Family Dollar Stores reached a settlement with the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General agreeing to pay the state over $1 million and commit to new protocols as a result of an investigation that revealed Family Dollar stores in Tennessee were selling consumer goods that had knowingly been stored in a rodent-infested distribution center in Arkansas.
In 2022, Family Dollar, a subsidiary of Dollar Tree Inc., announced a voluntary recall of FDA-regulated products stored in their West Memphis, Arkansas Distribution Center.
In February 2024, the company was federally charged and pleaded guilty to causing FDA-regulated products to become adulterated while being held under insanitary conditions.
When a mom or dad buys groceries for their kids, they should never have to wonder whether some nasty critter got the first bite.
This settlement holds Family Dollar accountable and protects TN families from being sold harmful/mislabeled food.
➡️https://t.co/Kvz70J5oSA pic.twitter.com/sz1vhipZVA
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) January 21, 2025
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, with some stores receiving deliveries containing rodents and rodent-damaged products from the warehouse.
Despite employee knowledge of the insanitary conditions of the Arkansas warehouse, 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 evidence of gnawing and nesting throughout the facility.”
The company’s plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice included a fine and forfeiture totaling $41.675 million, the largest-ever monetary criminal penalty in a food safety case.
The agreement also required the company to implement a “robust corporate compliance program with reporting to the U.S. Department of Justice.”
As part of the company’s agreement with the state of Tennessee, settled in Davidson County Chancery Court, Family Dollar Stores must pay the state $1.125 million and, among other measures, “refrain from representing that goods sold at Family Dollar stores in Tennessee are “original” or “new” if they are materially deteriorated.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said his office’s settlement with the company “holds Family Dollar accountable and protects Tennessee families from being sold harmful or mislabeled food.”
“When a mom or dad buys groceries for their kids, they should never have to wonder whether some nasty critter got the first bite. No matter the family budget, whether at a discount shop or not, every Tennessean deserves confidence in the food they buy,” Skrmetti added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Family Dollar Store” by Family Dollar.
