Family Dollar Stores agrees to pay $41.6M for rodent-infested warehouse in Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Family Dollar Stores, a subsidiary of Dollar Tree Inc., pleaded guilty Monday to holding food, medicine, cosmetics and other items under “unsanitary” conditions at a now-closed, rodent-infested distribution center in West Memphis, Arkansas, federal prosecutors said .
Family Dollar faced one count of adulterating FDA-regulated products while held in unsanitary conditions at the facility, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. The company has reached a settlement that includes a fine and forfeiture totaling $41.675 million, the largest criminal penalty ever imposed in a food safety case, the department said.
“When consumers go to the store, they have the right to expect that the food and medicine on the shelves has been stored in clean, uncontaminated conditions,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “When companies betray that trust and violate the laws designed to protect consumer safety, the public should rest assured that the Department of Justice will hold those companies accountable.”
A company spokesperson said it was cooperating extensively with the DOJ investigation.
“In 2022, Family Dollar issued a voluntary product recall, allowing customers to return merchandise for a full refund without proof of purchase. While we are not aware of any consumer becoming ill as a result of the conditions at the distribution center, fourteen consumer class actions have been filed against the company and we have reached a preliminary settlement in those cases without any admission of liability or wrongdoing.” , the spokesperson said. in an email. “We look forward to putting the lawsuit behind us so that we can focus on our business of providing affordable products to our customers, with quality and safety at the heart of what we do.”
The plea deal also requires Family Dollar and Dollar Tree to comply with robust corporate compliance and reporting requirements over the next three years, the DOJ said.
By pleading guilty, the company admitted that its Arkansas distribution center shipped FDA-regulated products to more than 400 Family Dollar stores in Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. According to the settlement, in August 2020 the company received reports of mice and pest problems making deliveries to stores. The company admitted that some employees were aware in January 2021 that unsanitary conditions were allowing FDA-regulated products in the warehouse to become adulterated, in violation of federal law.
Under the plea agreement, the company continued to ship FDA-regulated products from the warehouse until January 2022, when an FDA inspection revealed live rodents, dead and decaying rodents, rodent feces, urine and odors, and signs of gnawing and nesting everywhere. the facility.
Subsequent fumigation of the facility resulted in the reported eradication of 1,270 rodents.
Dollar Tree Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling said in a news release that the company is making progress with its “business transformation, safety procedures and compliance initiatives.”
Since joining Dollar Tree’s Board of Directors in March 2022, Dreiling said they have “worked diligently to help Family Dollar resolve this historic matter and significantly enhance our policies, procedures and physical facilities to ensure that it does not repeat itself.”
Dollar Tree also recently announced that Family Dollar plans to return operations to West Memphis with a completely redesigned and updated distribution center. The new facility, which is expected to create 300 new jobs, is expected to open in fall 2024.