By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Businesses shifting and closing
Placeholder Image
MONROE - Westside Monroe is losing some of its storefront businesses, particularly those in the once-popular malls along 8th Street. Some are moving; some are closing.

Family Dollar at 110 W. 8th St. will be closing its doors at the end of the year. The store's lease ends Dec. 31, according to employees.

Family Dollar's corporate office, located in Matthews, N.C., did not respond to requests for information about the store's future of staying in Monroe. The store employed three full-time and two part-time people.

Colony Brands, which has owned the eastern strip mall building on the block for about two year, will fill the space with its own offices, according to Deb Weis, spokesperson for Colony Brands.

Colony Brands also recently created an employee wellness center in the building.

Weis said the Swiss Colony parent company needed the office space in the building and has already expanded some offices into a corner space once occupied by Cost Cutters Family Hair Salon.

Colony Brands employees apparently had some input on the decision to keep Perks Coffee Cafe at its place in the mall. Weis said Colony Brand employees would have been extremely upset if Perks had to be moved out.

Cost Cutters is scheduled to re-open Dec. 6 in its new location, in the 200 block of 18th Avenue, next to Cousins Subs. Cost Cutters is retaining its current store inside Walmart.

Paul Mitchell The School, once on 4th Ave. West, in a separate building not owned by Colony Brands, moved downtown last month to a remodeled, upper-level studio in the Monroe Professional Building in the 1000 block of 18th Avenue. The new space allows for easier teaching and better encompasses the school's artistic trademark and culture, according to school officials.