99 Cents Only Store in Venice Will Close Permanently At The End of 2023

The 99 Cents Only Store located next to the Whole Foods Market in Venice is about to close. The store is at Lincoln Blvd and Rose Avenue. According to the company, they were unable to renegotiate the lease for any amount of rent that made sense.

99 Cents stores sells all kinds of products from fresh fruit to electronics, to pharmaceuticals and clothing and housewares. Not all of their items cost 99 cents. I recently saw a small tree for sale there for $39, which is kind of at the upper end of the price range.

The discount retailer at the corner of Lincoln Blvd and Rose Avenue in Venice, will close permanently at the end of the year, the company announced.

The chain, founded in 1982, operates 289 stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada, and was a pioneer of the single-price retail concept. Such low-priced stores have become increasingly popular with consumers in the years since the economy began to falter.

99 Cents Only Stores dates back to the 1960s when the company’s founder, Dave Gold, inherited a tiny liquor store in downtown Los Angeles and decided to run a test by selling bottles of wine at a fixed price-point of 99 cents. The test was an instant success, and Dave thought that selling everything in the store for 99 cents would be hugely popular.

"Whenever I'd put wine or cheese on sale for $1.02 or 98 cents, it never sold out," Gold said in a 2001 interview with The Los Angeles Times. "When I put a 99 cent sign on anything, it was gone in no time. I realized it was a magic number.” Gold said.

Gold opened the first 99 Cents Only store in 1982. At the time, the dollar store concept was considered a retail graveyard for expired or broken products. Gold made his store bright and well organized and cultivated relationships with vendors, sometimes plying them with bagels and cream cheese.

Gold died in his home in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles from an apparent heart attack, in 2013.