Success comes with a price A lot of retail companies have been beaten down by the coronavirus and the shift to online buying. But Dollar General appears to be immune to both trends. The company is on an impressive growth path, with plans to open 1,000 stores across the country this year and a goal of hiring up to 50,000 more employees. Three-quarters of its 16,000 stores are in small towns or rural areas, and its primary customers are people who earn less than $40,000 a year. Dollar General’s formula is an excellent one for times like these. But the CNN Business website reported last week that the company’s success has come with a price. The story’s headline quoted a police lieutenant in Dayton, Ohio, who described the stores as a “robbery magnet.” Former company executives, store employees, law enforcement officials and security experts all said the Dollar General model is financially successful — its stock price has multiplied by eight times over the past decade — but it also puts workers at risk. First off, the stores make a high number of cash transactions, which makes them “a prime target for armed robberies.” CNN Business said at least six Dollar General employees have been killed in robberies since 2016, and that police around the country have warned the company that its stores are vulnerable to crime. Dayton Police Lt. Jason Hall has tracked robberies at dollar stores over the past few years and said Dollar General had the most robberies by far. In Dayton, its seven stores accounted for 23 of the city’s 80 commercial robberies in 2019. Law enforcement officers point to several specific company decisions that increase the risk of crime. The small stores have tall shelves, making it difficult for employees to see what customers are doing. Patrol officers have noted that it’s hard to see inside a store because most of the windows are covered by advertisements and other signs. Perhaps worst of all, staffing at many stores is kept to a minimum — sometimes just one or two employees. And former executives say the company rarely uses armed security guards. Instead of guards, Dollar General often uses cameras in its stores that are monitored by offsite security companies. The security agents can communicate with employees in a store, and also can use a speaker to let a customer know they are being watched. Offsite security is certainly a way to shave costs, but it seems better suited for deterring shoplifting — a problem Dollar General’s latest annual report said is significant — than preventing a robbery at the front counter. To be fair, Dollar General is not alone in dealing with these problems. Every retailer faces pressure to reduce costs and prevent shoplifting. But the company’s business model clearly is working, and in fact it seems like a pretty good fit for 2020’s trends. Given that, it seems risky, for both the company and its store employees, to be too frugal with security costs. There are a lot of Dollar General stores in Southwest Mississippi, and it is unnerving to see them described as frequent targets for robberies. Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
