#west springfield

A Dollar Tree location at Century Center in West Springfield, MA, featuring two different specimens of vestigial branding. In the photo on the left, Super Dollar Tree signage recalls a time of segmented branding (a topic about which I’ve written before), complete with a dollar sign in place of the letter S. The concept was a forerunner to the chain’s current conventional planogram, which back in its first growth spurt contrasted with the smaller selection of regular Dollar Trees. In fact, this store harkens so far back that despite carrying the “Super” prefix, it lags behind many newer Dollar Tree stores, sans-Super, that feature refrigerated and frozen sections, which this location lacks. Other locations featuring the Super Dollar Tree banner exist in the United States, but have not been comprehensively documented. Some other signs (at least all that came up on Google Images) do not begin with a dollar sign, but rather a regular S, and do not curve upward either. All new Dollar Tree stores only feature those two words, Dollar Tree, on their facades.

In the image the right, the retailer’s wordmark in its legacy font, and the company’s former slogan, “Where Everything’s $1.00”, below it. As I write this, I am reminiscing to a time when I went to a now-shuttered Chinese buffet a few doors down in this shopping plaza with my brother and our grandparent-like figures. As we waited for the place to clear up (yes, it was that busy), we walked to this very store, which I vaguely remember prominently featuring the “Where Everything’s $1.00” branding, complete with a more robust product offering, around a decade prior to 2020s inflation. Now, since the retailer increased its prices across the board to the $1.25 price point, this archaic facet of its corporate identity has been cleansed from stores. The powers that be have removed this branding from the storefront, but my attention gravitates toward the two leftmost panels of glass that, unlike the rest that allow for viewing into the store and for natural light to come in from the north, feature a black covering behind them to provide privacy for the small office space directly behind it. Speaking of which, they couldn’t have given the office staff at least a little window cutout with a blind for some view outside from the office? Also, yes, that is a silhouette of me taking the photo. Anyway, the pane of glass on the right has had the old branding blacked out, in a not subtle way, but the very leftmost one, for whatever reason, still remains vestigially branded with Dollar Tree’s vintage appliqué. This location, with its small amount of vestigial branding, reminds me of a Dollar Tree in East Greenbush, NY, that I visited shortly before the 25% price increase, which was straight out of the 90s (80s?) with its ancient “Everything’s $1.00” seriffed branding plastered everywhere inside the store and on its windows, and exterior signage in a narrow font that has also been done away with in new stores, replaced by carbon copy logo signage. Alas, even that old store has had all traces removed of its previous life as a true dollar store.

at the Big E last Saturday, a psychic read my palm & did tarot cards with me & one of the things she told me was: “Your face is smiling, but your heart is not.” & idk that just really has stuck with with me since