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We, the residents of the Town of Wright and nearby towns, are strongly opposed to the building of a Dollar General store on Route 443 near Drebitko and Cook Roads on one of our town’s most beautiful roads. The dollar store will have a negative effect on the rural character of our town, will hurt locally owned family businesses, will provide low-quality processed foods, and will bring just a handful of low-paying jobs.
We are asking the Planning Board to deny the application submitted for the construction of the 10,000 square foot Dollar General store because it fails to meet the rural character of our town and for the reasons listed below.
Sign the petition to tell the Planning Board that this proposed store does not meet the rural character of the town:
A Planning Board PUBLIC hearing has been scheduled to hear the public's opposition to the proposed Dollar General store. This hearing is scheduled for Tuesday June 18, 2024 @ 7:30PM at 105A School Street, Schoharie, NY 12157
Our email is: KeepWrightRural@gmail.com
The Dollar General store will harm the historical value of the iconic Becker Stone House
The 10,000 sq/ft store is planned adjacent to the the Becker Stone House, built in 1772, which stands as a testament to the rich history of the town of Wright. It is not merely a structure; it embodies the spirit of a bygone era, reflecting the architectural styles and cultural practices of that century. As a property listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places, the home enjoys state and federal recognition, emphasizing its significance on a national scale. Any development in close proximity should be approached with extreme caution to preserve the historical integrity of this site.
Dollar General stores do not meet our RURAL community standards
We all know how beautiful the drive down route 443 is with its old farms, pastures, grain silos, corn fields, historic battle grounds, and more. Everything that we love about our town is encapsulated on this drive. The Town of Wright is not the place for a Dollar General store measuring over 10,000 square feet. These stores should be built in highly commercialized areas and not on a beautiful rural road.
Some of our neighbors who live next to the proposed site have been here for generations. Building a 10,000 square foot chain store near them will ruin their property values, quality of life, and the views from their homes. It is unfair to allow such a large building to be built near residences in our rural setting.
Dollar General stores hurt locally owned full-service grocery stores
Dollar stores sell cheap and low-quality foods and products. Once a dollar store is built in a small town such as the Town of Wright, new locally owned stores are not likely to open. Furthermore, nearby small stores are less likely to survive the competition from a large multi-billion-dollar corporation. There are approximately 30,000 dollar stores nationwide. This gives them a lot of purchasing power to buy products for less, which in turn allows them to sell their products for less than small family owned stores. This puts tremendous pressure on locally owned stores which may not survive. That could hurt our local economy by the closing of businesses and the loss of good local jobs. Don't we all want a business like the Corner Store to someday come back? It probably never will if we allow a Dollar General store to open nearby.
Experts that research the effects of dollar stores on communities, like Julia McCarthy, Senior Policy Associate at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest have said that “The business model for these stores is built on saturation... When you have so many dollar stores in one neighborhood, there’s no incentive for a full-service grocery store to come in.”
Our immediate area has only one full-service supermarket (in Middleburgh) that offers fresh produce in the winter months. They already have competition from a nearby dollar store. If more and more dollar stores open nearby even fewer people will shop at the supermarket. At some point this supermarket could close and our area will lose an important source of nutritious and fresh products during the winter months.
Read: Dollar General hurts local stores
A Dollar General store in our community is not likely to provide good-paying jobs
Many workers at dollar stores say the stores are chronically understaffed and rely on part-time workers who are given unpredictable schedules and cannot afford the required employee contribution for health care benefits. Many employees at dollar stores quit due to low wages and poor working conditions. We do not need this type of an employer in our town.
Dollar General stores have a documented record of providing poor working conditions
The Department of Labor (DOL) has fined Dollar General over $12 million dollars since 2017. As recently as November 1, 2022, DOL announced that less than one month after DOL cited Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC with more than $1.6 million in penalties for putting its workers' safety at risk, federal inspectors have issued citations for similar violations at store locations in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and added $2,777,640 in proposed penalties now owed by one of the nation's largest discount retailers. Since 2017, Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC have received more than $12.3 million in initial penalties for numerous willful, repeat and serious workplace safety violations. Also, during the past five years, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) found unsafe conditions that expose workers to the possibility of being struck by falling boxes of merchandise or trapped or unable to exit the store safely in an emergency in more than 180 inspections at Dollar General stores nationwide.
Dollar General settles with Vermont for $1.75 million for deceptive advertising and is sued by Ohio for $800,000 for deceptive pricing
Vermont’s Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced that his office reached a $1.75 million settlement with Dollar General for violations of Vermont’s Consumer Protection Act. Under the settlement, Dollar General resolved claims that it sold products that were advertised on the shelf at a lower price than the price at the register, even after being told at least 50 times by state inspectors from the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets to correct the pricing inaccuracies.
“Deceptive advertising will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Donovan said. “Knowing that Dollar General caters to low-income Vermonters makes their repeatedly misrepresenting prices particularly egregious. I’m pleased that part of this settlement will directly benefit those Vermonters who struggle with food insecurity.”
In Ohio, after the Butler County Auditor’s office investigated 20 Dollar General stores countywide and found prices on store shelves were lower than at the registers the state attorney general has filed an $800,000-plus lawsuit.
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