99 Cents Only Stores Are Closing. How I Spent $20 in Groceries at Other Discount Chains

99 Cents Only Stores offered a wide selection of fresh food and prices sometimes beat Walmart.

Food purchased from the Dollar Tree store within a $20 budget include milk, frozen vegetables, dried fruit, wheat bread, pasta sauce, dry pasta, frozen noodles, mayonnaise, a frozen lobster egg roll, cheese and lunch meat. Jenn Harris/Los Angeles Times/TNS

By Jenn Harris From Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES—The checkout lines stretched far into the aisles of the 99 Cents Only store in Beverly Grove on a recent Monday afternoon. Red and black signs that read “Store Closing Sale” greeted shoppers at the entrance. Store shelves were mostly bare and the fresh fruit bins almost empty. It felt like a trip to the grocery store in March 2020.