Stores had been temporarily shuttered throughout one state due to reportedly overcharging customers, and unexpectedly reopened the following day.
Author’s Note
This article is based on corporate postings and accredited media reports. Linked information within this article is attributed to the following outlets: WinsightGroceryBusiness, NBC4i.com, and WKBN.com.
Introduction
I write extensively about the Dollar General discount superchain for NewsBreak. In recent months, most of these articles have detailed issues leading to various store closures in the midst of a company-wide expansion, such as those due to health and safety infractions. See here as an example.
WinsightGroceryBusiness.com’s January 27th report, “Ohio AG: Dollar General Temporarily Closes Stores to Fix Pricing Issues, shares information relevant to this current piece: The discounter began being investigated by the state last year, after Ohio Department of Agriculture auditors found that, in some stores, nearly 88% of items were more expensive at checkout than the prices listed on the shelf.
The report offers further perspective: Earlier this month, Ohio AG Dave Yost filed a temporary restraining order against Dollar General, seeking to compel the retailer to charge the same prices at the register as are advertised on its shelves. That followed a November lawsuit filed by Yost against the chain over alleged deceptive pricing practices.
Multiple Dollar General locations were shuttered late last week on a temporary basis due to those alleged financial improprieties, but had largely — and unexpectedly — reopened the following day.
Let us explore.
Dollar General, 2023
According to a January 27th report from NBC4i.com, entitled “Ohio Dollar General Stores Shut Down Amid Overcharging Lawsuit,” the titular issue has been a month’s long egregious matter.
As excerpted from the report: Dollar General stores across Ohio temporarily shut down Friday morning, and workers, the company’s corporate office and the state’s attorney general all provided different reasons for why. NBC4 checked multiple stores in the Columbus metro area. Workers at the Clintonville location said they received a call from Dollar General’s corporate office telling them to close. They did not know a reason or timeline for when they would reopen.
Per a January 27th followup report from WKBN.com, “Ohio Dollar General Stores Reopen After Temporary Closures,” the stores closed on a short-term basis.
From this report: Employees at multiple Dollar General locations in the Valley on Friday confirmed that Ohio locations were temporarily closed but have reopened. Employees have said that locations in Salem, Boardman and Youngstown had temporarily shut down as employees were doing price changes. Customers are now allowed in.
As earlier referenced, issues related to overcharging have been ongoing with the company, especially in the state of Ohio where a lawsuit was involved. Employees of the locations listed above said the matter was “a mistake.”
The report went on to state: Dollar General Corporation Public Relations released the following statement: “Dollar General closed select stores this morning to address an overnight systems error. This issue has been resolved and all impacted stores are now open to continue serving our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Conclusion
This is a developing story. In the event of pertinent updates to these matters, I will share them here on NewsBreak.
Thank you for reading.
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