99 Cents Only Stores Has a New CEO
Extreme discounter 99 Cents Only Stores has a new CEO to lead the company during the next phase of its transformation.
The retailer announced that former Cost Plus CEO Barry J. Feld has joined 99 Cents Only as CEO. Feld will also serve as a member of the company's board of directors. He replaces 99 Cents Only interim CEO Felicia Thornton, who will remain as vice chair of the board.
Most recently, Feld spent 15 years as the CEO and president and, later, the executive chairman of Cost Plus World Market, where he and his management team built Cost Plus into a leading discount retailer of casual home living and entertainment products, including specialty food and wine.
Prior to joining Cost Plus, Feld was the CEO of several noted retail companies of scale, including PCA Internationa Inc. (an operator of specialty retail concepts in over 3,100 Walmart stores in five countries), Vista Eyecare (a retail chain of over 900 vision centers), and Frame-N-Lens Optical Inc. (which was then the largest chain of retail optical stores in California).
In addition to his executive and board roles, since 2015, Feld has served as the Chairman of the board of the Retail Management Institute of Santa Clara University, where he leads and collaborates with executives and academic professionals.
"Barry's experience overseeing large, high-growth and innovative customer-focused businesses makes him ideally suited to lead 99 Cents Only Stores," said Norman Axelrod, the chairman of 99 Cents Only Stores board. "We are delighted to have a seasoned executive with such notable merchandising, extreme value and leadership credentials joining the 99 Cents team."
Founded in 1982, 99 Cents Only Stores is a food retailer that flies under the radar. The company, which hasn't published financial results since 2017, has nearly 400 stores that derive close to 80% of their sales of $2.4 billion from categories such as fresh, grocery and consumables that overlap with those of traditional grocers and discounters.
The company operates 386 stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
