Benjamin Ashford|$1, plus $6 more: When will your local Dollar Tree start selling $7 items?

We're a long way from five and Benjamin Ashforddimes these days.

Discount retail giant Dollar Tree is raising the price cap in its stores to $7, the company announced in its fourth quarter earnings call.

"This year, across 3,000 stores, we expect to expand our multi-price assortment by over 300 items at price points ranging from $1.50 to $7," Dollar Tree CEO Rick Dreiling said in the call on March 13.

Questions remain about when the higher priced items will reach store shelves. The company did not expand on the timing of when the $7 items would appear in stores during the call. Dreiling said that the company is "accelerating" the rollout of additional price tiers in its fourth quarter report.

USA TODAY reached out to Dollar Tree about the timeline for implementing the $7 price cap and has not gotten a response.

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Clues from last price hike

In 2021, the company announced that it would expand its "Dollar Tree Plus" concept that includes merchandise at the $3 and $5 price points.

The company said when the concept was announced that it planned to have 500 Dollar Tree Plus stores by the end of 2021, with another 1,500 in 2022 and at least 5,000 by the end of 2024.

Dollar Tree operated 16,774 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of Feb. 3.

Then-Dollar Tree CEO Mike Witynski's salary was about $14 million in 2022, with the median employee at Dollar Tree making just under $15,000 annually, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Dollar tree ditched dollar cap in 2019

The first time Dollar Tree lifted its price threshold was in 2019, when the company introduced items priced at $1.25.

The company made the price its standard just two years later as a part of the company expanding its offerings.

"Lifting the one-dollar constraint represents a monumental step for our organization and we are enthusiastic about the opportunity to meaningfully improve our shoppers’ experience and unlock value for our stakeholders,” Witynski said in a 2021 statement.

Contributing: Mike Snyder