Snip

By Cheryl McCloud

Family Dollar will be closing about 700 stores over the first half of 2024.

Another 370 Family Dollar stores and 40 Dollar Tree stores will close over the next several years as leases expire, according to an announcement today.

No specifics on which stores will be closed has been released.

Family Dollar has more than 8,000 stores across 49 states and was bought by Dollar Tree in 2015 for $8.5 billion, according to data company ScrapeHero.

--------

Snip

Family Dollar hit with record fine for storing items in rat-infested warehouse

The recent announcement is the latest in a string of problems for the discount chain.

In February, Family Dollar Stores agreed to pay $41.6 million for storing food, cosmetics, drugs and medical devices in a rat-infested warehouse in Arkansas for years, court records show.

The Dollar Tree-owned discount chain store took a plea agreement in February after being charged with one misdemeanor count of debasing FDA-regulated products by holding them in unsanitary conditions, according to court documents.

Rat-infested warehouse:Family Dollar's rat-infested warehouse, damaged products, lead to $41.6 million fine

By accepting the plea, the company admitted to shipping products until January 2022 from its Arkansas distribution center, where the FDA found evidence of live rodents, dead and decaying rodents, rodent feces and urine, and evidence of gnawing and nesting, court records show.

Dollar Tree said during its fourth-quarter earnings report in March 2022 that the product recall at Family Dollar stores linked to the rodent infestation cost the company $34 million.