May 31--Dollar store owner Doug Austin says sales have been brisk lately as cash-strapped Keys' shoppers scan the shelves of his store looking for bargains.

"It's exploded," Austin says of business at his two-year-old Buck Store on Big Pine Key.

So Austin's expanding, both on Big Pine, where he plans to open a 3,500-square-foot store in the Winn-Dixie shopping center, and in Marathon, where he's just opened a 5,000-square-foot location called Daffy Doug's Discount Dollar.

Austin says the larger Big Pine store will also sport the "Daffy Doug" moniker when it opens across the shopping center from his current location, hopefully a month from now.

A few months after that, Austin says, he and his wife, Leeann, also plan to open a store in Homestead and one each in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

A dollar store mini-empire is a far cry from what the Austins originally planned when they retired to the Keys a few years ago. But when what should have been a simple run to the store to pick up a meat tenderizer turned into a four-hour quest, a frustrated Austin came home and announced that he was opening a dollar store.

The Buck Store was born soon after, and Austin says a focus on making sure he stocks the things people need -- like that tenderizer -- have helped him build a market niche that he hopes to repeat in Marathon and on the mainland.

Some of the dollar store's hottest sellers are basic household necessities -- paper towels and toilet paper, for instance -- that can really add to a family's weekly grocery bill. And in today's tough economy, every dollar counts.

Austin say the response in Marathon so far has been overwhelming. He estimates 200 people a day have stopped to ask when the store is opening.

He'll employ about 15 people between the two Keys stores.

In addition to a jump in sales in recent months, Austin's also seen a change in clientele.

"Before, we didn't see upper middle class people in the store," he says.

The picture is similar elsewhere, as high- and middle-income shoppers increasingly turn to dollar stores, according to a recent story on marketing magazine Brandweek's Web site.

Contrary to the national trend away from dollar store items costing a dollar, Austin says the bulk of the stock at Daffy Doug's is a buck or less.

But there are exceptions. Twenty percent of Daffy Doug's will be set aside for closeout items, a segment of the market that Austin says is booming as large retailers trim inventory, close stores or go out of business altogether. He says most of those items are priced at 75 percent off its original retail price.

A 16-person crew from supplier Buckstore Inc. has spent more than a week stocking what Austin estimates is as many as 600,000 items in preparation for the May 23 opening.

The nationwide operation Buckstore Inc. says it can also help owners plan and launch stores. But unlike a franchise, the company says, its only role after opening is to help supply the inventory.

"I don't do franchise," Austin says. "I do business my way or no way." And so far it appears to be working.

<< -- 06/01/2009>>