Discount giant Dollar General this year has its biggest pipeline ever for real estate projects, with plans to debut over 1,000 stores as it looks to capture even more sales from shoppers who are looking for bargains amid still-high inflation.

The Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based retailer updated Wall Street on its expansion plans Thursday during a fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call. The chain, which now has 19,147 stores in the United States and Mexico, reported that net sales and same-store sales increased during the three-month period ending Feb. 3, but those results were slightly below its growth expectations.

Nonetheless, Dollar General will be expanding with more store roll-outs this year, with 1,050 planned, CEO Jeff Owen said. That's the most new store openings announced so far this year by a U.S. retailer, according to Brandon Svec, national director of U.S. retail analytics for CoStar Group.

"Overall, our real estate pipeline remains robust," Owen told financial analysts. "And with more U.S. brick-and-mortar stores than any retailer, we are excited about our ability to capture significant growth opportunities in the years ahead."

In this period of easing, but still high, inflation and increasing interest rates, discounters and off-price chains that offer low prices are performing better than others in the retail sector. Dollar General, which says it's committed to its $1 price point, and its direct competitor Dollar Tree, based in Chesapeake, Virginia, both racked up sales increases in the fourth quarter, as did Walmart and Target. They have all said that they are even attracting customers in higher-income brackets than their core shoppers.

In fiscal 2023 Dollar General has slated 1,050 new store openings, 2,000 store remodels and 120 store relocations, for a total of 3,170, according to Owen.

"Notably, these would be the most real estate projects we have executed in one year," he said.

Last year, the retailer completed 2,961 such projects, including 1,039 store openings, 1,795 store remodels and 127 store relocations, according to Owen. It just opened its 1,900th store, in Joplin, Missouri, in January.

Dollar General's rival Dollar Tree, parent of its namesake chain and Family Dollar, plans to open as many as 650 new stores this year. It now operates 16,340 stores in the United States and Canada.

Dollar General's new stores this year will mainly include debuts of its larger-format namesake stores, as well as its Popshelf stores and Mi Súper Dollar General stores in Mexico. The Popshelf locations aim to offer "a fun, affordable and differentiated treasure-hunt experience" with most merchandise priced at $5 or less, according to Owen. In the fourth quarter, 37 Popshelf locations opened, for a total of 140 at the end of the year. Dollar General is looking to double the number of Popshelf stores this year, to nearly 300, and too have roughly 1,000 of them by the end of 2025, Owen said.

Last month Dollar General debuted its first store in Mexico, in Monterrey, the CEO said. The retailer plans to have about 20 of them open in the northern part of Mexico by the end of the year, according to Owen.

In the fourth quarter, Dollar General reported that net sales increased 17.9% to $10.2 billion, compared to $8.7 billion in the prior-yer period. Net sales for the 53rd week of fiscal 2022 were $678.1 million. Same-store sales rose 5.7%.

The company's holiday sales were negatively impacted by winter Storm Elliott, which took place in the days right before Christmas, according to Owen.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, in a note to clients on Thursday discussed Dollar General's results.

"The ill wind of inflation continues to blow more customers and spending to Dollar General, as is evidenced by its solid final-quarter numbers," he said. "Overall sales grew by a very robust 17.9%, although this is flattered by an additional week of trading. When this is removed, growth falls back to a more muted, but still respectable, 10.1%. Underlying comparable sales increased by 5.7%, which is pleasing as it shows that the business has a nice balance of growth coming from the opening of new stores and from existing ones becoming more productive. All that said, growth has come in a little below forecasts, although much of this is because of the disruption of big winter storms during December which severely dampened visits to stores."

Beyond new stores, Dollar General is also bolstering its supply chain. Last year it opened up three new distribution centers, adding 3 million square feet of logistics space, according to Owen. They are in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Aurora, Colorado; and Salem, Oregon, and represent a nearly $480 million investment. Th retailer also has a new distribution center in Blair, Nebraska, Owen said. It's a roughly $85 million project.