DOLLAR STORE SERVICES DRSS Complaints
Dollar Store Services, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, claims to be the largest developer of dollar stores, having opened 3,000 stores since 1994. Dollar Store Services (also known as Discount Retail Store Services or DRSS) claims it helps individuals open their own independent dollar stores for as low as $59,900 with 100% financing. How many of the dollar stores DRSS has helped open are successful? How many of the 3,000 are still in business? Please share your experience with Dollar Store Services or DRSS with a comment below.
(UnhappyFranchisee.Com) Dollar Store Services, also known as DRSS Discount Retail Store Services, claims it helps would-be dollar store owners get into business without the disadvantages of a franchise, such as “higher store package price, regulations, fees, contractual obligations, extreme oversight, and loss of control.”
The Dollar Store Services website states: “With a starting price of $59,900, you will receive everything you need to open your store, have all work performed by seasoned professionals, and never pay fees or royalties!”
Dollar Store Services claims it provides a host of powerful advantages including:
- Securing Business Financing
- Finding A Suitable Retail Space
- Negotiating a Retail Lease
- Building Out Your Store
- Global Merchandise Network
- Training and Ongoing Support
Dollar Store Services DRSS claim the time is right to open a dollar store:
Dollar Stores are an incredible business opportunity
The fact is that dollar stores are in huge demand today as is evidenced by the dramatic stock price increases for the large corporate owned dollar store chains such as Dollar Tree, Dollar General,Family Dollar and 99 cents only… The success of these industry leaders is also translating into the development of independent dollar stores which are springing up all over the country as entrepreneurs are joining the burgeoning industry.
But some contend that Dollar Store Services DRSS is a sales machine that lures entrepreneurs into investing in a retail concept that is economically unsustainable.
James Wichert’s JWI Wholesale Supplies the Inventory to Dollar Stores
Dollar Store Services was founded and is owned by James Wichert, who also owns JWI Wholesale (JWI) which supplies dollar stores with merchandise.
The JWI Wholesale website claims James Wichert “started in the industry in 1992 when he opened the first dollar store in Nevada… Since he started in the dollar store business, Mr. Wichert has assisted over 2,500 individuals open stores throughout the United States, Canada, and worldwide.”
The Dollar Store Services website lists these individuals as its Executive Leadership:
- James Wichert – Owner
- J.D. Gray – Vice President
- John LaFronz – General Manager of Dollar Store Services
- Theresa Whitley – General Manager of Mailbox and Business Center
- Kerry Verd – General Manager of Party Store Developers
- David Rashidi – Director of Information Technology
- David Trumble – Operations Manager
- Cayman Wong – Controller
Are you familiar with Dollar Store Services, DRSS, Discount Retail Store Services, or JWI Wholesale? What do you think of this business opportunity? Please share a comment below or send an email to this site’s Admin in confidence.
Dollar Store Services Complaint: High Failure Rate
Martcia Calvillo retired from AT&T after 30 years of service. In 2012, she signed up with Dollar Store Services and opened her Dollar Store in the Linda Mar shopping center in Pacifico, CA. She struggled for two years, trying everything she could, from adding Fax Services, Black & White Printing and Copying, and Event Ticket Sales. She upgraded to Dollar Plus higher ticket merchandise but found that the economic model was just not viable. Internet comments posted by Martcia indicate that she is not alone:
I opened up my Dollar Store in October 2012. I went to the 3 day training in Las Vegas and they went over all the discount vendor pricing and the .55 cents monthly goal you need to maintain to be successful as a dollar store owner.
They had all the spreadsheets for you to keep track of your inventory and your daily sales. You also get access to their website so you can get the list of their vendors that give the special pricing discount of 20-25% to the [JWI Wholesale] store owners. Sounds really legit.
They also took us to a Dollar Store in Las Vegas that had been open for 4 months for a tour, talk to the owner and ask questions. We did notice that his shelves were a little bare but he told us he was waiting for a shipment. They closed 6 months later.
I had 3 other new store owners in the training with me and we all kept in touch and 6 months later all of us were in the same boat sinking fast. We are all closed but they moved into a smaller store and changed it to a dollar plus and is still struggling from closing the Dollar Store.
Dollar Store Services Complaint: Overpriced Buildout
Martcia claimed that her buildout was unnecessarily overpriced:
Your build out is overpriced. I had so much leftover slat walls, shelving and hooks taking up space in my storage just like all the other store owners I talked to.
Then you get the keys to your brand new store and a stack of invoices of all the merchandise purchased for your store.
Dollar Store Services Complaint: High Inventory Costs, Low Profit Margin
Inventory, Profit Margin Issues are another area of concern:
Bottom line STAY AWAY you don’t get 20% to 25% discount from the JWI Wholesale vendors, shipping is costly if you are not careful. Your high turnover items are only your chemicals, food, HBA and paper products that you will NEVER get for under 79 cents…
When you have time to go through all of it you notice that it’s so lopsided. All the great pet supplies, chemicals, HBA and food are over .80 cents and the merchandise under .40 cents is junk.
So now you open your doors and what sells is all your high end items so now any profit you made you have to replenish with the low profit margin of .20 cents on the dollar. Customers start noticing your shelves are a little light and you just tell them you are waiting for a shipment.
Now when go to order your items with these vendors you must have at least $1000.00 order for a full pallet or the item is no longer in stock (which happens a lot).
The JWI Wholesale discount is just pennies off the listed price. JWI Wholesale now has their own merchandise but it’s a lot of junk and no chemicals, paper products or food just a lot of nothing.
Of course they have a rep assigned to you to help with your ordering but they can only help so much and then they try to get you to buy dollar plus items. Many times they send me specials but most of it is dollar plus items. I would e-mail them or call and tell them don’t send me anything unless I can profit from it in a Dollar Store
Dollar Store Services Complaint: Failure Even With Great Location
Martcia claims that her Dollar Store failed despite her best efforts and a very good location:
DRSS is telling new prospective owners that I was in a bad location and this is not true.
My store was making $900 to $1000 a day.
My first opening day I made $1200 and that was a soft open. I was in a very busy location and I couldn’t keep items on my shelf the problem was having the money to purchase because my profit margin was only .20 cents.
All my paper towels, bath tissue, bleach, detergent, food etc .. these are the items people come in looking for and it went fast. If your lucky you can find it for .69 cents but your not getting a 25% discount like they tell you. And now add in the freight.
Dollar Store Services Client Lost Over $100K, Filing for Bankruptcy
From reading her store’s Facebook page (still online), it appears Martcia made every effort to make her store work, but ultimately had to close in 2015:
I tried very hard to keep my store going but after 2 years it was too hard to keep up.
I had to put additional money out of my pocket and raise prices but once you open up as a Dollar Store it’s difficult to change to a Dollar Plus because your customers can go to Dollar Tree.
I am in the process of filing bankruptcy now and I paid cash to DRSS so I am out over $100,000.00, I wished I would’ve used their financing so I wouldn’t of had to pay back all that money and I would still have money in the bank.
You are looking at 3 to 6 months max and then the downward spiral starts.
I was talking to a store owner and we couldn’t believe that John LaFronz can sleep at night knowing that he left a lot of families filing bankruptcy.
If I can get one person to read this and not make the same mistake I feel like I have succeeded.
Is Dollar Store Services Legit or a Scam?
Martcia isn’t alone in posting harsh criticism and allegations that Dollar Stores Services DRSS is selling a high-risk, high failure rate business proposition. Some comments include:
As of late 2014 DRSS had opened about 3200 stores but only had about 425 opened at that time.
I simply investigated the 193 videos (YOUTUBE) on Dollar Store Services which they use as a sales tool in their support system to grab sales.
The names of the stores are mentioned and I called these stores. Out of a hundred of their stores, over 90% of all the businesses they are responsible for creating have failed and continued to fail.
DRSS has pretty much ruined my dreams of ever owning my own retail store.
Is Dollar Store Services a disreputable company as these commenters claim, or is this a case of failed business owners not taking responsibility for their own decisions? Share your opinion below or by contacting us.
ALSO READ:
FRANCHISE DISCUSSIONS by Company
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE DOLLAR STORE SERVICES DRSS & ITS MANAGEMENT TEAM? WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS OPPORTUNITY TO A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER?
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TAGS: Dollar Store Services, Discount Retail Store Services, DRSS, JWI Wholesale, Dollar Store Services complaints, DRSS complaints, JWI Wholesale complaints, Dollar Store franchise, open a dollar store, own a dollar store, James Wichert, J.D. Gray, John LaFronz, unhappy franchisee
you can say DRSS is a scam but I would say it’s unethical. They are in it for the money but not for helping people. Their line of vendors are real companies that have been around for years. We went through them as well. If you go on there website and look up D&R $1 Plus. I think you will find it. Anyways, their vendors will offer minimum order value. If you meet it, then you don’t have to pay freight. Of course, owners will do it just to save the freight cost. Dollar store services will encourage you to do so. However, the end result is that you will over spend it and you will end up with higher loan.
Another problem is that for people who can’t have liquid cash to pay for the set up and products in the beginning. Dollar store services will tell you to go through Seed Capital. Everyone else including myself thought Seed Capital would apply for business loan with the banks on our behalf…as if they have magic or negotiation power. The company had me fill out a paper and requires $5000 down. I paid and the company came back with a recommendation that suggested me to apply with a bunch of credit card. I assume everyone that goes through Dollar Store Services ends up with a bunch of credit card. These credit cards have high interest rate but you have one year free of interest.
They will have you go out there and look at the properties, take pictures, and send it back to them. Dollar Store Services said that the employees would search for properties for you. The company means they will search properties from their office with air condition and let you do the hard work. Once they find it, they will tell you to transfer the money to your bank account to pay them even when you’re not even sure to get the space yet. Now you have no choice but to go long with it.
They will use that money to buy products for you and the products suck. Most of them don’t even sell. After a couple of months we open up our store. We changed everything. Also, we raise prices on most of our items as well. If you factor in rent and other operation cost, selling items at 1 dollar is not going to help your store much. You will end up closing the store within 6 months. For us, it was very fortunate. Lets get back to the story. After they deliver everything like get your lease done, shipped the merchandise, your store is set up, they will give you a stack of invoices, which you will have no idea how much they spent on the products, fixtures, and build out team.
Most of the items they ordered on your behalf and priced at 1 dollar for you.. those are not even 1 dollar. They under price it and over spent your money. For instance chef craft, we found out that chef craft products are high quality and American made products. cost margin for them is .65-85 cent. How can you survive at .15 profit?
The cash register Dollar Store services give you is manual. You can’t keep track how much you have in inventory. Owners can easily overspend. That’s what happened to us. Also, the way to calculate the margin,they taught you, is also wrong for this kind of business.
We are in the process of liquidation and I hope you don’t make the same mistake as I and other owners did. The best is to open up a small drink place or ice cream business. But do your due diligence people.
I too am a victim of the “unethical” practices of DRSS. The comments provided by Martcia & David were as if I had wrote them myself word for word. Within 3 months of opening my store, I knew that I had been set up for failure.
The first problem was with so-call guidance & consultation that I received from their Real Estate department. The guidance was inadequate & sent me into an over-priced rent, unprotected. Despite my initial concerns put out to them, I was assured that their team of lawyers & other associates had found me a good deal. It was not.
The second problem was inventory. The initial inventory was not designed with my customers in mind. After conducting my own due diligence on the demographics, I relayed this information to DRSS before the initial order of merchandise. Yet they sent an abundance of items that never sold.
The third issue (as David explains) was pricing. By the time I tried to switch to dollar plus items, it was too late to survive.
I believe DRSS is well aware of the failures brought on by their practices over the years, yet still continue using the same processes. When I questioned the complaints online, their executives assured us that they were submitted by competitors. When I asked about their failure rate, I was told that they were not permitted to disclose such information.
Please strongly consider looking elsewhere for consultation if you want to open a dollar store business. This is most likely NOT the company to help you succeed.
I want to say thank you to all of you for the comments. I am so glad that I read this before I signed up with them. I gave them a total of $3000 and right when they sent me the real estate documents to sign my life away. I decided to read everything and highlighted every line. Then I started questioning them and they could not provide any answers . ALSO THE COMPANY THAT GET YOU THE CREDIT CARDS EXCEL FUNDING(be careful with them because one of my credit cards sent me a letter saying they are FRAUD. I asked for my money back and explained to them that I NO LONGER WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH THEM and Thank Goodness,they gave me my $3000 back. Now listen up people DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING- READ READ READ.
The comments posted above by Lisa and David are very true. We are one of the victims of DRSS’s scam scheme. We have been running a dollar store since September, 2015 without good outcomes. We cannot even foreclose the store as we are under the tremendous amount of debt, thanks to SEED capital and their consultation to apply for credit cards.
All the problems mentioned above by Lisa and David in regards to Merchandising, Credit Cards, inventory, training, everything is true. We even inquired the sales representative about the online comments and they fooled us stating that this was posted by competitors.
We have done everything we could to run the business: lottery, drinks, ice-cream, seasonal items, copy and faxing, food items, you name it, yet nothing seems to be working. DRSS is a SCAM and i am very glad that Jenny was able to save herself from DRSS. We are very happy for Jenny and this gave us encouragement to accredit the comments by Lisa and David.
Please be careful and stay away from DRSS and it’s so called SCAM service.
I am in for a collective lawsuit as my experience is exactly as all the other ones. Overcharging, selling you products that cost you 80Cents and telling you that you are making 50 cents on the dollar. rip off, scam and lies. they took a commission on everything shelves, radio, fax etc Made me pay for a ton of unnecessary shelves.
Run! Do not sign with them.
Seriously, anybody for a collective lawsuit?
Please don’t do that, they’ll ruin you. My family opened a store and a year later they had to closed. You don’t make any money. Finally they had to file Bankruptcy. Keep away of this People
Warning: Let me start by saying, if you are considering opening up a retail store, please, I repeat please do not use Discount Retail Store Services nor their financing. There is a 95% chance your store will not survive 6 months.
Discount Retail Store Services, they are very smart, nice, and deceptive all at the same time. If you have great credit or at least enough credit to get them paid; thats all they are concerned with. They will use every sales pitch to sucker you in to open your own store, knowing that you won’t have enough operating capital to keep your doors open 3 months (so sad).
They are scamming you from the very first moment you speak with them. Yes, I must say that they deliver well when it comes to building you out a beautiful store, but other than that don’t believe all the other hype. Especially the long term support and training is a joke, the initial training is a joke. Trust me if you have the desire to open a retail store, you can get better training on youtube and reading articles on google.
Anyway, I went through them to open my retail store. At the beginning I do remember being pressured by R**h in the finance department to use their financing; they called and emailed seems like me everyday until I decided to go ahead an use their financing, which is a third party company named Seed Capital. They charge you around $3k – 5k to open up multiple lines of credit (credit cards) in your name; they also have you to falsefy and lie about your current income to secure higher credit limits; which was a Red Flag, but I ignored it because I trusted that these people, and considered them to be experts because of the amount of stores they have opened in the past, and I felt that they had my best interest at hand; boy was I wrong. Once you receive these multiple credit cards; they have you to liquidate about 95% of the credit on them, by using the cash advance checks in order for you to pay Discount Retail Store Services.
After you successfully go through the financing, you move on to Real Estate, in which they are suppose to help you find a great location for your business to succeed. All of the locations they provided me were in high crime and run down areas and I totally disapproved. Now I see why they suggested these sites, landlords in those areas are more eager to rent and this would speed you through their process quicker and they get paid. Well I was not going to fall for that, so they had to work a little harder. After I narrowed down 3 locations I approved of, they reached out to the landlords; as you know landlords are very slow with following up and negotiations. Out of the 3 spaces I approved only 1 landlord had followed up in a reasonable amount of time; and St**e at DRSS pitched to me this is a great location, “this is what we call a power shopping center” “the demographics are through the roof” “you will do very good here”. So I trusted their judgement, because #1 im paying them almost 100k and number #2, I felt like they had my best interest at hand. So I signed a contract for that space, as a matter of fact it was a 5 yr contract, I was very concerned about this lease, but DRSS assured me that this was a good lease and that I would do great in this location.
So after I finished the Real Estate phase, I went on to Operations, where they actually do the store blueprint, layout, and buildout. This process was horrible, due to the fact renovations on my retail space were not completed on scheduled time, and all of my merchandise was being shipped. I would actually have to blame my landlord for this issue, because he was in charge of renovations; but DRSS were the ones communicating with him on my behalf.
The store buildout went well. The supervisor did a great job with getting the store completed in 5 days.
So here is where the classic bait and switch come in at: Your store is up and running now and DRSS has received their pay and they literally leave you out to crash and burn. Like i mentioned earlier their ongoing support and training is horrible, its a joke. Their empolyess dont have a clue about running a successful retail business.
After several months of ripping and running; going through the process of opening your store; now you have a little down time because customers are not coming in your store, inspite of all the advertising, social media campaigns, coupons, word of mouth, etc; you can’t do nothing but sit back, analyze and count up the real cost. This is the point when the $hit hits the fan. So about 3 months after being open and having and optimistic mindset that things would get better; I started researching how much it would cost me to open another store in the future, if I did it on my own. I started pricing store fixtures, merchandise, and etc that I had in my store; I could have fainted after I found out this stuff is dirt cheap. Another thing I started to do was price the inventory that was in my store to see what it added up too. According to my contract with DRSS, I was supposed to have $20k worth of merchandise at wholesale price in my store; hmm I was having a hard time trying to even get to $20k at retail after pricing over 90% of my inventory. Take in mind, yes I had been open for about 3 months; but my sales were through the floor, horrible, less than $7k for that time frame.
I then started to research this company and reach out to other business owners. I soon learned that over 90% of the stores on their website are out of business and the owners had to file bankruptcy. The few that are still open are struggling to stay open just to keep from going bankrupt. All of the business owners I have talked with have similar stories about DRSS.
DRSS does not have your best interest at hand; they will try to get much money as possible out of you as they can. For instance; they receive a commission off of your lease from your retail space, they use your good credit to get paid upfront, they invite you to Vegas to visit their office for bull$hit training.
I have so much more I could say, but I just want to warn anyone who wants to open a retail store to do it on your own. You can do it 75% cheaper than DRSS can and save a lot of money for operating expenses until your store traffic picks up. Talk with other business owners, if you are not their direct competition, they should be willing to give you good advice; hire you a good business attorney before you sign a retail space lease, make sure the lease favors you as the business owner. Take your time and don’t rush into being a business owner; its a huge responsibility and will a lot of your time and energy.
DRSS store concepts do not work, I dont care how smart you are or how business savvy you are. DRSS store concepts do not and will not work; you will end up in Bankruptcy in less than 1 year of your store opening. Unfortunately, I had to close my doors after only being in business for 6 months.
DRSS prey on people with good credit who have a desire to open their own business. They make it sound like you need them to do this; all at the same time they are knowing that you will fail. The failure rate using DRSS is very high due to the large amout they scam you out of using your credit, i mean they max your credit outt. You have no room to borrow funds down the road because your debt to equity ratio will be to high. DRSS doesn’t care though, why? Because they have gotten all of their fees up front and could care less if you succeed or not. The amout you will be paying on your lease and the lines of credit per month, and other operating expenses will leave you dry each month, as a matter of fact my store never even got to the point of breaking even. I was using personal savings to keep the business going, while also trying to live and take care of my personal life. Within a few months my personal funds were drying up; and the store was showing no signs of improvement, in spite of all my efforts to keep it afloat. My sales were so horrible, if I didn’t have any expenses; it still would not have been worth operating the business. I believe they lead me to a location that was not the ideal location for the type of business I had; also the demographic of people in that community were not friendly to minority owned businesses (I learned that after the fact). DRSS main goal is to get you in the quickest location as possible, to keep the ball rolling and them getting paid.
I have so much more, but I will stop here. You have been warned, PLEASE BEWARE!!!! Do not use DRSS.
Mont,
I agree with each and every word you expressed. I went through the same, when I say same, it’s exactly the same and have added other services in hope of survival. I have been running the store in loss for the last two years, with support from my other job.
I cannot stress enough about the fraudulence of DRSS. I really wish I had read these comments before getting into this scam.
Thank you for all the comments. It was very helpful. I would’ve made the same mistake. I knew it was too good to be true. 100% Financing and they help you with location etc. That is what caught my interest. The biggest pause for me however, was leasing and cost of merchandise. I was worried about the remaining years on a lease if I closed before the term ended and the fact that I wasn’t in control of purchasing and the cost of replenishing popular items and the loss for stale items. Reading these stories help me make a decision.
thanks for sharing you experience ..i am glad i checked .. ..good thing i read this review before i went further..
sorry guys it happened to you, and i hope best for your alls future..
somebody needs to shut this scammers down…
Thanks for the information. I was about to go with this company for the mailbox stores. I don’t think this will be too much of a difference.
Can any one tell me of a good real dollar store developer that doesn’t scam it seems every development company has a bad track record mikebingham3 @ yahoo
hello,
I to have been scammed by this company and am in the process of trying to get a class action law suite going feel free to text me [redacted]
ADMIN NOTE: For a variety of reasons, we don’t allow posting of personal contact information in comments. Please share your experiences here publicly so all can benefit. If you would like to contact other commenters, email ADMIN confidentially at UnhappyFranchisee[at]Gmail.Com. Thanks. ADMIN
Scot bayne,
Did you check with the lawyer? I can stand with you on the lawsuit, but I think this kind of scammers cover their bases so that they don’t get sued every now and then, even if someone did file a lawsuit, they will have the upper hand.
We just had to close our business a few months ago. Never made a dime, tried everything to make it work, no profit in this business and all the charts and information they presented on potential earnings is a crock. These are scammers. I stand behind anyone who puts together a suit. I was in the busiest plaza in our county and still could not make it work, Now I am left with another 18 months on a lease and debt up to my ears. I will contact admin to get contact information on others who are joining.
Hi all,
I opened what I thought to be my dream dollar store June 20, 2016. I went through DRSS to open my store. My husband & I went through excel funding & we got the personal cards & were told they were okay for business. My husband was scepticall because they were lying on applications about our income to get us qualified. I went along with it because I thought they had our best interest at hand. I wasn’t to impressed with my financial adviser, from DRSS, He didn’t keep in contact with me like he said he would & he seemed like he didn’t know how to advise me. When it came to the real estate, I had 2 locations to choose from & one sold while inquiring about renting. I am renting a building with good parking but I
my rent is 1200.00 per month. I am nervous about paying that this winter. I went to the training in Vegas & it turned out when I got there, I was the only person scheduled that week. I thought that was odd, but went with it.
I learned a lot of information for sure. My dollar store has been open for 13 months. I am getting a little worried about how winter will go. I live in a rural small town 7 miles from the Canadian border. Winters are hard for businesses around here. The town slows down & tourists are less. When my store opened, it was smaller in size. 1000 square foot is what I started with, but my space was 2500 square foot. We expanded from store setup just before Halloween 2016.I had lots of extra slat wall, shelving & hooks left. I am having a hard time keeping my shelves full. I have been shorted 5 cases of chips & 3-5 cases of cookies. They were out of stock my last 2 orders. keeping up on holiday orders is a challenge to. I still have customers coming in who love my store but I have those who complain my store isn’t full enough too. I am going to try to make it through the holidays but not sure how that will go. I appreciate reading these reviews, i love my little store but i feel like I am sinking. please let me know if there is grounds for a law suit, I am interested.
Nathalie and Jennifer Hayden
I’m in for collective lawsuit.
Lets share our email addresses so that we can get together and can discuss further about lawsuit.
My email is [redacted].
NOTE: We don’t allow posting of personal contact info in the comment section. If you’d like to coordinate communication with another member, please contact us at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com. If you have a group action already forming, please have your law firm contact us also. Thanks. ADMIN
Utshav,Nathalie and Jennifer Hayden
You guys can email me your contact info.
Please keep in touch, I just move to a smaller, less expensive location to stay in business. I hope I can make it work, I have struggled hard the last year.
I myself started the process paid the $5500 to get started with the process but came to realize that the 80k that they said we would be able to reach wasn’t obtained. Now excel funding is requesting that I pay them another $3495 which I am not going to do. There was never any info relayed that there was more money to be paid. Now I’m requesting a refund for the $5500. Contact me about the lawsuit if you folks get one going evolutioncomputersllc at consultant.com
MY PRAYERS ARE WITH ALL OF YOU!!!! SAVE YOUR MONEY DON’T MAKE THE SCAMMERS RICHER
I REALLY WANT TO THANK YOU FOR HAVING THIS PAGE …. My husband and I decided to open our store WITHOUT DRSS on January 2017 and it is growing so fast and we even added higher priced merchandise, so the store looks more like family dollar;dollar general. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM DRSS… (THIS OTHER COMPANY FROM HOUSTON CALLED DISCOUNT KING IS A LOT cheaper but you will regret buying your merchandise from them because YOU WILL NOT GET EVERYTHING YOUR STORE NEEDS TO STAY IN BUSINESS K**AL is a much smoother scammer, Legal action threats made him replaced some of our merchandise)I THANK GOD THAT I KNEW WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR BECAUSE OF THIS PAGE. I KNOW GOD IS BLESSING THE PERSON THAT SETUP THIS PAGE
In early 2013, my wife and I were introduced to the Dollar Store concept, through a person (Roger) who was representing Dollar Store Services as a sales associate for buying a Dollar Store business concept. It was explained to me that this was a business opportunity, not a franchise, so there are no additional fees once the business is bought, and the profit margin is significant ( 20% to 23% net after expenses ) compared to most businesses. Roger told me that he was going to open a store himself, because they were so profitable.
I was contacted by an employee of Dollar Store Services, and we discussed the advantages of being an owner of one of their Dollar Stores. During our conversation, I asked the gentleman what kind of revenue I could expect to generate, and he told me the stores average $160 to $190 per square foot ( I have the email to prove it ). I was opening a 3000 square foot store, so I took the numbers he gave me and split it in the middle at $175 per square foot, and that totals $525,000 dollars per year ( over a half million dollars per year ), or $43,750.00 per month. I did my due diligence, and figured my total rent, wages, taxes, electrical, insurance and all the costs associated with running the store including replacing product for one year, and after all expenses, I should have grossed approximately $116,250.00 for my wife and myself.
After I signed my contracts, Roger told me he decided to back out. This now worried me but, I had already signed my life away to the biggest scam I have ever encountered. I was told by John LaFronze, that the cost of product averaged .55 cents. When DRSS built out my store, based on the product manifest, John was correct, but, a huge portion of the product they put in my store was junk, that had a cost of .10 to .25, and never sold an item. The product that did sell though, had an average cost of .65 cents to .89 cents, then you had to add .04 to .06 cents, or more, per item for shipping to the product cost. If you bought a product for .75 cents, and added .05 cents in shipping, your cost for that item would be .80 cents. My bills were about $13,000 per month, which means, at .20 cents profit per item, I would have to sell 65,000 items per month just to pay the bills, and that does not include replacing product or wages for my wife and I.
I was working 100 hours per week, and my wife was working 70 to 80 hours per week, 7 days a week, and only had two days off in 15 months. They were Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we never took a paycheck for the 15 months we were open. Because of the hole we were digging by trying to keep the Dollar Store open, we ended up losing our 6 rental properties, and almost lost our auto repair business. I have contacted about 40 other people that opened a Dollar Store through Dollar Store Services, and they have all either gone out of business, or are closing.
Ironically, the flagship store they used to show off their business opportunity, went out of business about two or three months after we opened our store. The name of the store was Dollar BEE, located at 7475 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89123. The phone number was (702) 678-6011, but, it is currently disconnected and the store has been closed now for several years. Kari Bourn, who was our class instructor, kept hyping up the Dollar BEE store, stating how the owner opened and paid off his investment in the first year, but, yet he closed down within two years. Kari drove us to his Dollar BEE store to show off how well he was doing, and when we got there, the store was almost empty, and the cashier stated that the owner had gotten a job at a casino. And, about three months later, he was closed. I have spoken to so many people that have opened a Dollar Store through DRSS, and then gone out of business, that it would sicken you. I also have a list of 30 plus people, with phone numbers and addresses that I have traced across the country, and not one is still in business. One young lady I found, had inherited about $100,000 dollars from her grandmother, and DRSS talked her into buying a dollar store, and she was out of business within 3 months. She had to file bankruptcy. If you would like to talk to me and want more information, feel free to call me at [redacted] (cell), and I would be more than happy to enlighten you with all of the details of how this RIP OFF works. Best of luck to you in all of your endeavors.
Sincerely
Phil Beargeon II
Formerly, Phil’s Dollar Store
I am sorry to say I have the same story as many of these reviews. I also have a list of at least 30 stores that closed as well as cOntact information for the owners. I can not believe the way this company treats people and their investments with no repercussions. I would love to see them be held accountable for some of the misfortunes they have caused to people. If there is ever a collective action suit I would love to be a member. I called a lawyer in Ohio and he stated that I would have to hire a lawyer in Las Vegas. That would be an expense I could not afford thanks to this company. If anyone would like to contact me my phone is [contact info redacted].
I am sorry to say I have the same story as many of these reviews. I also have a list of at least 30 stores that closed as well as contact information for the owners. I can not believe the way this company treats people and their investments with no repercussions. I would love to see them be held accountable for some of the misfortunes they have caused to people. If there is ever a collective action suit I would love to be a member. I called a lawyer in Ohio and he stated that I would have to hire a lawyer in Las Vegas. That would be an expense I could not afford thanks to this company. If anyone would like to contact me I would love to see this company stopped.
Unfortunately companies like this (and many franchisors as well) take advantage of people who have been fairly responsible and middle class successful, building good credit, home equity, and some cash savings, but who desire more.
Whether its simply to be their own boss of a small business or an ambition to create an empire, people fall for these types of sales pitches all the time, and as a result lose everything. The morality of companies that participate in this type of fraud is clearly inexcusable, but I also can’t help but put a large amount of blame on people like Mont, who in his comments clearly states he never ran a detailed analysis of the business model he wss investing everything he had into until after he was open and failing, and the reason he never did so was because he paid this company lots of money and he thought they would watch out for his best interests. That’s so irresponsible it borders on begging to get taken advantage of.
I was a victim of DRSS as well. I am completely in for a class action suit! They need to be stopped! My story is the same as all the others, hideous as they all are, so is mine. Please, please contact me for participation in the class action suit! DRSS is a horrible company run by heartless people.
I want to truly thank Martcia Calvillo. She saved me from being scammed by DRSS. I am praying for everyone who has been scammed by this company, that you rebound financially and emotionally. Thank you again Martcia Calvilloand God bless you for creating this site.
I am glad that I looked for the negatives of this organization. I was looking into this turnkey business but based on the 75% failure rate I will steer clear of this.
I recently traveled to Las Vegas to meet with DRSS management. I’m a moderately successful businessman looking for another opportunity to develop a retail concept and thought DRSS might be a good fit. What concerned me was the company’s eagerness to accommodate, kind of like shady used car salesmen. In any case, I’m so grateful to all of you for having the courage to publicly share your experiences, which were very very very helpful. My heart breaks when I read these stories, I’m speechless. If there’s any solace at all, please know that what you’ve shared was incredibly helpful and I’m so grateful. I will end all communication with DRSS. Thank you.
Thank you Terry
Eric (7/24/18), Mont did nothing wrong.
DRSS shows you fake spread sheets with vendor pricing
You go into contract with DRSS for the access of merchandise and store build out
They have their own vendors that are suppose give you this big discount but the discount is anywhere from.01 to 5 cents and you don’t realize this until after your store is open
I have over 100 names of people who (like myself) researched DRSS back in 2012 and there was nothing on the internet, check BBB spoke with future owners that I met in training and everyone had the exact same failure.
Merchandise is too expensive to replenish your stock
Mont went thru alot and he doesn’t need someone like you putting him down.
Lawyers will not take the case because you have to file lawsuit in Las Vegas and good luck getting a lawyer there to help
Several people have tried with no luck
But I am going to put in a formal complaint to the attorney general in Las Vegas
if anyone wants to contact me go to Rippedoff website and my information is there
Martcia,
Considering that the “someone like me” you are referring to is a guy who built a multi million dollar per year company from scratch, I think I’m highly qualified to comment on irresponsible entrepreneurship. I know this will go over your head, so I’m not wasting much time, but this statement by Mont sums up exactly why he was screwed over:
“They charge you around $3k – 5k to open up multiple lines of credit (credit cards) in your name; they also have you to falsefy and lie about your current income to secure higher credit limits; which was a Red Flag, but I ignored it because I trusted that these people, and considered them to be experts because of the amount of stores they have opened in the past, and I felt that they had my best interest at hand”
FYI I do not condone what these guys do, but blindly relying on their pro formas, terrible financing, real estate selection/lease negotiation, and inventory plan is begging to get eaten in a sea full of sharks.
By the way, real due dilligence and vetting out a business model does not consist of a google search to see if theres anything bad.
Mont may learn something from my comments if hes introspective enough to really try to determine what caused his business foray to fail, but Martcia, from your comments he will learn nothing and gain no insight, he will simply try to blame the guy who ripped him off with no examination of his part.
I just want to thank you guys for posting your experience, I was about to sign the first document and I saw something that made me uncomfortable. That is when I decided to get the opinion of other store owners. I am so glad I came to this site.
all I have to do is request my $500.00 deposit. Thanks to all of you.
I want to personally thank you all for your reviews and is sadden by your losses. The good news and consolation on you all behalf is that you all exposed these smooth criminals. I was going to send in my application and $500 startup fee. But I had a gut feeling to do more research and due diligence before i commit. And I thank God that I did go with my gut feelings and look up these past experiences and reviews. I copied and paste all the above reviews and email them to the sales rep. that was trying to get me to commit, and his reply is quote, “We never opened a store for any of these people”. i do find that had to believe.
thanks again for all the people that wrote a review and my prayers are with you all.
John
my name is Walter Greene and I want to get the downlow on this company I’ve already invested my money with them but store isn’t open yet
i just started as well just paid 97k but havent opened yet WILL LOVE TO GET MORE info ill call my cc and cancel right away
Hi All!!
I can’t thank you enough for sharing your comments. You just saved me from making a HUGE mistake.
I read that some of you opened your stores by yourself. PLEASE HELP ME!! I still have the desire to open my store, but I don’t even know where to start. Can someone please give some advise on where to buy the merchandise an any other advise that will help me start?
Any help will be greatly appreciate it.
Best regards, liana
101% agree with all the disappointment. Everything and everyone is a scam. I couldn’t agree more. So many stores have closed near us. It was too good to be true. Should have known better. It really is disheartening to read all the comments too. So sorry we are all going through it.
Please keep sharing guys because it will prevent more people like me from getting ripped off. I was just about to jump for it thanks.
I’m so glad I found this. Was about to sign up. Been in retail 20 plus years. Just helped close a large chain of stores. The stores I over saw made great money and sales were great. I was contacted by DSSR to open my own location. The we do everything you just turn the key the first day. I wanted to do the build out, I wanted to pick what was stocked. I was told after we set it up its yours. Also we want you to use our buyers. I have built a relationship with vendors over the years. I was told you’ll do better with ours. All of that crap sent me looking. So glad this was here, I almost jumped.
NOTE: We received this as an email from Gerald Dailey from Dollar Store Services. I don’t believe we stated that the company offers franchises or that there is a single source for merchandise. We invite Mr. Dailey or others to address the failure rate issue or overcharging complaints.
ADMIN
Greetings,
I was wondering how your removal process works.
One: Dollar Store Services does not sell “Franchises”
We are a company that builds dollar stores and turns them over to the owners after the setup is completed. Not unlike buying a House once the house is in your possession we have nothing more to do in the process of what the “Owner” does with it.
We can provide support information after delivery for basic store operation by request.
Two: We provide owners with SEVERAL vendors for products and do not restrict them from finding/using other vendors to restock their stores with should they choose. We do not limit who they can buy their products from (as stated in the complaint or description on your website).
Three: In running a dollar store it should be obvious that items should be sold for around a dollar as we do not restrict them from charging more but it is an immediate turn off to MOST Consumers to enter a dollar store and see higher prices. [Be Advised we also have other concepts such as Dollar Plus and 123 Dollar that can survive higher prices and carry different merchandise.
Please advise if you require any other information as to the services we provide as you can see openly on our website that we do not sell FRANCHISES we build stores directly for the buyer and nothing more.
Thanking you in advance —
Gerald Dailey
Team Member – Dollar Store Services
4505 Hacienda Avenue Suite L1
Las vegas, Nevada 89118
I’m Soo thankful I read these comments. I felt something was not right when I was told I could get financing and be up and running in 3 months and had never had a credit check nor any paperwork done.
I have reviewed the comments posted here in the past, and have responded to a number of them in the past. Owning a business is hard work; one must show up every day, and put in the work and analysis necessary to understand and operate a successful business. We assist in helping individuals establish their business; all final decisions regarding type of financing, store location, the assortment of merchandise, tc are all decisions made and approved by the store owner. We cannot not guarantee success, nor can we require an individual owner to follow the good business practices that we share with them. I am happy to speak to anyone at any time that would like to learn more about our store development program, answer all questions, and have them speak with successful store owners–call me any time at 702-637-3389 John LaFronz, General Manager, Dollar Store Services.
I’m about to open a mailbox pack and ship store. After reading all the reviews of the dollar store. I have to take think about what I’m doing. I had to ask 11 banks for a 20-25k loan. Going on 2020’s tax return. I was fortunate then. Reality is my income is significantly lower in 2021. I believe I got into a scam I can’t get out of.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I’m confused about the whole thing
I was ready to make the call and get involved, until I found and read these reviews. Wow, Thank God I didn’t do it. A huge thanks to every entrepreneur on here that was brave enough to share their own personal experiences with Dollar Store Services! And I’m incredibly sorry for your struggles and losses. Hold your heads up, because you now know exactly how to maintain a successful business, having to gone through the trenches. I wish you all the greatest of success throughout all of your future endeavors.
Dollar Store Services, Discount retail store Services and a host of other names that they go by is no more. The founder/owner James Wichert passed away on March 26th 2022. His family had the decency to close all of his businesses and not continue with his scams. James Wichert was a ruthless greedy sycophant who didn’t care how many lives he ruined or how many lives he destroyed. He was driven only by greed. This man was responsible for at least 2 suicides. Now that he is dead, can he take the money with him? While I don’t cherish the death of another human being, at least he is no longer able to continue destroying people’s lives. That man was a heartless monsters whose greed had no bound.