Dollar Tree sued in Colorado over understaffing that’s caused extremely inappropriate in-store behavior

There’s no easy way to say this, so we’re going to say it the most delicate way possible: a Colorado woman has filed a lawsuit against Dollar Tree alleging that the discount chain’s chronic understaffing has turned its stores into, and this is a direct quote from the lawsuit, a “hunting ground” for people engaging in extremely inappropriate behavior toward unsuspecting shoppers. The kind of behavior that would make your grandmother faint. The kind that should absolutely not be happening in the paper towel aisle. The lawsuit, filed in El Paso County, alleges the woman was shopping with her child and her mother when a man followed her family through the store and committed an indecent act in front of them. The man had reportedly been involved in a similar incident at a different Colorado Springs Dollar Tree previously, and was never banned from the chain.

The lawsuit argues that Dollar Tree typically staffs its stores with a skeleton crew of just one to three employees who can’t monitor the entire store from the register, and that many locations don’t have working security cameras or any security presence at all. According to the complaint, these incidents have become so disturbingly common nationwide, including another reported incident at a Littleton location, that they’ve spawned their own internet slang and social media memes. We will not be sharing those terms on this website, because this is a family establishment and we have standards. But let’s just say: if your shopping trip to a discount store requires a buddy system for personal safety, something has gone very wrong.

Attorney Morgan Carroll, who represents the woman, said the incidents “were clearly foreseeable” and that Dollar Tree’s failure to invest in security guards, functioning cameras or adequate staffing “directly leads to preventable assaults.” The lawsuit names Dollar Tree along with the private equity companies that own the property. Dollar Tree has said it takes reports of “inappropriate, unlawful, or harassing behavior” seriously and cooperates with law enforcement. But for shoppers in Colorado and beyond, the lawsuit raises an uncomfortable question: should browsing the cleaning supply aisle require the same level of situational awareness as a midnight parking garage? Because according to this lawsuit, at Dollar Tree, it apparently does.