Q&A: A New Orleans Dollar General employee discusses $12M settlement, store closures, more

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Dollar General has a reputation for cheap prices, opening stores just about everywhere and often being messy. That last characteristic, however, is a bigger issue than being an eyesore.

Last month, Dollar General reached a $12 million settlement with the Department of Labor over safety violations often related to store disorganization — issues like blocked emergency exits and fire extinguishers. The discount chain also promised to make sweeping safety changes.

A Dollar General spokesperson said the company is pleased to have reached the agreement with regulators and that it’s committed to ensuring a safe environment for workers.

Step Up Louisiana, a labor advocacy group that has pushed for better working conditions at Dollar General, praised the settlement. They also criticized the company for its plans to close five stores this month across New Orleans, including stores in New Orleans East, where there are limited shopping options for residents.

“Our decision to close five stores in the New Orleans area resulted from our evaluation of the operational effectiveness of those stores,” a Dollar General spokesperson said. “The decision was not influenced by the activities of Step Up Louisiana. Impacted employees will be offered an opportunity to transfer to one of our other stores in the area.”

David Williams, who’s worked as a stocker at a New Orleans Dollar General for four years and volunteers with Step Up Louisiana, spoke with Gulf States Newsroom senior reporter Stephan Bisaha about safety at the stores, the settlement and the upcoming closures.

The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

The report talks about safety hazards like blocked emergency exits, fire extinguishers, unsafe storage — have you seen these types of problems in your store?

Yeah, all the time. When I first started off, I was told by one of my managers, who was there previously, to take all these cases of water and block the exits. Most of the time, it’s because you’re trying to prevent anybody from leaving if they’re stealing. Now, I wouldn’t say she had me do it all the time, but I knew I was called upon to take care of that matter if somebody was going to be stealing or not.

That’s interesting because I feel like I’ve often heard about the issue when it comes to these aisles and stocking, which is that it’s just a lack of hours for workers to actually get these boxes out of the way. But you’re saying this was a deliberate tactic because of security concerns? 

Yes. This was a prime example of why we need improved safety in the stores.

Editor’s Note: A Dollar General spokesperson said in an email that they could not comment on Williams’ specific claims about a manager, but that a direction to block exits would have been a violation of the company’s policies.

And to be clear, your store does not have a security guard?

No. No dollar store has security guards. None. It doesn’t even have to be a security guard. It just has to be somebody with experience with these types of matters.

We, as dollar store workers, did not sign up for this. We know what we signed up for, but we did not sign up to stop anybody from stealing, because we don’t know what this person could have on them. They could have a knife on them. They could stab us. They could have a gun on them, and they wouldn’t even care if they pulled the trigger. That’s just how certain people are.

If you had us expected to sign up for this, then you need to make sure that we get paid more than what we signed up for.

How much do you get paid per hour? 

I honestly get paid $11.50.

In that settlement, again, a lot of it’s talking about issues when it comes to blocked aisles and things with stocking. Do you feel like your other issues when it comes to security and crime would also be addressed here?

One can only hope. I’m not expecting this to happen overnight. Like, all of a sudden, just a dramatic change. But in due time, I hope to see some improvement.

Like I said, we’ve done our part. We made a lot of noise. We spoke about these issues time and time again. Now, it’s up to the company to be held accountable for this and make the changes. Make it happen.

Dollar General is still planning on opening about two stores a day across the country, but it did say it’s planning on closing five stores in New Orleans at the end of August. Do you know why that’s happening and where those stores are located?

Well, like I mentioned earlier, when you hold a company accountable and they refuse to acknowledge the issues and the situations that occur, they find the most cowardly way to get out of it. They closed stores. I’m like, you do know that’s not benefiting anybody, right?

Are these mostly located in New Orleans East — the ones that are closing?

Yeah. And that’s the worst part about it. In the East, they really don’t have anything over there. Dollar stores are one of the main [retail stores] that they can actually go to, to actually get the things that they need and you’re closing them down.

Not everybody has the accessibility to transportation. If that’s [residents] only one-way ticket to get food in a house or get household items that they can’t afford at any other major retailer, like, seriously, who are you hurting?

This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.