(VitalNews.org) – Family Dollar stores pled guilty on Monday to storing consumer products like foods, drugs, and cosmetics in a rat-infested warehouse. According to the Department of Justice, Family Dollar will have to pay out a food safety case’s largest penalty monetarily: $42 million.
Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas had products sent to them from this facility, and according to Family Dollar, it included more than 400 different Family Dollar stores. The distribution center is located in West Memphis, Arkansas. Reports began surfacing in August 2020 regarding deliveries with pest and mice issues. By the end of the year, the reports were more serious as stores were receiving products that were damaged by mice and rodents.
Knowing the issue, the warehouse continued shipping products until January 2022. At this point, the FDA inspected the warehouse and found rodent feces, decaying rodents, live rodents, dead rodents, urine, and gnawing and nesting evidence throughout the facility.
Following this, a massive recall affected 404 stores after nearly 1,300 rodents were exterminated in February of 2022.
Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general said, “It is incomprehensible that Family Dollar knew about the rodent and pest issues at its distribution center in Arkansas but continued to ship products that were unsafe and unsanitary.”
Dollar Tree Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling, the Dollar Tree Chairman and CEO, touched on the issue in a company release. The release said, “When I joined Dollar Tree’s board of directors in March 2022, I was very disappointed to learn about these unacceptable issues at one of Family Dollar’s facilities.”
“Since that time and even more directly when I assumed the role of CEO, we have worked diligently to help Family Dollar resolve this historical matter and significantly enhance our policies, procedures, and physical facilities to ensure it is not repeated,” it continued.
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