Dollar stores are everywhere in the U.S. today, and depending on where you live, you could
even have more than one on your street.
Whether its Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, or some other 99 cent store, the
dollar store business is booming.
Ready for some mind-blowing statistics?
From toys to crafting supplies, there's an abundance of plastic for sale in dollar stores.
And it's not particularly safe: A 2015 report found that a staggering 81 percent of plastic
items in dollar stores contained at least one hazardous chemical.
These chemicals have been linked to all sorts of concerning health issues, including cancer
and birth defects.
Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, for example, has been linked to asthma and lung effects, and
was found to be in 38 percent of the plastics tested.
Some dollar store brands have pledged to remove the amount of toxic plastic in their stores.
In May 2019, Dollar Tree — which owns Family Dollar, Dollar General, and 99 Cents Only
— said that it would work to phase out lead and dangerous chemicals from its products,
though the company hasn't laid out exactly what significant steps it's taking to filter
hazardous chemicals out, or when it will happen.
A report by the non-profit group Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that when dollar
stores move into economically vulnerable low-income areas, they quickly push out other stores.
The report's authors said:
"Although dollar stores sometimes fill a need in places that lack basic retail services,
there's growing evidence that these stores are not merely a byproduct of economic distress,
they're a cause of it."
Many dollar stores don't carry produce or offer the option of grocery delivery, and
when they force smaller grocery stores to close, they create food deserts, where residents
often have higher rates of obesity and a lower life expectancy.
For people who may not have the means to travel outside their neighborhoods to shop, whatever
is on the shelf at their dollar store is what they're stuck with.
Dollar Tree cheese product, for example, might look like American cheese, but is lacking
"dairy" in its ingredients.
Some dollar stores do carry fresh meat, but one news station that tested dollar store
steaks found that when it comes to USA beef, those $1 steaks are basically the equivalent
of school cafeteria food.
A 2017 ABC 5 report found that over the course of just three years, more than 33 crimes ranging
from robbery to assault were reported at Cleveland-area dollar stores.
Attorney David Steiger, who represents dollar-store employees involved in robberies, told the
news channel:
"They know that people are getting hurt.
They know that their employees are getting hurt.
And if they're not changing anything, that's not by accident."
Crime targeting dollar stores isn't limited to any particular city either.
Bernie Cobb, a retired Shelby County, Tennessee, police officer, said:
"The criminals know that there are no security guards there.
Some of these stores, even though they have been robbed several times, refuse to put security
guards in stores."
Dollar stores also have high rates of shoplifting.
It's easy to think that something which only cost a dollar — or a few dollars at most
— wouldn't be a hot item for five-finger discount shoppers, but that's hardly the case.
A Dollar Tree employee named Brenda told Mental Floss that the cheap prices actually make
shoplifting worse.
She said:
"The thing with the low prices is that there is no real deterrent from people stealing
since none of the products have any security around them."
Dawn Hughey managed a Michigan Dollar General and injured herself while unloading boxes
at her job, which often called for 70-hour work weeks.
Her doctor ordered her to take two weeks off, and Dollar General fired Hughey on her third
day back on the job for what they said were productivity problems unrelated to her injury.
Because retail managers like Hughey are told they're only allowed to hand out a certain
number of hours, they're saddled with handling the rest of the tasks themselves.
This results in a high workload, high turnover, and employee injuries.
Stores like Dollar General aren't breaking any laws by doing this.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, companies must pay hourly employees time-and-a-half
for overtime on a 40-hour work week, but this doesn't apply to salaried management.
But in the retail world, those managerial lines are blurred.
In the dollar store retail industry, companies have an incentive to push extra work onto
managers.
Regular employees at Dollar Tree generally make close to minimum wage, with the average
pay being $9.63 an hour.
And hours can be hard to come by.
Employees on Indeed say that their work weeks are often broken up into four or five hour
shifts, and that they typically get just a few days a week.
Employees have also complained, and in some cases even sued, for being told that they
had to clock out when taking their allotted 10-minute break.
Dollar Tree eventually settled a lawsuit filed by 4,200 employees who were forced to work
off the clock, and paid out $600,000.
It's also not uncommon, say dollar store employees, to be bumped up to the role of manager only
so that the company can avoid paying overtime.
Dawn Hughey took home $34,700 with her manager salary, but after factoring in all the extra
hours on the job she had to work, Hughey wasn't making much more than other store employees;
only around $10 an hour.
Tulsa, Oklahoma has seen its share of dollar stores come into the city, squashing smaller
grocery stores in the predominantly black area of North Tulsa.
In an effort to prevent the next dollar store from popping up, city officials voted to restrict
any new dollar stores from opening in certain districts within a mile of an existing dollar
store.
City councilperson Vanessa Hall-Harper said:
"I shop at discount dollar stores when I need something that they provide.
What I am concerned about is the proliferation of them and the ultimate effects they have
on communities."
The move so far has proved effective, and after seeing the success in Tulsa, other towns
and cities such as Mesquite, Texas and Birmingham, Alabama are working to give relief to their
food deserts by restricting how many dollar stores can open in certain areas.
For all the negatives that are associated with the rapid growth of dollar stores, there
have to be some positives, right?
Well, according to one survey, the majority of Americans still have a positive view of
dollar stores, regardless of the brand.
Where retailers like Target and Walmart have placed more emphasis on charitable giving
to big causes like the American Red Cross to improve their image, dollar stores seem
to have taken a more local approach.
Dollar General, for example, has a 25-year-old literacy program that works to help employees
and residents within 20 miles of its stores.
Family Dollar has poured millions into supporting local food banks.
John Strong, a professor of business at the College of William & Mary, said:
"Each of the three [major] dollar stores have thought pretty carefully about their community
support strategy — and they've localized it."
Dollar stores are also more common than big-box stories in rural areas, giving residents an
extra opportunity for employment, as well as access to national brands.
While dollar stores may do a good bit of damage, many of the people that they serve don't necessarily
see them as a bad thing.
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