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Dollar-store Canada
The observation
Observation recorded 2026-07-09; qualified 2026-11-04
Dollarama operated 1,691 stores in Canada on February 1, 2026, up from 1,616 a year earlier — 75 net new stores. Its reported fourth-quarter sales of $2,101.3 million, up 11.7%, are consolidated sales including Australia, not Canadian sales alone. That comparison covers 13 weeks against 14 weeks in the prior year.Qualification dated 2026-11-04 — geography and period →
Dollarama operated 1,691 stores in Canada on February 1, 2026, up from 1,616 a year earlier — 75 net new stores in one fiscal year, on fourth-quarter sales of $2,101.3 million, up 11.7% (the company's own results release).
Possible explanations
One reading: the affordability squeeze with a street address — discount-format growth is the retail trace of stretched household budgets.
Another: a secular format shift — dollar stores have expanded through good years and bad, and the footprint may track real-estate strategy more than hardship.
What would settle it
Statistics Canada's retail sales by industry for the broader discount and variety segment, held against total retail — the format's share rather than one company's footprint.
Sources — the Signals register (1)
Signals may cite sources below Countability's official-data floor — the only place on the site that does. Each such source is labelled with its own standing warning wherever it appears.
Dollarama fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 results (press release, March 2026)
A public company's own results release, publicly filed material; cited with attribution.