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dollar general
Beware the Toxic Chemicals at Dollar Stores
The nation’s largest dollar stores continually fail to meaningfully strengthen their chemical policies and intervene in their supply chains to keep their shoppers safe.
Dec 03, 2024
When shopping for the holidays, most people reasonably assume that products sold in major American retail stores are free of toxic chemicals. After all, harmful substances like lead and mercury have no place in the shopping cart, and regulations must prevent this kind of dangerous exposure, right?
Unfortunately, this is not the case. A recent study revealed that over half of the items tested on dollar stores’ shelves contained toxic chemicals. This includes lead foundin tablecloths, jewelry, and baby toys with known links to brain development harm; phthalates in school supplies, silly straws, and bath toys with links to early puberty in girls, birth defects in the male reproductive system, obesity, and diabetes; BPA in receipts, cookware, and can linings that can affect the brain and prostate gland of fetuses, infants, and children; and PFAS—long-lasting synthetic chemicals—found in popcorn bags that can affect the immune system and liver function.
Just last month Toxic Free Future released their latest Retailer Report Card, which graded Dollar General with a D+ and Dollar Tree/Family Dollar with a D for safety, based on hazardous chemicals in their products, company commitment to transparency, a willingness to change, and how easily customers can tell what substances are on store items.
With the incoming presidential administration promising to slash health and safety rules, customers and communities will have even fewer protections.
But for many families, shopping elsewhere isn’t an option. Dollar stores are often the only retailers selling essential household goods, including food, in many rural towns and urban neighborhoods, leaving customers with nowhere else to go. Dollar stores are frequently located in communities that already face multiple health and environmental risk factors, such as industrial pollution from factories or deteriorated drinking water. This means a family’s exposure to chemicals via items purchased at dollar stores is part of accumulated exposures.
Dollar stores’ leadership has been aware for over a decade that their products contain lead, BPA, phthalates, and PFAS, jeopardizing customer health. During this time, environmental justice and public health groups nationwide have advocated for safer products. Investors in these companies have raised concerns directly with management and through shareholder resolutions. Yet, the problem persists. Even this year Dollar Tree knowingly kept lead-contaminated apple sauce on its shelves, putting children in harm’s way. The stores have taken only minimal actions to address a handful of chemicals in some product categories.
To say federal agencies tasked with regulating these products fall short would be an understatement. Many take a “graveyard approach,” acting only after someone has suffered a physical toll. The federal Toxic Substances Control Act is so weak that only a handful of chemicals have ever been restricted, while tens of thousands have been exempted or fast-tracked for approval. With the incoming presidential administration promising to slash health and safety rules, customers and communities will have even fewer protections.
With this lack of protective action on the part of state and federal regulators, we urge dollar stores to do the right thing. In 2023, Dollar General's net sales were over $38 billion, and Dollar Tree’s revenues were over $30 billion. They can afford to stop buying products from suppliers that use toxic chemicals and switch to readily available safer alternatives. Mike Creedon, interim chief executive officer for Dollar Tree, claims, “Safety First, Safety Always is the guiding mantra for our store.” But these are only words when there is no action.
Instead, the nation’s largest dollar stores continually fail to meaningfully strengthen their chemical policies and intervene in their supply chains to keep their shoppers safe. Dollar General failed to expand its list of 19 restricted substances. The list does not include PFAS, most phthalates, and many other chemicals known to cause harm. It also applies only to private-label products. Similarly, Dollar Tree has not publicly documented progress on reducing chemicals or plastics of high concern in the last four years and has made no indication of support for the development or sale of safer products.
Competitors, including Walmart, have already made this change. In 2022, the company disclosed that it removed 37 million pounds of phthalates from products in response to consumer demand, with publicly available corporate policies. Similarly, Apple recently received praise for removing harmful chemicals and plastics from its products and even committed to a Full Material Disclosure program which promises manufacturers full transparency on products’ material compositions. These transitions are increasingly mainstream, and dollar stores are falling further and further behind.
Every family has the right to feel safe while shopping, and with the holidays around the corner, this issue is even more important. Dollar stores should transparently report on their progress and work with their suppliers to prevent all known dangerous chemicals from being used to make products sold in stores. Until this happens, dollar stores are putting already vulnerable communities at risk. Safe alternatives exist, and the transition to non-toxic products is both feasible and cost-effective in the long run. Dollar stores must stop prioritizing profit over families. We refuse to be sacrificed for the bottom line.
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How Corporate Greed Hurts Workers and Customers at Places Like Dollar General
At many big stores, workers are short-handed and face difficult working conditions—even when their companies are highly profitable.
Sep 07, 2024
I’ve always felt that working in customer-facing jobs is my calling. I’m passionate about making people feel comfortable when they enter a business, be it a retail store or a restaurant.
But it was hard to keep that passion when I worked at Dollar General. Like workers at many other big retailers, we were so short-staffed and poorly trained that it was next to impossible to give good customer service.
My interview and first day on the job went well. Managers, co-workers, and customers all seemed pretty happy. The second day was a complete 180. All of a sudden I was thrown into my duties with zero training. They even scheduled me to close out the store that day without instructions.
Dollar General has also been taking profits that could go toward worker pay or fixing up their stores and spending them instead on stock buybacks.
Quickly I had shifts where I was the only worker for hours at a time, dealing with long lines of impatient customers, tons of merchandise to stock, and frustrated vendors subject to long wait times.
I frequently had to get overstock items from unstable top shelves and constantly worried I’d fall. The back door also wouldn’t close correctly—and even though I brought it up to management several times, it remained an easy way for anyone to sneak in.
I didn’t know it then, but Dollar General has repeatedly faced huge penalties for workplace safety violations.
Once I was called out to help with a truck delivery of refrigerated and frozen products. I went to grab a tote bag full and had to do a triple take because it was full of black mold. Another afternoon, I picked up a bag of potting soil to stock and realized it was covered with dead insects, which got all over the floor and other products.
When I had problems like these with merchandise, I was expected to contact the warehouse myself. But that was hard to do, given how understaffed we were.
Dollar General isn’t the only tough place for retail employees. At many big stores, workers are short-handed and face difficult working conditions—even when their companies are highly profitable.
Where is all the money going? Well, I can tell you not much went to me.
I made $14.75 an hour for part-time hours, even though I often wound up working full-time. After the first few weeks, my schedule became so unpredictable that I sometimes worked only a few hours a week. Eventually it just wasn’t worth all the hard work and stress, so I quit.
By contrast, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos made nearly $10 million last year—521 times as much as a typical worker at his company, the Institute for Policy Studies reported recently.
Dollar General has also been taking profits that could go toward worker pay or fixing up their stores and spending them instead on stock buybacks. That’s when a company repurchases its own shares to inflate the value of its stock and make CEOs even richer. Between 2019 and 2023, the company spent $9 billion on this financial scam.
I also learned from the Institute’s report that 88% of Dollar General workers who are eligible to participate in the company 401(k) plan don’t have one dime in their accounts. Low-wage workers like me just don’t earn enough to be able to save for our retirement.
I saw up close how a business that’s focused on exploiting employees to make those at the top even richer isn’t just bad for workers like me, but for customers as well. And anyone who’s worked for one of these low-wage companies can tell you Dollar General is hardly unique.
If we want a strong economy, we need to do more to make sure all workers can make a decent living and feel safe and respected in their workplace.
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Report Exposes How Chains Like Dollar General Prey on the Poor With Cash-Back Fees
Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Kroger rake in a combined $90 million a year from cash-back fees, according to a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Aug 27, 2024
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a report Tuesday highlighting how large retailers such as Dollar General and Kroger exploit low-income communities' lack of access to local banking to hit consumers with predatory cash-back fees.
The CFPB found that while many retailers still offer free cash back at the register, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Kroger collectively rake in $90 million a year from fees imposed on people using the retail locations to access their own money.
"At Dollar General and Dollar Tree/Family Dollar, cash-back fees for small withdrawal amounts are the highest in the sample ($1 fee or more for cash-back amounts under $50)," the bureau found. "Kroger, the country's largest grocery chain, recently announced new charges at their Harris Teeter stores (75 cents for $100 cash back or less), and charges 50 cents for up to $100 cash back at their other brand stores such as Ralph's, Fred Meyer, and others."
The CFPB emphasized that such fees are disproportionately levied against people with lower incomes, who are more likely to live in areas with fewer banking options—forcing residents to rely on dollar stores for easy access to cash. The report notes that banking industry consolidation and branch closures have left a "void" of cash access spots that retailers like Dollar General have rushed to fill.
"While retail chains had long provided cash back on debit card purchases for free, the CFPB has found that dollar store chains and other retailers are now charging fees for access to cash," Rohit Chopra, the CFPB's director, said in a statement Tuesday. "Many people living in small towns no longer have access to a local bank where they can withdraw money from their account for free. This has created the competitive conditions for retailers to charge fees for cash back."
"Dollar General alone chalked up gross profits of $11.82 billion in 2023. But they nonetheless find new ways to squeeze even more money from their shoppers."
Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), applauded the CFPB's new research as an "important report" that "exposes yet another way in which dollar stores' exploitative business practices take advantage of consumers."
"The three big dollar store chains make enormous profits," said Mitchell. "Dollar General alone chalked up gross profits of $11.82 billion in 2023. But they nonetheless find new ways to squeeze even more money from their shoppers—in this case, by charging them a few dollars to get cash back on their transactions, which average only a modest $25 or so. All three major dollar store chains have been fined for overcharge errors, and all use their market muscle to force suppliers to create 'cheater' sizes for them. CFPB's report will help alert shoppers to these abusive retailing practices."
ILSR has long worked to shine light on the abuses of dollar stores, releasing a report last year detailing how the retailers have invaded low-income communities and preyed on vulnerable consumers as well as workers.
"One might assume that the dollar chains are simply filling a need, providing basic retail options in cash-strapped communities. But the evidence shows something else," reads ILSR's report. "These stores aren't merely a byproduct of economic distress, they are a cause of it."
"In small towns and urban neighborhoods alike," the report adds, "dollar stores drive grocery stores and other retailers out of business, leave more people without access to fresh food, extract wealth from local economies, sow crime and violence, and further erode the prospects of the communities they target."
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