Dollar Stores: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

our main story

tonight

is about shopping a fun and easy way to forget that you and everyone you know will one day die specifically, it's about one of the most ubiquitous places to shop in this country,

dollar

stores

, discount outlets where you can get a variety of products sometimes for a

dollar

or less and then positioned with upbeat materials like this, whether you're making a quick stop to fill up or stocking up for the

week

. Dollar General helps you save on the things you need and the unexpected items that make shopping easier. fun something new for the house a greeting card or a surprise for someone special Ultimately, we love helping our customers save time and money, it's what motivates us, which is why over 125,000 people have joined our team and we are growing every day.

They really captured! a wide range of definitely human people in that ad have an old woman, a nurse, a man who has no children at all. Molly Ring Walls and some idiot about to buy a bunch of half-inflated balloons. Today, two companies dominate this particular retail landscape. Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which also own Family Dollar, these two corporations operate more than 35,000 dollar

stores

in the U.S., more than all of Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald's combined, and have profits that equal

last

year. Dollar General made $2.4 billion in profit, while Dollar Tree made $1.6 billion, and its growth has been fueled by focusing on low-income customers, highlighting communities that have been economically marginalized, often rural areas and neighborhoods of color.

A former CEO of Dollar General once described his customer base as being in a permanent recession, and his current CEO summed it up. In businesses like this, I would tell you that we do great in good times and we do fabulous in the bad guys. It's a store that tends to do better when its customers do worse, which isn't something that really requires the use of the word. fabulous fabulous is best used to describe a quirky hat or the cast of The Golden Bachelor or the fact that Kim won a million dollars to sit in a car and not talk to Sarah Jessica Parker, that's fabulous, but a company brags how you can do it. benefit from financial hardship not so much, you may have heard stories about how dollar stores impact the communities they are in, where they may be the only food retailer in some cases, that may be because they have driven out others, in others.

It could be because they have entered a market that is already a food desert, but either way customers often turn to these stores for their convenience and low prices, although those prices can be a little misleading, like this clip from a few ago years shows a Dollar Tree that two packages of Irish Spring soap cost a dollar at Target, a package of eight costs $3.99, but if you look very closely, the bars sold at Dollar Tree are smaller, so If you do the math, Irish Spring per ounce is actually more expensive at Dollar Tre. True, despite the promise of value, you can end up getting less for more, although I will say that in the case of Irish Spring that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm just saying that I personally don't want more of something that smells like citrus burgot. fart and leave these money makers to ashes, but the fact is that if all you can afford to buy soap is a dollar right now, a dollar store will sell it to you, but look, we're not going to focus on the location or price of dollar stores. Tonight we'll focus on how they're managed because if you've ever set foot in one, you know they can look like a total disaster. I really don't know where everyone else gets their Dollar Trees because every single one of them.

I've ever walked in and it looks like this, oh yeah, shopping at the DG. I need staples and they are about 20 feet deep like that OMG why does my Dollar Tree look like K? Look at this Dollar Tree like, what the hell, yeah, what is it? true, they look less like functioning stores and more like the retail edition of American Ninja Warrior, they look like someone picked up a dollar store, shook it and threw it at another dollar store and a quick shout to the automated voice from Tik Tok who was trying to say the word Kaka, she is doing her best, that's all we can ask her and maybe say bad things like penis or vagina oh.

Charles Manson was understated and sexy in exactly one Griffin character act, but to a degree you might not realize. That chaos is not an isolated mistake or fault of the employees of those stores, it is the natural end product of how the companies behind these stores choose to operate them and if you think that it can be bad to shop at a dollar store, you are not nothing. Compared to what it's like to work there, it's been said that working at Dollar General may be the worst retail job in America and if these stores are so ubiquitous, make so much money and are so terrible to work for

tonight

as we prepare to on Black Friday.

Let's talk about dollar stores and start with the fact that one of the key ways they squeeze margins is not on Tiny Soaps but on labor costs. They often have only two employees or sometimes even just one. Running the whole store, just look like this dollar. Tree customer finds out in real time that there is only one person working there only worker here only worker doing this no shelves no nothing look at this they she is the only worker here everything Guys these people don't even work here and they are helping their look at these walls of boxes by herself, yes of course, stores will look like this when there is only one person there to do everything, it's so bad that random guys ask you to help her for free, imagine how monumentally shitty a store would be .

It has to be for you a client that comes in and says: Oh, they need me. Reminds me of that famous Mr. Rogers quote. When you walk into a dollar store that looks like Chernobyl after the explosion, look for the helpers. You will always find people to help you. They're helping, and by the way, the people employed at dollar stores don't make much more than those volunteer helpers. Just watch as a former Dollar General worker points out the disparity between what top executives make and what the rank and file make. damn expensive car, you all go out to eat crabs, steak, fimon and esaro and all this meanwhile, all the workers eat Raymen noodles.

Come on, they're making millions think about it. I want everyone to think about it. Let me know when. A general dollar worker made more than 20,000 in an entire year? Don't worry. I will wait excellent. I've never heard a harsher insult than simply listing the foods you assume someone else eats (crab fillet, mina steak, and all this stuff she's describing). a cartoon rich person and it's devastating, I have no doubt that she would look at me and turn to figgy pudding and mushy peas and all that milk and I would be devastated and the thing is, she is right about the numbers for the average compensated employee. . because Dollar General makes about $188,000 a year and a report from two years ago found that 92% of Dollar General staff made less than $15 an hour, which is a higher percentage than any other company they surveyed, plus the Lawsuits and media reports have repeatedly documented that Dollar General severely restricts the total hours it allocates in a

week

to non-managers and then expects store managers who are salaried to cover the rest without overtime and without enough people to doing everything from running the cash register to receiving truck deliveries and stocking shelves.

Aside from keeping prices up to date and cleaning bathrooms, things can fall apart quickly, just watch how this assistant manager sends what is basically an SOS to the company. Well this is a video to help anyone within this company who really cares, we are overloaded with cargo and we don't have enough hours a week or people a week to save them we are completely overwhelmed the back room is like this I can't even I get to the cooler and I have a milk delivery outside, so I wait for everything to come out on the sales floor.

I don't know again. This video is for anyone in the company who cares. This is Travis Bennett, the assistant manager of store 11132. Wow, it's not good if your employees are making Tik toks that look like hostages. videos because that's not what Tik Tok is for, as we all know, it's to find out which anime character strangers would fuck and see what you'd look like if they positively snatched you, but the problem with saying that to someone in the company who cares is that It sure seems like these companies don't care at all, it's hard to overstate the indifference.

These chains can show their employees the working conditions and not only in their stores but also in some of their distribution centers. You may remember that we showed you videos of rats. inside the Family Dollar store in White Haven and the company's distribution center in West Memphis Arkansas, take another look right now, federal inspectors say they've found over a thousand rodents inside the same distribution center, oh my goodness, leave aside the thousands of rodents I know. It's already a great question. I just want to take a second to acknowledge this little diva. Look at her, she doesn't give a shit about being fed a pringle.

Other rats would pounce upon seeing that chip, but not her. She's giving him a blank look she says. honey, not even at my lowest level, she has standards, she has taste, she is Ratatouille for Absolute Food, for that FDA inspection not only was it found that over a thousand dead rodents had been recovered in that Distribution Center the year past, but also that the company's own records showed that it collected over 2,300 RS there during the spring and summer before the demonstration and I quote a history of infestation, but at that time it is less of an infestation and more of a thriving community of rats establishing internal order by building their environment, probably exploring the arts This was both a huge problem for the family and a genuinely inspiring story of strength against rodents.

Now the company wants you to know that they have since closed that distribution center and are thoroughly remodeling it, but that's just one example of a horrible pattern for dollar stores. General has also had to temporarily close several stores and a distribution center due to rat infestations and at one store in Oklahoma the birds were nesting in the ceiling and, I'm serious, they started with all the merchandise, not just when the staff told them to the company hups who say they were ordered not to throw away the dirty products but to clean them in some cases by taking them home to wash them and then return them to the shelves and when the manager of that store asked for help to remove the nest he said he had the feeling that they were ignoring it because the birds weren't stealing anything and look, there are plenty of reasons to kick someone or something out of a store even if they aren't stealing anything and number one on that list is that they are pooping everywhere.

It doesn't matter if it's a bird or a small child, the latter is part of the equation, they have to leave now legally. I have to tell you that they asked Dollar General about the history of the bird and their response was that it takes immediate action when stores make requests for maintenance or repair, which, as they say, sounds a little like uh, what's the word to me? Kaker? That's right, thank you very much and if you're thinking, okay, I'm convinced these stores sound like a terrible place to work. It's not nearly finished yet. However, some Dollar General employees have said they can't control the thermostats in the stores and others say they don't have working heating and cooling systems at all, the heat would make all the candy melt and I don't know. yes it was negative with the meds, but I mean, I know they had to be climate controlled, my assistant manager was sitting there with ice packs in her pants, shirt and a towel because we were dripping and sweating, that's not good, a bag of ice.

Pulling down your pants is not how you imagine a day at work goes, however, it is how I imagine these two monsters and when you take all of this together, the heat in the background. Staffing checkouts everywhere, meaning you can't move around properly, it's pretty clear that these places aren't just unpleasant, they're unsafe. Dollar General is on OSHA's list of serious violators and has racked up more than $25 million in proposed fines since 2017 for alleged violations spanning dozens of states, and as for Dollar Tree, more than 400 were identified in that same time period. violations at its stores resulting in more than $13 million in fines.

Now I have to say that Tre recently reached an agreement with OSHA and states that it is implementing important safety policies, procedures and training to safeguard the well-being of our Associates, although you should know that too. They had a similar agreement in 2015 and made similar promises there.so, at best, they learn slowly. Here and there there is one final indignity for dollar store employees and it is the threat of violence. Dollar stores have become magnets for crime and murder with Dollar General employees say they have been stabbed, shot at Point, beaten and pistol-whipped at work and when a robbery occurs, the Corporate response may be less than compassionate.

Remember the worker talks about how the bosses were eating minion steak here. he is talking about the day his store was robbed. I was robbed at the same Dollar General where I currently worked. I picked up my phone and called 911. I closed the door. I assured clients. I followed the protocol. I called our manager. She appeared. I called our. The district manager about two or three times did not answer, but when my manager called, she answered that the first question was if everyone is okay. The second thing she said was: what are we going to do to reopen the store?

They haven't even stolen us, not even a dog. in 10 to 15 minutes and you're already talking about opening the store, that's ridiculous, an armed robbery is a traumatic event, people need time to recover, it's not something you can ignore like an unwanted call, a broken light bulb or any other show on Apple TV, did you know that Octavia Spencer starred as a true crime podcast host on a show called The Truth for three seasons, of course you didn't? It's Apple TV where celebrities hide while researching this piece. Dollar Store workers repeatedly told us how they feared for their safety, and while these companies say they take safety concerns seriously, experts have said the level of violence may be due to how these stores are set up and organized, having so few people working there without a security guard normally present makes them at a Target incredibly attractive in Texas, a Dollar General employee who had a Die In Her Arms co-worker claimed in a lawsuit that her store had no lights in the back of the building and cash registers that had no panic buttons and that the sign advertising a remotely monitored security system was a farce and at that time they might as well have placed one of those inflatable men holding a loot on almost every corner.

Dollar stores seem to treat their workers with astonishing indifference or outright contempt and some are getting so fed up that they leave, leading to stories like this. We saw dozens of people trying to get into Family Dollar this afternoon only to find the doors locked and no one inside Garfield, Dodie Burn, went to Family Dollar on Pen Avenue yesterday. only to find this sign that said the staff quit, be nice to the door, yeah and that's not at all unusual at another Family Dollar in Nebraska, the staff left this sign on the door, we all quit, sorry for the inconvenience and in The Dollar General in Maine Workers left a series of signs saying closed indefinitely because Dollar General does not pay a living wage or treat its employees with respect and capitalism will destroy this country if people are not paid enough to live their jobs. lives, why should they work like slaves for All of this is perfectly marked by the enthusiastic hiring poster who really has a lot of work ahead of them and while those workers justifiably walk away, others are choosing to fight back in recent years, groups like Stepup Louisiana and Union of Southern.

Service workers have organized strikes and protests against Dollar General, but the company has responded with all the usual forms of union busting in Connecticut when workers tried to organize. Dollar General violated federal law by firing a pro-union worker who illegally surveilled and interrogated employees and threatened to close the store, they also force all new employees to watch a video in which they discuss the very idea of ​​joining. to a union, which a worker filmed and posted online. We don't believe our employees need a third party or union to come between us and them. Our employees don't need a union to make their voices heard here at Dollar General.

I'm sorry that your employees can make their voices heard. Are you sure about that? Because it looks like the guy asking strangers for help on Tik Tok might actually do it. I disagree on that point, so what needs to be done right from 2019? At least 75 communities, many of them low-income, have blocked proposals to build new dollar stores, but the truth is that most of these stores are unlikely to go anywhere, remember in many areas. They are the only retailer, so much more attention needs to be paid to what the workers have been saying and for years now Dollar Store workers in Stepup Louisiana have developed a list of what they are asking of these companies, from things like have safe staff.

This level ranges from creating safe store infrastructure to giving workers the right to recover after violent incidents, none of which is really asking a lot and until such time as these companies actually do these things, they should at least be a lot. more transparent when it comes to the retail and work experience they're actually providing here at Dollar Bucket, whether you're making a quick stop to refuel or stocking up for the week, we've got everything you need, like this roll of toilet paper or An adorable Irish Spring Dollar Bucket Bar helps you save on the things you need, but also on the special treats that make life a little more fun, like this flabby balloon or this Skittle bag, you mean Skittles, no, a dollar bucket, whatever you need.

We have it somewhere uh-oh and oh always at the right price towels one dollar batteries one dollar this rat one dollar Gatorade Frost Arctic Blitz one dollar this other rat one dollar that

last

rat was pregnant so it's a double we love helping our customers save time and money that's why more than 125,000 people have joined our team and we are growing every day. Hey, I don't work here. I'm just trying to refrigerate the milk before it goes bad. This place is fine, you better hurry. Received another shipment in buckets of dollars, a proud provider of jobs in our communities, bring on Brenda, she is our longest serving employee, Hi Brenda, how long have you been with us?

I've been here for 3 weeks okay it's a nightmare and I have ice packs. in places only God and my husband should say okay I've been wearing an adult diaper because I can't go to the bathroom and we've been robbed three times since lunch and we still open Brenda if we close every time we get robbed. This store would never be open and you wouldn't have a job, young lady, I've been here, I've been here so long, I don't know what day it is, I keep hearing voices screaming, Brenda, help, Brenda, can you help me? voice is fine, this is a video to help anyone within this company who really cares.

I can't leave the warehouse. There are too many boxes on the path and the birds won't let me out. Oh God, brother, oh God, is it him? He's fine, what's happening to Travis doesn't matter, what they don't understand is that his lives are insignificant, his pain is our fuel, the more they suffer, the better we do. This company was built on pain, sweat, tears, and the smallest bars of doll soap. Have you ever seen number one in your damn useless lives? Go yourself. I know it hasn't happened in a long time because that suit is tight.

Oh, it happens, oh, it happened this morning. Brenda, really, then you'll have to pay. a dollar for that I will not pay anything because I resigned can you read that I can? He says I quit I quit bye bye bye bye bye well hey do you want a job we can pay you in rat babies how many dollars in buckets everyone gives less while we get more