99 Cents Only celebrates 30 years with sustainable efforts

CITY OF COMMERCE, Calif. — 99 Cents Only Stores is celebrating its 30th anniversary.



Since its founding in 1982, the chain has expanded to 302 extreme value stores in four states consisting of 220 stores in California, 37 in Texas, 29 in Arizona, and 15 in Nevada. As part of the celebration, the company is converting 40 semi-trucks from diesel to clean-burning compressed natural gas. Additionally, the company is offering a free reusable shopping bag to customers who visit the store this weekend and purchase at least $9.99 worth of merchandise.



"We are thrilled to be marking this important 30 year milestone by making this announcement which will help save the planet, use a plentiful domestic resource and help save our customers money. We believe we will have one of the nation's largest retail fleets operating on compressed natural gas," 99 Cents Only CEO Eric Schiffer said.



For its most recent quarter, the retailer reported that total sales increased 10.6% to $403.9 from $365.4 million for the same quarter last year.



The company's overall same-store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 increased 8.5%.