Family Dollar Fined $41M Over Rat-Infested West Memphis Warehouse

Family Dollar has been fined a staggering $41 million over a rat-infested warehouse in West Memphis, Arkansas. This warehouse distributes food, cosmetics, and medical devices to more than 400 stores across the South. An official statement from the United States Department of Justice says the fine is the “largest-ever monetary criminal penalty in a food safety case.”

The U.S. DOJ press release states that Family Dollar Stores LLC pled guilty to holding food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics under insanitary conditions. These conditions are related to a rodent infestation at the company’s West Memphis, Arkansas, distribution center, reported Fox 56.

Family Dollar Stores LLC is a subsidiary of Dollar Tree Inc. Along with the monetary penalty, a plea agreement requires the company to meet “corporate compliance and reporting requirements for the next three years.”

Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer said in a statement that when customers enter a store, they have a right to items that have been kept in “clean, uncontaminated conditions.” He continued, saying that a company will be held accountable if it violates that trust.

“Companies distributing and selling food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics must ensure that these products are being held in safe and sanitary conditions,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Justice Department will continue to work closely with the FDA to investigate and prosecute those who put public health at risk by failing to meet this important obligation.”

U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Ross for the Eastern District of Arkansas said it is “incomprehensible” that Family Dollar knew about the rodent and pest issues at its Arkansas distribution center and continued shipping products out of the affected warehouse. Ross says this behavior “erodes the trust consumers have” in a particular business.

Per the plea agreement, the company began receiving reports of rodent issues in August 2020. By the end of that year, some stores reported receiving rodent-damaged products and rodents from the warehouse.

The company still shipped products from the warehouse until January 2022, when the FDA inspected the facility and found live, dead, and decaying rodents and urine throughout the facility.