Dollar General, the largest dollar store chain in America, is facing serious challenges that threaten its business model. In November 2024, six employees at a Dollar General store in Esperance, New York, all quit simultaneously, citing missing paychecks and unexplained reductions in their work hours.
This walkout was not a one-time event but part of a larger pattern of problems affecting the company. For years, Dollar General has struggled with workplace safety issues. Since 2017, federal safety inspectors have visited Dollar General stores over 240 times, repeatedly finding serious problems, including blocked emergency exits, hidden fire extinguishers, and electrical panels that workers could not access in an emergency.
These safety violations were so significant that, in March 2023, the government placed Dollar General in the “Severe Violator” program, making it the first retail company to receive this designation. Over the course of seven years, the company accumulated $26 million in fines for safety violations documented across its stores from Maine to North Dakota.
In July 2024, Dollar General agreed to pay $12 million to settle safety violations with the U.S. Department of Labor. The settlement required the company to hire safety managers, reduce the amount of products stored in each location, and create a worker safety committee across all 20,000 stores.
The most significant part of the agreement is that any safety problems, such as blocked exits or missing fire extinguishers, must be fixed within 48 hours; otherwise, the company faces fines of $100,000 per day, up to $500,000 per violation. Federal inspectors now check stores every three months, and the company will remain under government supervision for at least two years.
Workers Are Frustrated and Customers Are Struggling Financially
The November 2024 walkout in New York echoed an earlier mass resignation at a Dollar General in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where all six workers quit in March 2024. Both groups of employees cited the same reasons: low wages, constant understaffing, and poor working conditions.
In Wisconsin, workers even went against company policy by donating expired food to local food banks, saving more than 7,500 pounds of food annually. Their actions revealed a deeper problem: the company’s push to cut costs at all levels had pushed workers past their breaking points, leading to high turnover and public resignations.
At the Esperance store, assistant manager America Tillman discovered that sick time hours had mysteriously disappeared from employee records without explanation. When she complained to human resources, the store manager was fired, and the remaining staff walked out the next day.
The store eventually reopened with workers transferred from other locations, but the company then began advertising jobs at higher wages—up to $17.10 per hour—demonstrating its desperate need to hire and retain staff. Beyond worker issues, Dollar General’s core customers are facing financial difficulties.
In August 2024, the company warned investors that its typical customers—people earning around $40,000 per year—were struggling to afford even basic necessities. CEO Todd Vasos told investors in March 2025 that many customers could now only afford essential items, and some could not even afford those.
Despite overall sales reaching $40.6 billion, the company’s profits fell 32.3% to $1.1 billion. Same-store sales grew only 1.4%, while customer visits actually dropped by 1.1%, indicating that fewer people were shopping at Dollar General.
Can Dollar General Survive These Changes?
In March 2025, Dollar General announced it would close 96 stores and 45 PopShelf locations—a total of 141 stores, representing less than 1% of its 20,000 outlets. CEO Vasos called this “portfolio optimization,” saying the company was closing underperforming urban stores, not indicating a company-wide crisis.
However, store managers face increasing pressure. The 48-hour repair requirement means that any unresolved safety problems could quickly result in massive fines.
Combined with labor shortages that make it difficult to maintain adequate staffing, some managers questioned whether Dollar General’s business model, which involves cutting costs everywhere, could survive the new regulatory demands.
The company says it has hired a Chief Safety Officer and launched a “Back-to-Basics” initiative aimed at improving stores and investing in its workers. Analysts predict that compliance costs will continue to squeeze profits for at least 18 to 24 months.
The central question facing Dollar General is whether a business model built on relentless cost-cutting can adapt to an era of stricter government oversight, increased worker activism, and customers with less disposable income.
The answer will determine not only Dollar General’s future but also the fate of discount retail stores serving America’s lowest-income communities.