Dollar General’s Stock Plummets, Labor Advocates Cite Worker Safety Concerns & Low Pay

Systemic Failures at Stores Drive Down Business at Retail Mega-Chain

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Julien Burns, Step Up Louisiana, (802) 272-4490, julien@redcypressconsulting.com

August 29, 2024, NEW ORLEANS—Labor advocates are calling into question Dollar General’s corporate safety practice after news emerged on Thursday of the retail mega chain’s stock dropping 30% and headlines cited that the company is ”headed toward its worst day ever.” 

The New Orleans-born national movement for worker safety was spearheaded by economic justice organization Step Up Louisiana in collaboration with other leading labor organizations including the Center for Popular Democracy, Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, New Justice Project and more.

“Dollar General’s stock will continue to drop if they don’t do the basics to invest in better pay and worker and customer safety,” said Ben Zucker, Step Up Louisiana Co-Director. “CEO Todd Vasos needs to come to the table with Step Up Louisiana so we can create solutions that make Dollar General a safer and better place to shop and work.”

Thursday’s unprecedented drop in stock value was in part a result of lower-than-expected revenue that Dollar General reported on their quarterly earnings call. Todd Vasos, Dollar General CEO, cites continued financial strain on its customer base as the primary cause of the stock plummet. Step Up Louisiana highlighted that the dollar store chain itself is a major cause of financial strain among retail workers across the country.

“Dollar General could become a retail leader and alleviate some of the financial pressures impacting their company, their workers and their customers by investing in higher wages for their employees and increasing their spending power, particularly those working hourly sales associate positions,” Zucker continued. 

In 2020, studies illustrated that Dollar General employees earn the least wages in comparison to similar retailers. The vast majority of Dollar General employees and their families are also Dollar General customers. Dollar General situates their stores in low-income neighborhoods, where the people in nearby communities are both their employees and their customers. 

Vasos acknowledges that the company has more work to do. In last year's earnings call, Vasos laid out how the company planned to invest in their workers “to increase the employee presence at the front end of our stores” because of “the importance of a friendly, helpful employee who is there to greet customers.” 

Dollar General’s own safety audit published this year cited low staffing as a continued issue but failed to touch on new ways to address the problem. Labor advocates point out that the chain has also refused to invest in adequate security to protect their workers and customers. The families of the victims of the 2023 Jacksonville Dollar General shooting sued Dollar General for this reason.

In response to workers’ organizing efforts for store safety and calls for increased security in New Orleans area stores, Dollar General shut down five of the city’s stores. Workers cited this as a form of retaliation in response to the worker movement’s latest victory—a Dollar General OSHA settlement that included several of their safety demands. 

Dollar General’s repeated track record of store safety violations has included blocked exits, perpetually understaffed stores, in-store violence including armed robbery and murder, backbreaking pace of work, poverty wages, rat infestations, and repeated OSHA violations. In 2023, the multi-billion dollar retail chain made headlines for being listed on OSHA’s ‘Severe Violators’ list, a label for employers with “willful, repeated” safety violations that haven’t taken effective measures toward improvement.

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About Step Up Louisiana 

Step Up Louisiana is a community-based organization committed to building power to win education and economic justice for all. Step Up works with Louisianans of all races and ages to “step up” by campaigning, organizing from a racial justice perspective, and holding public officials accountable. The organization partners with parents, workers, students, and community members to disrupt systemic oppression in our schools and workplaces through voter education, advocacy, and action.