just saw in its little department here. The only difference with the standalone Popshelf stores is those have a small grocery/cleaning supply section in addition to everything else, but otherwise hold at roughly the same size as a standard Dollar General. I think Popshelf is an interesting concept, and I think it will succeed. Five Below has become a national chain following a similar idea to Popshelf, and by tweaking the target demographic, Dollar General has created something entirely new. After seeing it in person, Popshelf also blends in well with the DG Market stores. By adding Popshelf's merchandise and vibe to a Dollar General Market, it creates something that looks almost like a less-refined version of a modern Target store (wow, now I'm comparing Dollar General to Target - what has this world come to?!) Dollar General is definitely upping the bar, and finding ways to appeal to more shoppers is always a big plus in the business world.

     Currently, Popshelf only has around 20 stand alone stores operating in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina, although Dollar General's ultimate goal is to open hundreds of Popshelf stores nationwide in the coming years. More Dollar General Market + Popshelf conversions (as they're officially called) are expected to happen as well, in addition to the growth of the stand alone operation. Dollar General expects to have 25 of these combo stores complete by the end of 2021, Merritt Island having been one of those chosen. As of the publication of this post, in addition to Merritt Island, the only other Popshelf open in any form in Florida appears to be another combo store in Lakeland, although I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Popshelf before long, as I'm sure Dollar General wants to "pop" up more of these stores soon!

     It's always intriguing to see a new retail chain appear, as it doesn't seem like you see too may new ones popping up anymore. Hopefully Dollar General continues to have success with Popshelf, as I think Popshelf fills a niche no one has ever tried to capture before. All that being said, I really don't have much more to add, so I hope everyone liked this little preview of Dollar General's new chain, and maybe experience one yourself down the road. 

So until the next post,

AFB