Low Wage Work Isn’t Just Bad for Employees — It Hurts Customers, Too

When companies cut corners on wages and safety, executives cash in while putting workers and customers at risk. I saw it first hand at Dollar General.

I’ve always felt that working in customer-facing jobs is my calling. I’m passionate about making people feel comfortable when they enter a business, be it a retail store or a restaurant.

But it was hard to keep that passion when I worked at Dollar General. Like workers at many other big retailers, we were so short-staffed and poorly trained that it was next to impossible to give good customer service.

My interview and first day on the job went well. Managers, co-workers, and customers all seemed pretty happy. The second day was a complete 180. All of a sudden I was thrown into my duties with zero training. They even scheduled me to close out the store that day without instructions.

Quickly I had shifts where I was the only worker for hours at a time, dealing with long lines of impatient customers, tons of merchandise to stock, and frustrated vendors subject to long wait times.

I frequently had to get overstock items from unstable top shelves and constantly worried I’d fall. The back door also wouldn’t close correctly — and even though I brought it up to management several times, it remained an easy way for anyone to sneak in.

I didn’t know it then, but Dollar General has repeatedly faced huge penalties for workplace safety violations.

Once I was called out to help with a truck delivery of refrigerated and frozen products. I went to grab a tote bag full and had to do a triple take because it was full of black mold. Another afternoon, I picked up a bag of potting soil to stock and realized it was covered with dead insects, which got all over the floor and other products.

When I had problems like these with merchandise, I was expected to contact the warehouse myself. But that was hard to do, given how understaffed we were.

Dollar General isn’t the only tough place for retail employees. At many big stores, workers are short-handed and face difficult working conditions — even when their companies are highly profitable.

Where is all the money going? Well, I can tell you not much went to me.