Dollar General, one of the nation’s largest discount retailers, continues to ignore federal workplace safety inspectors who have found repeated instances where the company endangers workers and customers alike by blocking exit routes with stacked merchandise.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors last week found exits blocked with merchandise at a store operated by Dollar General in Bolivar, Ohio.
OSHA issued three repeated safety citations to Dollar General and assessed $156,772 in proposed fines to the Bolivar store.
In addition to the recurring issue with blocked exits, inspectors found fire extinguisher locations not marked and rapid access to them blocked.
They also found electrical panels blocked.
Since 2010, OSHA has recorded more than one hundred safety and health violations at Dollar General stores nationwide, and assessed more than $1 million in proposed fines.
Headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, the company operates more than 12,500 stores in 43 states and employs about 100,000 workers. In fiscal 2015, the retailer recorded sales of $20.4 billion.
“In an emergency, no one should have to struggle to get out of a store safely, grab a fire extinguisher or shut down the power quickly, but these dangerous hazards are exactly what our inspectors found at the Dollar General store in Bolivar,” said Larry Johnson, OSHA’s area director in Columbus. “Finding these conditions in one company location is bad enough, but Dollar General’s willingness to ignore its immediate responsibility to protect employees and shoppers in all of its stores is cause for real concern.”