If We Can’t Shop at Family Dollar, then Where Can We Shop

Imagine this scenario: you’re at your dorm, noticing you’ve run out of toilet paper. Lucky for you, Southern has a Family Dollar right at the end of the hump. You hop in the car and make your way to the landmark location, only to notice as you’re scouring the shelves…. A Rat.
There have been multiple casualties of Family Dollar warehouses having rat infestations around in certain states. Because of that, about 400 Family Dollar Stores have been shut down due to lack of supplies.
In the article by WAFB, “400 Family Dollar stores closed after a rat infestation. It’s a troubling pattern,” it says, “Live rodents, dead rodents in various states of decay, rodent feces and urine, evidence of gnawing, nesting and rodent odors throughout the facility, dead birds and bird droppings.” Foul stenches and odors and droppings “too numerous to count.”
When visiting the Family Dollar on Harding Blvd, an employee who opted to remain anonymous states, “We don’t think we have rats here, but because of the infestation at the warehouse, we’ve had to clean off our shelves of all the items we got from there.” The employee also mentioned they lost a lot of customers because of the lack of merchandise they now have.
The FDA informed Family Dollar stores to no longer keep the items that may be contaminated, such as human and pet food, baby products, and make-up. Because of this, employees at Family Dollar have been voluntarily quarantined, or businesses have temporarily closed since the incident. When questioning the employee, they said they have not been aware of any complaints of illnesses related to the recall.
A federal review of company records indicated more than 2,300 rodents were discovered in 2021, “demonstrating a history of infestation” in locations around the country. This means not only was this a problem last year, but nothing has been done about it since then. Also, because of the decrease in supplies at Family Dollar, this has led to a decrease in the number of consumers than before. All of that took place in West Memphis, Arkansas.
The Warehouse in West Memphis was not the only Family Dollar to have rodent infestations however, as Family Dollar stores in Las Vegas, Sacramento, Richmond, Pittsburgh, and Canton, New York all had infestations and had to close for a few years in recent history.
Community leaders in Tennessee have been threatening to boycott Dollar Tree if it fails to professionally clean its stores after a rodent infestation was discovered in Arkansas, which supplies its Family Dollar chain. This shows that the issue has been widespread from other companies and that if nothing is done about this, it could cause catastrophic problems for the greater business as a whole.
“I get all of my food and cleaning materials from there, so it’s kind of crazy hearing this a problem that they’ve been having for a minute and haven’t told anybody. Even if it’s not this store that has the history, they have to be better if they know it’s been a problem at other locations,” said Devin Raby, a senior mechanical engineering major from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
As a college student, you don’t often have options on where you’d prefer to get food or cleaning supplies from when you’re in a pinch. That being said, if current reports of what’s going on in these warehouses are accurate, keeping facilities clean should be a top priority if they intend to keep the customer base that they’ve established in recent years.