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RUNNING HEAD: Dollar General Store Page 1 of 19
Dollar General Store
Annette Wiseman
5/25/2016
DeVry University
Dr. Dibenedetto

Executive Summary
Dollar General has been delivering value to shoppers for over 75 years through its
mission of Serving Others. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time, and money by offering
products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids,
cleaning supplies, clothing for the family, housewares and seasonal items at low everyday prices
in convenient neighborhood locations. Dollar General operates more than 12,400 stores in 43
states. Dollar General has over 114,000 employees. Its corporate office is located in
Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Dollar General grossed over $20.4 billion dollars in the fiscal year
2015. The company is currently headed by:
 Todd Vasos who serves as Chief Executive Officer,
 John Garratt serves as Chief Financial Officer,
 Jim Thrope, serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer,
 Jeff Owen serves as Executive Vice President, Store Operations,
 Bob Ravener serves as Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer,
 Rhonda Taylor serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel,
 Mike Kindy serves as Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain,
 Anita Elliott serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer.
Dollar General has its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. One such
weakness and threat is how it treats its employees. While what is stated on paper looks and
sounds great. What is actually done goes against its own Mission Statement. This overview gives
recommendations on how the employees are treated and Recommendations of how this company
can correct their oversights.

Table of Contents
Company Overview……………………………………………………………………………....4
a) Mission Statement…………………………………………………………………....4
b) General Model………………………………………………………………………..4
c) Culture………………………………………………………………………………..5
d) Community………………………………………………………………...................5
SWOT Analysis……………………………………………………………………….................6
a) Strengths………………………………………………………………………………....6
b) Weaknesses………………………………………………………………………….......6
c) Opportunities…………………………………………………………………................7
d) Threats…………………………………………………………………………………7-8
Need-Gap Analysis………………………………………………………………………………9
Strategy………………………………………………………………………………………….13
Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………….17
References……………………………………………………………………………………….19

Company Overview
Dollar General Corporation
Dollar General Corporation (NYSE DG) has been in business over 75 years. Dollar
General Corporation Corporate office is located in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. The company’s
sole purpose is to serve others by offering high quality brands at discount prices. Dollar General
operates more than 12,400 stores in 43 states. Dollar General had over $20.4 billion in sales
during their fiscal cycle 2015, and has over 114,000 employees.
Dollar General’s Mission Statement
Dollar General Mission Statement is based on Serving Others, the customers are best
served when they keep it real and keep it simple. Dollar General builds convenient-sized stores
to deliver everyday low prices on products customers want. Dollar General believes in smarter,
easier shopping solution accessible to more consumers. Their goal is to provide customers a
better life and their employees opportunity and a great working environment.
Dollar General Model
Dollar General stands for convenience, quality brands and low prices. Dollar General has
been successful for over 75 years making shopping a truly hassle free experience. They believe
their smaller designed stores and edited merchandise selections make for a truly better shopping
experience. The average Dollar General customer completes their shopping trip in under 10
minutes.

Dollar General Culture
Dollar General feels it is a great place for people entering the workforce for the first time.
Dollar General provides basic work skills, along with competitive wages and benefits.
Experienced workers love Dollar General because of the opportunity to grow with one of
America’s best retailers. Dollar General celebrates excellence in its employees no matter their
station, managers, customer service, distributing centers or call center.
Dollar General Community
Dollar General promotes the spirit of involvement. Dollar General’s mission is to serve
deep into the heart of the communities it serves. Through charitable outreach, Dollar General
strives to make a lasting impact to individuals and their families.
(Dollar General, 2016)

SWOT Analysis
Dollar General’s business model outlines for prosperity even in times of economic hardship.
Strengths
 Dollar General revenue is embodied by competitive retail pricing on everyday goods such
as toilet paper, detergent, dish soap, and some hardline items such as coffee makers, can
openers, some automotive needs, and some apparel, and snack foods.
 Dollar General operates on offering deep discounts to its customers, and using small no
frills convenient style stores. Keeping their items prices at minimal gives them a strong
advantage over other retail stores. Many items in Dollar General are priced at $10 or less.
 Dollar General’s strategy has earned the frugal customer who wishes to get items on a
budget.
 Dollar General small store design is meant to keep operating costs at a minimal. By
having a small store design Dollar General is able to fit into many communities with
minimal startup costs per building.
Weaknesses
 Dollar General must rely on third party vendors for sourcing products.
 The quality and availability of goods offered may be limited due to the reliance of third
parties.
 High employee turnover, first time employees or uneducated employees can lead to poor
customer service, lack of proper product placement and failure to meet customers’
expectations.
 Lack of manpower makes customer service hard to achieve, also lack of manpower may
make stocking customer essential products hard to achieve.

 Long legal battles with managers and employees cost the company money.
 Work related injuries cost the company money.
 Having a stringent business model this reduces manpower needs, and operating costs,
makes for a weakness in the company as a whole.
 Having employees who feel used, abused, broken and disposable.
 Having a CEO Todd Vasos and other top CEO’s make upwards of $1 million to $9
million and paying and treating salaried managers and employees so poorly.
 Employees are alone in stores without coworkers, no workplace identity and no labor
union presence.
Opportunities
 Uncertain economic times makes Dollar General a good alternative to higher priced
competitor options.
 First time employees have a way to get experience in the work place.
 Being focused on the communities they are serving makes finding employees who are
community centric a key element in ensuring community success. Everyone wants a
neighborhood store where people know each other.
 Working in close relationships with their managers and employees to ensure a great
working environment and better service all around.
Threats
 Competition is always a threat to retail establishments. Walmart and other stores such as
Dollar Tree, Family Dollar all pose a risk to Dollar General.
 Regulations with various federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Changes in these
laws and regulations has a huge impact on Dollar General.

 Increasing labor cost means higher prices on goods to offset the mandated minimum
wage.
 Labor disputes many employees are unhappy with the way Dollar General treats its
employees this proves to cost the company money in legal fees, and fines in some states
or local communities.
 A business model that requires labor cost be kept down at all costs.
 High spending on CEO’s salaries and benefits.
 Voted # 4 Worst company to work for in America.
 Low Employee morale.
Moreover, there are many issues Dollar General deals with on a daily basis. With increasing
wages, increasing prices on goods Dollar General may need to rethink their business strategy
even after 75 years, even though it still may seem successful. (MarketLine, 2013)

Need-Gap Analysis
The retail industry is one of the lowest paid industries in the economy for its employees.
The median annual salary of $25,000 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015) Retail workers are
unlikely to have what it needs to support their families let alone be able to purchase employer
health insurance. The low compensation driven by customer’s demand for low prices had been
the largest contributor in retail growth. (Jamison, 2013) Dollar General offers the lowest
compensation in the retail industry for its managers who are really just glorified manual laborers.
Regular Dollar General employees fair better than managers who are salaried and are not
covered under the law for overtime requirements.
Dollar General’s standpoint on what it offers its employees is they strive to treat their
employees with respect and opportunity. Dollar General offers Health and Welfare Benefits with
multiple comprehensive plans varying in levels of coverage and cost based on what is needed.
Dollar General contributes toward the cost of these benefits, so they feel they can offer these
benefits at an affordable cost to their employees. According to Dollar General all full time
employees and part time employees who average 30 hours per week are eligible for coverage.
The coverages offered are Medical/Dental/Vision/Prescription/Long Term Disability/Critical
Illness/Accident/Business Travel Accident/Wellness Programs/Employee Assistance Program.
Dollar General also states they offer a Compensation/Rewards/Work Benefits including
competitive pay, annual bonus opportunity, service award recognition program, vacation time
with pay and paid holidays, and a non-smoking environment. Retirement Savings plan through
401k savings and retirement plan Dollar General offers dollar for dollar up to 5% for the first
year. (Dollar General, 2016)

This sounds great on paper, what do employees and government officials say about
Dollar General’s benefits and compensation? According to former Presidential nominee Ralph
Nader “The treatment of employees by Dollar General Corporation is Shameful.” (Jamieson,
2013) Nader goes on to say” that by treating the American employees shamefully they are
actually hurting our economy since the low wages often forces the employee to seek government
assistance to help take care of their families.” Employees are fed up with Dollar General’s
treatment of them. A former employee Dawn Hughey started working at Dollar General in 2009.
In just four months she was named manager of the store. After a short time becoming manager of
the store she quickly realized she like many other so called managers at Dollar General are
managers in name only. Dollar General Store managers are required to work beyond the 40-hour
work week. One complaint is that Hughey had only four employees for a 125-hour work week.
Hughey states “that the hours they are allowed to assign barely cover the work that needs to be
done.” The store operates on a skeleton crew and managers are required to keep payroll down at
all costs. Hughey like so many other so called managers at Dollar General spend most of their
time unloading trucks, stocking shelves, and manning cash registers, often working 12-hour
days, six days a week. Dollar General saves a lot of money by having their managers do the work
since being a salaried employee makes managers exempt from overtime, Dollar General does not
pay for the extra work. Dollar General managers often work 70-hour work weeks for a salary of
34,700 which breaks down to less than $10 an hour, not a managerial salary at all. (Saunter,
2013)
Another issue is managers and employees often working alone or with one other person
are constantly putting strain on their bodies from unloading trucks and stocking shelves on a
constant basis. Hughey was injured in July,2011 and was fired. According to Dollar General

“her productivity issues predated her injuries.” Dollar General continued to punish Hughey by
denying her worker’s compensation. Stingy payroll practices in the business model leaves many
employees overworked, underpaid, and even injured. Leaving many employees feeling used,
abused, injured, and disposable. Many Dollar store managers state “they are promoted to evade
overtime regulations and pay less money.” Many other managers and employees lost their jobs
or their hours once they got hurt or encountered health problems, leading to long legal battles.
Dollar General. (Saunter, 2013)
Since 2010 there has been an increase in lawsuits from employees. More than 30 federal
wage and hour lawsuits have been filed against the retail giant. Dollar General concedes they are
the price that is paid to keep costs low for the consumers. In 2010 Dollar General had sales
reaching $16 billion in 2015 sales increased to $20 billion. Settlements in these litigations have
been reached for up to $19 million. (Jamison,2013)
Dollar General likes to put the squeeze on employees. Dollar General sets a budget for
payroll and it is up to managers to closely watch these numbers and hit their sales goals to
remain operational while coming in under their payroll ceiling. Mangers quarterly bonuses which
are critical to these underpaid managers are solely related to their ability to keep stores profitable
on extremely thin margins. Dollar General store managers only have so many hours to give to
employers and even less for part time often the managers must handle any work left behind.
Many managers feel they are no different from those they supervise, with the exception their
hours are longer and the pay is averages to be the same as those they supervise as well.
Dollar Store managers make in the mid to high $30,000 well below Walmart’s
management average salary which is twice that with less workload. (CareerBliss)

Another issue with Dollar General is turnover. With managers barely able to make ends
meet it is even worse for the Dollar General store employee. With little hours and extreme
workloads, the turnover is huge. One Dollar General manager Berdie Gillis stated “there are not
enough hours, and not enough people. The turnover was horrible. Who gets left holding the bag,
managers.” (Jamison, 2013)
Dollar General trend towards its managers and employees is startling. This will help fill
the gaps and address this company’s needs. Hopefully we can make a change.

Strategy
There are better ways to handle managers and employees. Dollar General business model
is stringent with regards to employees in any capacity that is lower than CEO level. There are
ways to gain manager loyalty and improve company morale. These 20 steps are what is needed
to ensure Dollar General’s continued success.
1. Revise a 75-year-old business model that is out of date and out of time. The first place to
start is addressing the problem. Dollar General Business model needs revamping with an
employee in mind. Consumers in the retail industry are important but they are only one
factor. Remember employees are customers too.
2. The key to revamping and bringing the business model into this century is to address the
value of the employee. Dollar General has the attitude that employees are a dime a dozen
and if one leaves there is always a replacement. Time is money and when your company
spends time addressing legal issues, poor employee morale, and overworked managers
then the business itself begins to suffer. Training new employees, and mangers costs the
company money. Retention is key. Retain good employees and earn customers for life.
3. Make managers and employees understand they are wanted, needed, and appreciated. Do
not promote a manager unless you feel they can bring something new and inventive to the
mix. Managers are not glorified manual labor. Managers bring a sense of order and
balance to the company and should be treated with the respect the title deserves. When a
manager is appreciated then they can in turn show their employees they are appreciated
which in turn shows the customer they are appreciated. Loyalty is not a given it must be
earning. Looking good on paper fails to show managers and employees what they are
worth to the company.
4. Provide high performance managers perks, and give them the power to reward their high
performance employees. Dollar General prides itself in charitable activities. The first
charitable activity would be to provide your managers with higher salaries and higher
stock options. Also offer stock to full time employees a vested employee is a happier
employee since they take pride in something they have a say and have a part in.
5. Allow managers pride in your store perks. A monthly event for high performance stores.
When your team does something right reward them. It could be a social even, a company
picnic, or a small monetary reward for excellence. Allowing managers and employees to
feel they are a part of something is a great way to boost morale and keep profit margins
high. Some companies offer bonuses to high selling stores. Morale is high, compensation
to take care of home and family is met then your employees can start to meet their other
needs.

6. Understanding the work environment is crucial is understanding an employee. If a
manager is working 70 hours a week, with constant stress, and lack of support from the
company itself. This will take a toll on the employee’s morale when morale is low all is
lost. Understand that boxes of goods are heaving and having the same person unload a
truck alone or with one other person constantly will not only take a toll on their morale,
but will take a toll on their health as well. Make sure all managers and employees have a
safe, and healthy work environment. Ensure plenty of employees so the work load may
be divided evenly. This will save on costly Workers Compensation claims and keep the
employees safe, happy and above all else healthy. Make sure all employees get adequate
breaks and rest periods.
7. Use feedback surveys as a way to show employees you support and encourage their
continuous efforts at improving work conditions. Positive atmosphere is the start to
positive employees.
8. Encourage communications between upper level management, store managers and
employees by doing this a company can show its employees of all levels that their voice
is heard, and their opinion matters. Don’t stop at just hearing suggestions implement a
few to further showcase a caring company environment.
9. Be prepared to revise the company business model, mission statement, views on
everything. Be sure to include your employees as they are a huge part of a companies
continued success.
10. Ethics are important many employees feel better if they work for a company they can
trust and believe in. Being ethical in all areas of the business will boost morale. Happy
employees are profitable employees.
11. Be loyal to your employees. Do not dismiss them when they are hurt or injured. Do not
dismiss worker’s compensation claims and fight with an employee over how they were
injured if their doctor states it is a work related injury. Help your employees find safety
and security. When they are safe and secure in their home life as well as their career they
can focus on their career and it will bring out the best in them. Don’t treat people as
dismissible.
12. Create a safe, harassment free workplace for all employees of all races, creed,
nationalities. Do not base promotion decisions on race, creed or sexuality preferences.
13. The national average a Retail Store Manager makes in the United States range is $48,069
to $64,207. Median range is $54,689. The price point to which Store Managers feel safe,
secure, and validated is important to over al employee morale. Your managers feel they

are glorified manual labor. This is unacceptable in today’s society. Dollar General wants
to keep managers salaried and exempt from overtime, great, they need to feel that they
are appreciated when you do this. Managers overall morale for Dollar General is low,
when a manager’s morale is low. It does translate to the employees, which translate to
customer service and the customers are impacted. (Salary.com, 2016)
14. Understand Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This needs to be addressed because it is the
self-preservation of all living humans. We require each step to be complete in order to
strive for the next set. This is simple psychology and the psychological needs of your
employees need to be understood and protected. When a person fails to meet any step
they cannot proceed to the next step. Dollar General should expect their employees to be
reaching for self-actualization and not stuck on Physiological needs of being able to
provide food and water for themselves and their families or Safety is knowing you have a
job that will be able to provide for yourself and your family. Dollar General should
promote all five of these self needs. To understand your employees, you need to fulfill
their basic needs. (McLeod, 2007)
15. Become a better employer and friend to the communities you serve. Employees are
customers and customers are employees. By giving back to the communities this brand
can become even bigger and better.
16. Give employees a chance to help others, have a morale booster such as wear a hat to
work day every employee who wears a hat the company will donate a portion of the day’s
proceeds to a charity of their choice. This gives the employees a chance to feel they are
doing good, and giving back.
17. Understand your employee’s goals, hopes, dreams and fears. Understand in most cases
they need this job to provide for their family and themselves. The company can make
each and every employee a valued asset. This will reduce turnover and improve the
company’s rankings in the long run for the long haul.

18. Offer employee discounts, and family discount days where family can take an additional
sum off their total purchase. This will in turn boost morale, confidence that the company
cares about their wellbeing and that of their family. This turns the employees into
customers that may splurge on purchase they would otherwise not have made. This brings
in more profit
19. Ensure your employees have a livable wage. Mr. Vasos makes $9 million a year there is a
huge gap between $9 million and $20,000 come out and see your employees do a day’s
work for a day’s pay and see if this is acceptable to you. This puts you the CEO on the
same page as your employees and the disconnect that happens at Dollar General will
close. Once a livable wage is met, there are other compensations that can be met to
ensure employee loyalty to the brand than monetary value.
20. You don’t have to go overboard with making employees feel valued, you don’t even need
to increase their wages beyond that of livable. There are many forms of compensation
more than monetary. Treat employee’s fairly, make them feel appreciated. Recognize that
without your employees you do not have a business to begin with.

Recommendations
Dollar General is a booming multi-billion-dollar company in America. This company has
products that are sought after by the US population. Employment at this company should be a
privilege and not a burden to the customers you serve. Always remember that your employees
are customers as well. This company does not have employee’s best interest at heart.
Recommendations for further utilizing managers and employees. Dollar General needs to
become an employee friendly company. When employee’s morale is high, the work gets better as
does the service. The way to fully follow your mission statement of Serving Others, the
customers are best served when they keep it real and keep it simple. Dollar General builds
convenient-sized stores to deliver everyday low prices on products customers want. Dollar
General believes in smarter, easier shopping solution accessible to more consumers. Their goal is
to provide customers a better life and their employees opportunity and a great working
environment. Your company is successful but your employees are not happy. Therefore, your
company is not following its own Mission Statement.
Your Business Model does not support the Mission Statement. Keeping small stores in
communities is a great plan and has been successful for revenue for 75 years. Your employees
are often over worked and underpaid, left feeling used, abused, and broken. The Business Model
in itself does not support the use of employees. Managers are under strict impossible guidelines
to not use workers and the managers are left to do the work themselves, often for less pay then
the National Average. This needs to change before the employees Unionize.

Treat your employees with respect, show them that as a company Dollar General cares
about their employees. Bring in qualified store managers and give them the resources necessary
to staff properly. Create a safe natural working environment. When a truck comes in have more
people staffed those days than on other days. During the holiday season have more staff.
Acknowledge employees who are going above and beyond. You do not need to over compensate
but ensure that your employees are making a livable wage.
Dollar General looks great on paper, in the stock market and by what the CEO’s get paid
it shows that the American customers love Dollar General. It is time to make the employees love
working for Dollar General.
Remember employees are customers too, “Give back, keep it smart, keep it real, and
keep it simple.”
(Dollar General, 2016)

References
Dollar General Salaries | CareerBliss. (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2016, from
https://www.careerbliss.com/dollar-general/salaries/
An overview of Dollar General. (2016, June 10). Retrieved June 14, 2016, from
https://newscenter.dollargeneral.com/company facts/fastfacts/
Jamieson, D. (2013, December 9). Ralph Nader: Dollar General's Treatment of Workers Is
'Shameful' Retrieved May 31, 2016, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/ralph-nader-dollar-general_n_4414272.html
M. (2013, July 23). Dollar General SWOT Analysis 2013. MarketLine, 1-8. Retrieved May 25,
2016, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=3fad7489-
7a8b-4357-802a-
5e5009794aa0@sessionmgr4003&vid=4&hid=4210&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXVybCxjb
29raWUsaXAsdWlkJnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=#AN=89712787&db=bth
McLeod, S. (2007). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Retail Store Manager Salaries. (2016, June 14). Retrieved June 12, 2016, from
http://www1.salary.com/Retail-Store-Manager-Salaries.html
Saunter, M. B. (2013, July 22). America's Worst Companies to Work For. Retrieved June 14,
2016, from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/america’s-worst-companies-to-work-for-
152240719.html
Retail Median Salary. (2015, December 17). Retrieved May 27, 2016, from
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/retail-sales-workers.htm

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