Dollar General Plans 450 New Stores, 4,250 Remodels Across U.S. in 2026

Dollar General announced March 12 that it plans to open nearly 450 new U.S. stores in fiscal 2026, remodel about 4,250 existing locations, and relocate 20 stores, pushing deeper into an expansion pace that has added more than 8,000 locations over the past decade and brought its total store count to nearly 21,000.

The Tennessee-based discount retailer backed the announcement with a full-year earnings picture that showed net revenue of $42.7 billion for fiscal 2025, up 5.2% from $40.6 billion in fiscal 2024. Net income came in at $1.5 billion, a 34.4% jump from $1.1 billion the prior year. Even so, the company has not reclaimed its all-time profit peak: in fiscal 2020, pandemic-era stimulus spending and surging demand for essentials drove net income to $2.66 billion, a figure fiscal 2025 did not surpass.

The fourth quarter was the story executives leaned on hardest. Q4 net income reached $426.3 million, up 122.9% from $191.2 million in the same quarter of fiscal 2024. That gain came despite the company absorbing a higher income tax rate of 21.8% in Q4 fiscal 2025 versus 16.2% a year earlier. Same-store sales rose 4.3% in the quarter.

"Our fourth quarter performance was highlighted by a 4.3% increase in same-store sales and continued advancement of our key initiatives, which contributed to strong operating margin expansion and EPS growth that well exceeded our expectations. Overall, this momentum reflects the progress we've made with our strategy and the continued relevance of our unique combination of value and convenience, particularly in the thousands of rural communities we serve," Todd Vasos said.

For store-level workers, the scale of the 2026 program is significant in practical terms. Roughly 4,250 remodels across a chain of nearly 21,000 stores means that close to one in five locations could see construction activity this fiscal year, with the attendant disruption to daily operations that remodels typically bring. Dollar General added a net of 299 stores in fiscal 2025; the roughly 450 planned openings for fiscal 2026 represent a meaningful acceleration from that pace. The company has not disclosed what capital expenditures it will commit to fund the program, and no geographic breakdown of planned openings or remodels has been released.

The announcement also carries the suggestion of significant local hiring demand tied to both new store openings and remodel crews, though Dollar General has not published specific job counts, role types, or regional hiring targets connected to the fiscal 2026 program. Those details remain outstanding and will matter most to communities in the rural markets that Vasos specifically cited as central to the company's relevance.