Dollar General is one of the most successful retailers in the world. Last year, it recorded $37.8 billion in sales, up more than 10% over the prior year, and generated $3.3 billion in operating profit. Over the last five years, its stock has increased by more than 120%. Its current market capitalization is $46.7 billion.
Once we have reduced every American worker's salary to a point where they can no longer afford to buy our merchandise without governmental assistance, our goals will have been accomplished.
I live in Georgia and as I travel into the rural areas the Dollar Store model is everywhere. And they are always busy. These people are ignored by retail and fast food options…and Dollar General saw the opportunity. DG has a captive audience and the outside world doesn’t understand what slimy tactics they are using against their customers and employees. Thanks again for shining the flashlight into the dark corners. Wasn’t David Perdue the former CEO?
Living in a rural area, we have 4 in our big county. Truth about the merch is most always in the smaller store aisles. Usually 2 employees on duty. We have 2 Dollar General Markets Ala groceries, too. On Mondays, I can get discounted meats. Bought a $20 roast for $10 and I can get 5 chicken thighs for $2.50.
The point of this is they fill a need and they save folks money during hard times. I can boycott Kroger more easily as they don't do much to save me money. Those same thighs are $6.99.
I agree they should do more for employees. Every corporation could. They put in self checkouts just like the rest. However. The cost of gas is real. Most of the employees here live close to the store. I have asked in my friendly banter. They are not driving 25 to 30 miles each way to the city to work. DG found their nitch. Love them or hate them, the rural areas are greater in size in American miles than the cities. Food deserts are real in rural areas. Poor huddled masses especially Seniors like me, enjoy the $5 big pack of toilet paper and my cheap chicken and a short drive to get them.
The only form of protest I have against corporations, like Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, Dollar General, Kroger, Chick-fil-A, etc., is to spend my money elsewhere. I choose companies that treat their employees fairly and avoid involvement in religious or political matters.
There is a reason that RePUGS hate unions. “Trickle down economics makes Peons of us all.” If the only solution is a shitty Dollar Store, than make new solutions. Develop Co-Ops. Strike/ boycott. Use postal services. Whatever they do, don’t just sit in front of a Fox station and commiserate in a Repug Pity Party of entitlement and victimization. Rise UP. Be a damned community. IT TAKES A VILLAGE.
This is a tough one. In a perfect world, Dollar General would perform the desired corrections with a smile and an apology. It is not a perfect world. Dollar General provides a service that very few other companies offer. In the real world, this allows them to become a "Colonel Jessup" company. Paraphrased below.
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way..."
Can a replacement or competitor company offer better service, employee compensation and employee work environment while providing the public the same price points and providing the owners reasonable profits?
Dollar General has competition in suburban areas, but not so much in food scarce areas. I believe there is a reason for that.
Someone smarter than I am needs to build a better mouse trap.
Anyone who wants to penalize me 15 yards for using too many metaphors, go ahead. :-)
This is shameful and unethical. How can we or Congress put more teeth into OSHA fines to make it hurt this and any other company that starves its personnel while the CEO waltzes off with Million$? Disgusting; thanks for this story, Judd.
I can proudly say I have never and will never enter a Dollar Store. Now, I think this article needs to be available to the communities that patronize such establishments--give them something factual to pin their discontent, instead of the faux, BS, Repug,Fox inventory of blame. You get what you vote for, People.
There is a DG less than 3 miles from me. I stopped shopping there although their brand name paper goods are very low cost and affordable, and came in handy when I ran out of milk, butter or cheese. I stopped going exactly for the reason the article quotes. 1-2 employees only who although very nice to customers, couldn't manage the clutter.
The U.S. "free market", where tax payers subsidize the labor force wages... that actually has a different name as an economic system, but in this backwards nation corporate socialism is allowed to just be labeled something else entirely.
The article on murders I mentioned above is free on ProPublica. Just search for “Dollar General murder”. It also found that the murder problem is specific to Dollar General; it for NOT happen at Dollar Tree or Family Dollar, their two big rivals. I don’t know if that is also true of wage theft and on-the-job accidents.
But I agree with Cathy b. That a consumer boycott is not the answer. More rigorous law enforcement would be more effective.
At a packed law school event last week, the report’s co-authors cited numerous U.S. breaches of international agreements designed to protect workers’ access to a living wage, along with basic needs such as food, healthcare and housing. The U.S. is a signatory to most of these accords, but has not ratified all of them, which means they’re not legally binding.
The failure to abide by these international standards, while keeping subminimum wage laws intact, “exposes the gap between our democratic values and what our laws and regulations actually do in practice,” said Clinical Professor Laurel Fletcher, director of IHRLC.
Once we have reduced every American worker's salary to a point where they can no longer afford to buy our merchandise without governmental assistance, our goals will have been accomplished.
Dollar General /s
I live in Georgia and as I travel into the rural areas the Dollar Store model is everywhere. And they are always busy. These people are ignored by retail and fast food options…and Dollar General saw the opportunity. DG has a captive audience and the outside world doesn’t understand what slimy tactics they are using against their customers and employees. Thanks again for shining the flashlight into the dark corners. Wasn’t David Perdue the former CEO?
Really seems like a microcosm of the state of American labor today.
Living in a rural area, we have 4 in our big county. Truth about the merch is most always in the smaller store aisles. Usually 2 employees on duty. We have 2 Dollar General Markets Ala groceries, too. On Mondays, I can get discounted meats. Bought a $20 roast for $10 and I can get 5 chicken thighs for $2.50.
The point of this is they fill a need and they save folks money during hard times. I can boycott Kroger more easily as they don't do much to save me money. Those same thighs are $6.99.
I agree they should do more for employees. Every corporation could. They put in self checkouts just like the rest. However. The cost of gas is real. Most of the employees here live close to the store. I have asked in my friendly banter. They are not driving 25 to 30 miles each way to the city to work. DG found their nitch. Love them or hate them, the rural areas are greater in size in American miles than the cities. Food deserts are real in rural areas. Poor huddled masses especially Seniors like me, enjoy the $5 big pack of toilet paper and my cheap chicken and a short drive to get them.
Such is life in the sticks around the US.
Thanks for the story.
This is the libertarian free market Milton Friedman philosophy of how companies should be allowed to run.
The only form of protest I have against corporations, like Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, Dollar General, Kroger, Chick-fil-A, etc., is to spend my money elsewhere. I choose companies that treat their employees fairly and avoid involvement in religious or political matters.
There is a reason that RePUGS hate unions. “Trickle down economics makes Peons of us all.” If the only solution is a shitty Dollar Store, than make new solutions. Develop Co-Ops. Strike/ boycott. Use postal services. Whatever they do, don’t just sit in front of a Fox station and commiserate in a Repug Pity Party of entitlement and victimization. Rise UP. Be a damned community. IT TAKES A VILLAGE.
I shared the link to Judd's story on the Dollar General Facebook page (in the comments of one of their posts). Perhaps others can as well.
This is a tough one. In a perfect world, Dollar General would perform the desired corrections with a smile and an apology. It is not a perfect world. Dollar General provides a service that very few other companies offer. In the real world, this allows them to become a "Colonel Jessup" company. Paraphrased below.
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way..."
Can a replacement or competitor company offer better service, employee compensation and employee work environment while providing the public the same price points and providing the owners reasonable profits?
Dollar General has competition in suburban areas, but not so much in food scarce areas. I believe there is a reason for that.
Someone smarter than I am needs to build a better mouse trap.
Anyone who wants to penalize me 15 yards for using too many metaphors, go ahead. :-)
This is shameful and unethical. How can we or Congress put more teeth into OSHA fines to make it hurt this and any other company that starves its personnel while the CEO waltzes off with Million$? Disgusting; thanks for this story, Judd.
I can proudly say I have never and will never enter a Dollar Store. Now, I think this article needs to be available to the communities that patronize such establishments--give them something factual to pin their discontent, instead of the faux, BS, Repug,Fox inventory of blame. You get what you vote for, People.
There is a DG less than 3 miles from me. I stopped shopping there although their brand name paper goods are very low cost and affordable, and came in handy when I ran out of milk, butter or cheese. I stopped going exactly for the reason the article quotes. 1-2 employees only who although very nice to customers, couldn't manage the clutter.
Unregulated capitalism is a rigged game. Dollar General is the poster child for anemic regulation and paltry fines compared to its profits.
The U.S. "free market", where tax payers subsidize the labor force wages... that actually has a different name as an economic system, but in this backwards nation corporate socialism is allowed to just be labeled something else entirely.
The article on murders I mentioned above is free on ProPublica. Just search for “Dollar General murder”. It also found that the murder problem is specific to Dollar General; it for NOT happen at Dollar Tree or Family Dollar, their two big rivals. I don’t know if that is also true of wage theft and on-the-job accidents.
But I agree with Cathy b. That a consumer boycott is not the answer. More rigorous law enforcement would be more effective.
And it's not just Dollar General. Just another part of the dismantling of human rights and democracy.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/subminimum-wage-violates-international-human-rights-standards/
At a packed law school event last week, the report’s co-authors cited numerous U.S. breaches of international agreements designed to protect workers’ access to a living wage, along with basic needs such as food, healthcare and housing. The U.S. is a signatory to most of these accords, but has not ratified all of them, which means they’re not legally binding.
The failure to abide by these international standards, while keeping subminimum wage laws intact, “exposes the gap between our democratic values and what our laws and regulations actually do in practice,” said Clinical Professor Laurel Fletcher, director of IHRLC.