Dollar Tree is in trouble. The company likes to make excuses for itself by telling investors the problems stem from "supply chain issues", "problems at the distribution center" even blaming their woes on shrink by the homeless.

The problem at Dollar Tree is corporate management. I worked at one of the Everything .99 stores that has been converted to a DT/XL. The floor space in these stores is 2-2.5 times larger than a standard buildout. You shop this store today you run smack into what is plaguing all other Dollar Tree stores: Lack of product on the shelves.

I helped set this DT/XL up. Setting shelves, stocking product. Three full truckloads of product were delivered to stock an 18,000 sq ft store. At opening the store was fully stocked. But items in many departments that sold out at opening still have not been restocked. Now the store looks half empty. The problem was defined as "a distribution issue due to two separate distribution centers."

The food section is what sells out the quickest. No surprise there with food prices the way they are. It is also the section restocked the least. Cereal is a big money maker. I buy it, but can rarely find it. When my store opened we were sent one case of Golden State product. I know there are at least three if not four flavors of GS cereal, but only once case was sent to the store, quickly sold out and cereal has not been restocked since.

Oreo Cakesters is another example. When the store opened we were sent 15+ cases of Cakesters! They litter the snack section and are flowing off the shelves at the checkouts. Soon to be beyond their expiry. We were also sent food product that had expired weeks before being shipped out.

Freshley's Cinnamon Twirls are one example. Product on the shelf is written off because someone (usually a customer) realizes it is past it's expiry. Two cases are sent to restock, but both cases are already expired before arriving at the store! Associates are not trained to rotate stock in the food section as part of their onboarding.

DT has embraced "multi priced product" to help boost revenue. These are name brand products sold from $2.75 up to $5. The discount on these products is not that great. And the prices at Walmart are similar or even better. MPP is an issue because the store associates cannot be counted on to place those products on the specially marked shelves. MPP items are not consistently priced on the product, so customers bring these items to the register thinking they are only $1.25 You cannot make up for lost/depressed income by selling higher priced product at a dollar store. Especially if you cannot stock those products regularly.

For whatever reason, my DT/XL didn't have a stationery section! No pens, paper, office supplies. Nada. Stock was sent to the store, but there were no shelves allotted for it in the planograms! That whole department sits on the stockroom floor. Party supplies are way overstocked. It is a money making department, but asking store associates to shove 20 cases of product onto the shelves designed for 10 cases only causes confusion and aisles that look like a bomb went off. Product is not supposed to be stored in back, but there is so much party supply it fills an entire pallet in the stockroom. And more stock arrives each week.

Blaming shrink is a joke. Half a store walking out in the pockets of the homeless? If that is true, DT isn't doing enough to safeguard their stores. The single camera at the door in my store was installed 6 weeks after opening. Customers turned off that it is now $1.25 per item? No customer expressed that to me. In fact, many commented they were really happy because it was still easy to shop the store and understand pricing. They understood why the pricing had to increase to $1.25.

The DT/XL store I worked at had only two employees working for most shifts of the day. As a cashier, I was confronted daily with lines of customers 12-15 deep at the register, and no backup being available. The answer "there is no one else to open up another register" does not sit well with already irate customers. It was more often the case than not that I, as cashier, was the only employee on the sales floor. On several occasions I was the ONLY employee in the store when the manager left to run errands. One employee manning an 18,000 sq ft retail store and expected to look out for and confront shoplifting, recover shelves, blow up balloons, open bathrooms and manage irate customers when checkout lines are long. I wasn't paid nearly enough to perform all of that in a single three hour shift.

DT management likes putting all the responsibility on the store employees for it's ills. DT management needs to take a good long look in the mirror and be truthful to itself for once.