Detroit dollar stores begin to clean up mess

A Family Dollar in Detroit that received dozens of blight tickets in recent years has undergone a transformation.

The store is the first to clean up and increase its food options under an initiative led by Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway to ensure all city dollar stores are better neighbors.

The charge comes after a BridgeDetroit analysis last year found that Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, the same company, had collectively racked up 2,400 blight tickets since 2020 and more than $740,000 in unpaid fines. The analysis outlined the effects of Detroit’s more than 80 dollar stores on food access in the city. The stores provide some basic necessities at lower prices and are considered helpful to the majority of people living nearby, but worsen food access by undercutting grocery stores that provide fresh, healthy food options. 

The city reached a $150,000 settlement with Family Dollar and Dollar Tree in November for all of its outstanding fines as well as an agreement that the corporation would follow a more stringent cleaning maintenance schedule to prevent blight at its stores.

Following BridgeDetroit’s investigation, Whitfield-Calloway introduced an ordinance to put a moratorium on new dollar stores and to require existing dollar stores to devote a portion of their retail space to selling fresh produce. 

This week, Whitfield Calloway attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the transformation of her local Family Dollar at 13433 W. Eight Mile. Between 2020 and the end of 2023, the store had accumulated 88 blight tickets. 

As a part of the improvements, the store has gone from 12 coolers and freezers to 34, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar regional vice president Jonathan Smith highlighted in a video taken at the ceremony published to the city of Detroit social media pages. 

“The goal is to really make the shopping experience a great one for all of Detroit,” said Smith. “You can come in and buy your entire dinner here in District 2.” The coolers are stocked with a variety of food items like turkey burgers, frozen vegetables, milk and other items. 

BridgeDetroit talked with Whitfield-Calloway about her efforts to get Detroit dollar stores cleaned up.

Editor’s note: This transcript was lightly edited for length and clarity.

BridgeDetroit: What was your involvement with the transformation of the Family Dollar on Eight Mile and Schaefer? 

Whitfield-Calloway: It started last February with me threatening to put a moratorium on the expansion of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Stores in Detroit.

I brought it up at the (council) table when I found out that the Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores had accumulated over $500,000 in blight tickets just in the city of Detroit alone – they were neglecting the upkeep of their stores, not only inside, but around the property. Every Family Dollar Store and every Dollar Tree were filthy in the city of Detroit. They were always littered with trash, the floors were dirty, unkempt shelves half stocked, expired food, empty freezers. 

We visited the ones that were in the suburbs, and they were not so filthy. 

I put forth a resolution that I was going to put a moratorium until they came in and began to improve the conditions of the ones that are already open and operating.

I met with the regional director, Jonathan Smith, and his entire team flew in last February and they promised that they were going to start cleaning up their dollar stores and they were going to start with the one that I shop at the most, which is the one located at Schaefer and Eight Mile. On any given day you could not get down the aisles if you were physically challenged on a walk or on a cane or in a wheelchair. 

They made a promise and they kept it. 

BridgeDetroit: So they’ll be cleaning up their other stores in Detroit as well?

Whitfield-Calloway: They promised that they have a whole schedule of all of the ones in Detroit that are going to be upgraded, cleaned up, painted, new floors, LED lights, everything – new freezers, they’re going to clean up the shelves, remove all of the expired produce and food. 

If you go over there [Family Dollar on Eight Mile] it looks like a Target, all new shelving, all new signage, new barcode scan codes on all the products. Nothing old, nothing expired, just beautiful. 

I’m very proud of the work that they did at that one and that’s just the beginning of many. We’ve become good partners. 

BridgeDetroit: Do you have a formal written agreement with Dollar Tree and Family Dollar that they need to address blight issues at their stores before they can expand?

Whitfield-Calloway: Exchange of emails, some promises made. There has not been a legal binding agreement. 

The agreement was to take care of the stores that they already have before looking to expand even further in the community. 

BridgeDetroit: What does it mean for your residents that the amount of cooler and freezer space for food nearly tripled at this dollar store?

Whitfield-Calloway: Everybody knows that in certain areas of the city of Detroit it’s a food desert. 

[Family Dollar] has chosen to expand their frozen food department with healthy vegetables, turkey burgers, things that you ordinarily can’t get from the dollar store. 

Most people do their grocery shopping in dollar stores…the gas station is the go-to now, the liquor stores are the go-to now, you can get groceries in a liquor store, because we don’t have an adequate number of grocery store options in the city of Detroit. 

Because we don’t have a grocery store in that area, it [the dollar store] has pretty much become a grocery store too. 

BridgeDetroit: Where do things stand with an ordinance regulating dollar stores?

Whitfield-Calloway: It’s still on the table. 

Until we started looking into it… I didn’t know they weren’t licensed [by the city]. Why not? Those conversations will start again when we (council members) return from recess in September. I just want to know why they aren’t licensed, and whether we need grocery stores versus Family Dollar and Dollar Trees. Do we need any more? I don’t think we do. 

There’s an over concentration of them in the inner city and poor neighborhoods, and we only have one that’s cleaned up, the rest of them are still filthy. And the only reason that’s cleaned up is because that’s where I shop, and I demanded it.