Everything’s $1 at this dollar store. Except the proposed $104,000 OSHA fine, that is

Each item costs $1 in Dollar Tree, a true “dollar store.” Unless, that is, the store stacks items seven feet high near an emergency exit as a West Palm Beach Dollar Tree did.

That might cost Dollar Tree a $104,192 OSHA fine.

OSHA’s Citation and Notification of Penalty said boxes of merchandise at 8795 Southern Blvd. were stacked over seven feet high and “not arranged in a stable manner to prevent it from falling onto or in the path of employees in the route to an emergency exit.”

If that seems a stiff fine for a single violation, it is. But OSHA classified this as a repeat violation because a Dollar Tree store in Aurora, Colorado, got hit with the same violation from an October 2017 inspection. Dollar Tree settled the fine in that inspection down to $72,000 from $101,629. That violation got tagged as a repeat, also, because the same violation occurred in another Dollar Tree store previously.

Dollar Tree, the parent company of the ubiquitous Family Dollar chain, didn’t respond to two Miami Herald emails asking whether it planned to contest the fines, request an informal meeting with the area OSHA director or paying the proposed fine.

This story was originally published June 28, 2019 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Everything’s $1 at this dollar store. Except the proposed $104,000 OSHA fine, that is."