Dollar General has 48hrs to make stores safe or face more penalties after $12m fine
Dollar General has 48hrs to make stores safe or face more penalties after $12m fine
The clock started ticking after the government and the retailer signed the agreement on Thursday
OSHA has been inspecting Dollar General stores since at least 2010, and has frequently found the company commiting the same safety violations - blocked, locked, or unmarked emergency exits, inaccessible electrical panels, and improper use of electrical cords that can cause fire hazards.
After 13 years the corporate leadership that leads to this consistent violation of safety regulations should be in jail.
Don’t worry. OSHA should be unconstitutional soon.
Oh my god! They're gonna upgrade them from a wrist-slap to a stern talking-to
The company, which operates more than 19,000 discount stores worldwide, agreed to pay the $12m fine
In March, Dollar General announced that its 2023 fiscal year operating profit was $2.4bn.
So they have 19,000 stores, on average profiting $126,000, and their share of the fine is $630?
That fine should be 12mil per day to actually see some action. One time it's just the cost of doing business
I've never felt safe in a dollar general.
You shouldn't.
The unspoken reality of these sorts of situations is that companies like Dollar General simply can't fix these problems and remain profitable. Many of these safety measures require staff they'd have to hire for example.
We talk about this as if it's just some safety measures that need to be fulfilled, but what we have to understand is that the business model of exploitation to this degree is unsustainable in a world where safety measures are enforced.
They likely know this, and may do some performative response in the hopes of avoiding the fine, but $12 million is a rounding error compared to the cost of doing this properly.
TL;DR: nothing will change.
Fine them 1% of their total profit for the last 3 years every week until the problem is fixed.
Total global revenue. Accountants can play fuck fuck games with "profit" to make hundreds of millions just disappear over to the Irish subsidiary.
Follow the EUs lead. Their fines on revenue do real damage.
Totally sticking "fuck fuck games" in my thoughtionary.
While that would be pertinent for many American companies, Dollar General only operates within the US and Mexico, and Mexico's tax rate is 9% higher for corporations.
You dropped a couple zeros there.
$12M? Oh noes! That is probably a minutes profit.
Nope according to reported 2023 numbers its around 3.5 days net profit.
Hit them for thirty days or even one quarters profit and they might care.I saw that paper in the office yesterday. All I thought was "not my fucking problem". Now I have a good chance to maybe get some retribution for all the abuse.
I was thinking about the fact that this just means unfortunate retail employees are going to get a fire drill when they are already systematically understaffed, under-trained, concerned about retaliation and exhausted.
The settlement should involve dollar general footing the bill for extra, added staff to make the safety changes.
If you haven't seen John Oliver's Dollar Stores segment, I highly recommend it. You will see exactly what these stores are doing to these employees.
Really good video. Thank for sharing
concidering the lack of staff in these stores, I think safety is the least of their problems, I'm amazed that they can make a profit, no surveillance whatsoever, no security, I've seen people walk in, grab a handful of items and just walk out cause they know they won't be stopped and that the store lacks the staffing for anyone to identify anything