Designed to help small merchants compete with large retailers, online wholesaler DollarDays International has gained an average of 1,000 new customers a day, many of them one- or two-person operations, over the past year, the company says.

DollarDays, based in Phoenix, also says its 2004 sales reached a record growth rate of 200% over 2003. The privately held company does not release sales figures in dollar terms.

“This has been an exciting year, and we look forward to beating our own records in 2005,” says Marc Joseph, founder and COO.

In addition to traffic from mom-and-pop merchants, DollarDays is also building its business with entrepreneurs who are establishing new “Dollar Store” locations and with larger retailers who are establishing Dollar Store departments within existing stores, the company says.