Family Dollar announced this week that it is closing down the West Memphis, Arkansas, warehouse that was discovered earlier this year to have a massive rodent infestation, which prompted a recall of items that were held there and might have been contaminated. However, the company maintained that the closure was not related to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection that revealed the problem.
Back in February, the FDA said that fumigation of the warehouse revealed more than a thousand dead rodents. During the previous year, more than two thousand rodents had been "collected," and the FDA said there was an apparent history of infestation. Rodent contamination can cause salmonella and other infectious diseases.
According to the New York Times, "Randy Guiler, vice president of investor relations for Dollar Tree Inc., the parent company of Family Dollar, confirmed in an email that the distribution facility in West Memphis, Ark., would stop shipping to stores before the end of June. Mr. Guiler said approximately 300 workers would be affected." Guiler said that the company had simply "decided that the facility was not adequate to 'continue serving the needs and requirements of our stores and customers'."
- KC's View:
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Here's the thing.
By Family Dollar maintaining that the closure has nothing to do with the FDA reports, the company squanders whatever credibility it might've had on this subject.
Does anyone think that, if there had not been an FDA inspection, Family Dollar would've continued shipping from that warehouse?
Of course it would have. The fact is, it is going to be shipping from that warehouse for another few weeks, which is disgusting all by itself.
Just based on their behavior and statements, I wouldn't trust these guys as far as I could throw that rat-infested, feces-permeated warehouse.
