Dollar General’s Cheshire Store Plan On The Rocks As Settlement Paid To Discriminated Long Beach Store Worker

Plans for a Dollar General appear to be stymied by a number of issues; settlement paid at $32,500 in a race discrimination lawsuit.

Dollar General Corp’s (NYSE:DG) attempts to open up a store in Cheshire, Massachusetts, seems to be stumbling. Town Administrator, Mark Webber, has put the brakes on the building permit approval after Building Commissioner, Gerald Garner, rejected it, as it was "unacceptable and incomplete”, not because of the fact that the design submitted did not address all the features or that it felt short of building codes and regulations.

Selectperson Robert Ciskowski inquired if the town council had the power to grant that permit, since the new zoning laws came into effect in the last meeting a few days ago, since Dollar General has not yet completed the building ‘permitting process’. Mr. Webber says that Dollar General is looking into the issue, even though it has conducted work on the system.

Selectperson Carol Francesco, on the other hand, says that the company is facing problems with the landowner, as the construction of a new store contains the 19th century Second Empire mansion. To this end, Dollar General Corp has decided that its engineering firm has persuaded it to move to another direction.

Meanwhile, the company has agreed to pay $32,500 in settling the discrimination lawsuit filed by a black employee in Long Beach, Miss., store. In the case filed by Demetrice Hersey, the company refused to promote her to a vacant position as the assistant manager because of her race. Instead, less qualified white people were hired for the position. The suit also stated that the employee was subjected to retaliation for even complaining about the company, denying the allegations. Black people are a majority in the Gulf Coast region, including in Mississippi, yet they are still targets of discrimination in their daily lives.

Eventually, an agreement has been settled whereby, in addition to the compensation, Dollar Group Inc. has agreed to maintain effective policies regarding anti-discrimination practices for all newly hired employees. These policies will be provided to all employees to ensure no future unfair conduct takes place, including a management-training program, on top of ensuring that discrimination complaints are properly investigated.

Dollar General stock price has remained flat at $75.93, even though the company was granted a “Buy” rating amongst analysts for its strong and accelerating revenue growth rate that has been outperforming other organizations for the past several years. It also witnessed improved earnings per share, despite having trouble with getting approvals for its store construction, especially when it is fighting a case in court for building one in West Virginia.