Ms. Austin started her career at Family Dollar as Director-Application Services in October 1998, was promoted to Divisional Vice President-IT Operations, and was named Vice President-Information Technology Operations & Infrastructure in September 2004. She has responsibility for technology operations and production support for all corporate, distribution center, and point-of-sale environments, including applications administration, database administration, and all Service Desk operations.

Ms. Austin has over 20 years of experience working in the Information Technology industry. Prior to her employment by Family Dollar, Ms. Austin was employed by Premier Systems Integrators, Inc., as project leader, providing training, implementation, and consulting services for Oracle Applications Business Suite, Pivotpoint's Point.Man and GrowthPower systems.

Ms. Austin earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

About Family Dollar stores, Inc.

Operating small store locations, Family Dollar is one of the fastest growing discount retail chains in the United States. Family Dollar offers a core assortment of name-brand and quality consumable merchandise supplemented by fashion and seasonable merchandise at everyday low prices

Beginning with one store in 1959 in charlotte, North Carolina, the company currently operates more than 6,400 stores in 44 states. Family Dollar stores, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is based in Matthews, North Carolina, just outside of charlotte and is a publicly held company with common stock traded on New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FDO. For more information, please visit www.familydollar.com