This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with a former Dollar General employee in Minnesota who worked at a store that opened in 2021.
The former employee asked not to be named, citing potential professional consequences, but their identity is known to Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Insider has reported on operational problems at Dollar General's stores, from cluttered aisles that attracted the attention of fire marshals to rat infestations. Management at many stores don't employ enough staff or assign enough work hours to run the store, employees previously told Insider.
I had recently moved close to this new store. There's no Walmart or Target in the town; there's a family-owned grocery store and that's it. So when the Dollar General store opened there, it got a lot of business.
The store went up quickly. One day, I saw a piece of land being cleared, and it seemed like the store was up and hiring workers the next day.
The first day I worked there, we were supposed to stock the shelves before the store opened. It all looked brand-new and in good shape. There were people mounting shelves and a guy setting up cameras and registers. Overall, I was impressed.
But I noticed a problem: A heavy rain from the night before had flooded under the outside door, creating a pool at least an inch deep between the outside and indoor entrance.
After the store opened, I was working one night when it was raining, and the wind was blowing against the door so hard that it was automatically opening. After turning off the automatic sensor, I stayed in front to help customers manually open the door, while rain steadily washed underneath the front entrance.
We tried to keep the entrance dry using a squeegee and large puppy pads to soak up water. We called the district manager to ask if we could close the store because of the flooded lobby. The reply was: "You'll have to suck it up and do the best you can."
Fortunately, no one slipped and fell when I was working there. Having to babysit the lobby, however, did prevent me from doing other work such as stocking shelves.
There were more problems in the months after we opened to shoppers. One set of freezers broke down three times. The repairman let loose expletives, because to repair them, all the freezers had to be taken out.
That meant all the food inside had to be taken out and tossed: tater tots, pizzas, and frozen meals. I don't know how much that cost the store, but it was a lot of food. Customers would come in and ask, "When's it going to be fixed?" I had no answer because all we could do was put in a service ticket. The first time it happened, it took about two weeks before someone came to fix it.
Not long after we opened, two big air vents on the ceiling were water damaged. One was dripping water, and I had to put little buckets to catch it. I put up safety signs, but sometimes customers would knock them over with their carts and the water would spill all over the floor.
Then there were the restrooms. They weren't heated, so during the winter — remember, the store's in Minnesota — it gets a wee bit cold. The district manager suggested putting a space heater in each restroom. There was no outlet inside either one, so we were told to run extension cords. That's what we need, I thought: an extension cord for customers and employees to trip over, not to mention the fire hazard heaters would create.
I no longer work there, but I went to the store the other day. They're not allowing anyone to use the bathrooms at all because the lights went out, and no one has repaired them. At first, they told people to use the flashlights on their cellphones. Then one woman complained that she had bruised herself in the dark. Now the bathrooms aren't open to the public.
I quit because of some personal things but also because the management and the problems with the building were bugging the crap out of me. You're telling me I have to deal with something that's not my fault, that I didn't cause or none of the workers caused?
The district manager would say: "Other people working at other Dollar Generals have to deal with the thing or something like it. They have problems at their stores, too."
But it's not really the employees' problem. You throw them into this crappy store and expect them to bring in profits, yet you don't fix problems as they come up. And you're paying low wages.
A Dollar General spokesperson told Insider that it works with third-party developer partners who are responsible for the construction of its stores, which take about four to six months to build.
The spokesperson said: "Many factors can result in a new construction maintenance issue. Our developer partners and teams work collaboratively to identify and then correct issues as quickly as possible. When a maintenance issue arises, our teams work to assess and correct the issue as soon as possible in order to ensure we are providing a pleasant in-store experience for our employees and customers. The length of the process depends on, among other things, the specific issue and availability of parts and service professionals."
Do you work at a Dollar General store and have a story to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@insider.com.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the time it takes to build new Dollar General stores. The time is four to six months, not weeks.
