LOI Distributing Inc., a Lakewood, Wash.-based discount retailer that operates the Dollar Store chain, plans to open its third store here and is looking into eventually opening three more outlets in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.


Bill Desaulniers, LOI Distributings vice president of purchasing, says the company has leased a 14,500-square-foot retail building at the southeast corner of 17th Avenue and Ray Street on Spokanes South Hill for its new outlet.


The building, which long had been an Excell Foods grocery store and most recently housed a Liquidation World USA store, currently is undergoing some minor remodeling. The company expects to open that store next month, Desaulniers says.


The South Hill store will employ about 20 people, he says, and will be slightly larger than the other Dollar Store outlets here, which are located in the Spokane Valley and on the North Side.


Desaulniers says LOI Distributing currently is negotiating to lease retail space for a fourth Dollar Store outlet in the Spokane area.


He declines for now to disclose that potential stores location, but says that if the lease negotiations are successful, the company likely will open the store during the first quarter of 2003.


LOI Distributing also is looking at potential store sites in the Coeur dAlene area.


Desaulniers says the company isnt in negotiations on any sites there yet, but hopes eventually to open at least two outlets in the Coeur dAlene area.


LOI Distributing currently operates 31 Dollar Store outlets.


All of its stores are in Washington state, though Desaulniers says it plans to open its first Oregon outlet in coming weeks.