A Dollar General store in Wisconsin was forced to close briefly after its entire workforce resigned, citing a seven-day work week and a “lack of appreciation.”
Trina Triboulet, who has worked as a manager at the Dollar General store in Mineral Point for the past year, said she and the store's six other employees had been discussing their exit “for months,” according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. Spectrum News 1.
At the end of their shift on Friday, they finally left — marking the occasion with a handwritten sign on the door saying: “We quit! We quit!” Thank you to our amazing customers. We love you and will miss you!
Another sign taped to the door notifies customers that the store has closed because “the entire team has left due to lack of appreciation, overwork, and being underpaid,” according to photos of the sign posted on Facebook.
A longer note added: “Although we love and adore our customers, we must take a stand for the community and not allow corporate greed to continue to prevent people in need from the help they need and can receive. Policies, processes and procedures need to change!”
Triboulet said that although there were many issues at the store, the “last straw” was seeing Dollar General throw a huge amount of items in the trash despite promoting donating items to the local community.
“We throw away coffee that's not expired but is close to expiring. Or you throw away a box of Lucky Charms that you know there's a whole world of kids that would love to eat it. But you can't donate it, because you're supposed to throw it away,” Triboulet told Spectrum “There were tears shed.”
Dollar General said in a statement to Spectrum that it is working with Feeding America, but the organization has specific guidelines on what can be donated.
Feed America Corporate Donation Guidelines Explicitly stating that “food approaching expiration” is welcome.
Its website also lists it Canned goods as large donationswhich Tribolet claims was disposed of at Dollar General, according to Spectrum.
“It's disgusting and sad, especially for someone with morals,” Triboulet told the outlet.
“If you've been at the bottom and never gotten anything, you know what it feels like to see things get thrown away. That could have gone to someone who needed them.”
However, a Dollar General representative insisted to The Post that it has “donated approximately 7,500 pounds of food to local food banks like Second Harvest Food Bank of southern Wisconsin over the past 12 months. Food safety is a top priority for Dollar General, so DG stores are required to follow the company's donation policies.
Triboulet told Spectrum that her exit also comes after a seven-day long stretch of work.
As a manager, she could only allocate so many paid hours per week to her employees. So, if there was more work to be done but there wasn't enough money to schedule other employees to do it, Tribolet was the one to fill that gap.
“Even Friday night when we moved away, this weekend was my first vacation since Christmas,” Triboulet told Spectrum, adding that she is taking a mental break before finding a new job.
She said other former employees had other jobs before they left, according to Spectrum.
Although it wasn't immediately clear what workers at Mineral Point Dollar General were earning, the minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.25 an hour.
Dollar General representatives told The Post that the company is “committed to providing an environment where employees can grow their careers and where they feel valued and heard.” We apologize for any inconvenience our customers experienced during the three hours the Mineral Point store was closed last weekend. The store reopened at 11 a.m. last Saturday to serve the community.
As of Monday, the Tennessee-based discount chain — which operates nearly 19,000 locations nationwide — had either moved employees from other locations or moved quickly to fill open roles, according to Spectrum.
Before the store's seven employees quit simultaneously, Dollar General already had a sign in the window saying it was hiring, according to photos shared on social media.
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