Dollar General CFO Kelly Dilts to depart next month
Dilts, who had joined the company in 2019, is stepping down effective August 28 to pursue another opportunity.
The company has begun a search for her successor, it said in a regulatory filing, opens new tab.
In June, Dollar General raised its annual same-store sales forecast as more consumers across income groups came in to shop at its stores amid tariff-related uncertainty and still-high inflation.
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The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Why many Black Americans are boycotting big-box retail stores: ‘using my money to resist'
Rebecca Renard-Wilson has stopped shopping at Target and all things Amazon including Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. These days, the mother of two shops for the things she needs at farmer's markets, small mom-and-pop stores or she goes directly to the websites of products she wants to purchase. 'I have options of where I put my money,' Renard-Wilson, 49, said. 'Yes, Target's convenient. Yes, Amazon Fresh is on my drive to my kids' school. The options that I have discovered have opened up new relationships. I feel more connected to my community because I'm not shopping at those big-box places. I'm able to now use my money not only to resist places that don't align with my values, but I'm able to now support places that do align with my values. To me, that's a win-win.' Renard-Wilson is among a growing group of African Americans who are ditching corporate big-box retail stores who rolled back their DEI programs and instead are shopping at small, minority- and women-owned businesses they believe value their dollars more. In February, more than 250,000 people signed a pledge to boycott Target after Rev Jamal Bryant, pastor of New Birth Baptist church outside of Georgia, called for a 40-day Target Fast that started at the beginning of the Lenten season. The boycott has become a movement across social media and within community neighborhoods nationwide with the shared goal of rejecting systems that do not value the African American community, and it has already impacted Target. In the first quarter of the year, the company reported a $500m loss in year-over-year sales, citing reaction to the boycott and lower foot traffic. Shortly after taking office in January, Donald Trump eliminated DEI programs across offices in the federal government. Retailers, including Target, Walmart and Amazon, followed the president's lead in eliminating their DEI programs and initiatives. In 2020, following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, millions marched in the streets in protest of police violence – and tech giants, retailers, Fortune 500 companies and industries pledged their commitment to diversity practices. Target specifically committed to invest $2 bn in Black-owned businesses. It increased the amount it spent with Black-owned suppliers by over 50% and doubled the number of Black-owned brands on its shelves. Customers found Black-owned hair products such as TGIN (Thank God Its Natural), Camille Rose and Pattern (by actor Tracee Ellis Ross), beauty brands Black Opal and TLB (The Lip Bar), and lifestyle merchandise like Be Rooted and Tabitha Brown's products including mugs, stationary, tote bags, home decor and kitchen essentials. Some considered it to be a 'racial reckoning'. By 2024, the reckoning had soured as racial justice fatigue and a deviance to progress set-in with the reelection of Trump. 'We are standing in righteous indignation against racism and sexism in this nation,' Bryant told his congregation. Target, he said, 'made a commitment after the death of George Floyd that you would invest $2 bn into the Black community before December 2025'. When Target dropped its DEI programs and initiatives in January, Bryant said the company was 'reneging on the financial commitment you made to our people'. Bryant partnered with the US Black Chamber of Commerce to provide a digital directory of more than 150,000 Black-owned businesses across the US and asked that the more than 250,000 people who registered to buy directly from the Black-owned businesses' online platforms and not Target. And during the Easter weekend Bryant said that five mega churches turned their spaces into retail malls so congregants could support Black-owned businesses. It wasn't an easy decision to boycott Target, Renard-Wilson said. She has friends who have products on Target shelves and liked supporting their businesses. When she learned about the boycott on social media, she was conflicted. 'Some people were saying if you boycott Target, then you are basically crippling those Black, queer, or Latino creatives who have had to put so much capital, so much time, and so much resources just to get their stuff on the Target shelves,' Renard-Wilson said. 'I was like, 'Damn, now this is complicated.'' The retailers' decisions to eliminate their DEI initiatives, Renard-Wilson said, demonstrated that they 'don't really care about' minority communities. There was a time, she says, when she shopped at Target and Amazon Fresh pretty regularly, because they were convenient. Sometimes she visited Amazon Fresh two or three times a week, because it was on the way to her kids' schools. Renard-Wilson, who lives with her husband and two young children in Los Angeles, gets a lot of the goods that she used to purchase at Target or Amazon from Costco now, which doubled-down on its commitment to DEI. 'We didn't really mess with Costco that much because it was a headache to get to and the parking was always crazy,' said Renard-Wilson. 'But when Target was like, 'Forget DEI', and Costco was like, 'We value diversity,' I was like, 'I'm going to spend my money in a place that's aligned with my values.'' And when Renard-Wilson can't find what she needs at Costco, she'll go to small local mom-and-pop stores or buy directly online from the source. She found a deodorant she likes produced by a Black woman-owned company. Renard-Wilson is also part of a Facebook group where people share where to get certain items. The financial cost of not shopping at Target or Amazon has been minimal, Renard-Wilson said. In fact, when she compared one of her pre-boycott credit card bills with her credit card bill during the boycott, she had spent $2,000 less by not shopping at the big-box retailers. She points out the one time her husband, a teacher, paid more than double for workshop supplies that he could have gotten much cheaper at Amazon. Other than that, Renard-Wilson says most products have only been a few bucks more along with the cost of shipping sometimes. 'Thankfully, prayerfully, we're in a financial position to be able to pay a little bit more,' says Renard-Wilson, who acknowledges that her family is currently in a privileged financial position to be able to explore options outside of big-box corporate retail stores. But there are families in smaller rural areas who do not have the retail options of big cities, technology access or the financial means to fully participate in the retail boycott. Karmen Jones' 82-year-old grandmother lives in rural Mississippi. The closest grocery store to her grandmother is a Walmart, Jones says, which is 30 to 40 minutes away from her grandmother's home. There is no Instacart or Uber Eats in her area that's close to the Delta, and her elderly grandmother is not going to go online to purchase items, Jones said. There's also the transportation issue. Jones often has to take her grandmother grocery shopping when she visits. 'It's a privilege to be able to protest,' Jones, 26, said. 'My grandmother does not have the privilege to say no to a Walmart if that's the nearest grocery store that she has.' Jones' family's roots run deep in Mississippi. Her family had to be protected from the Ku Klux Klan, she says, because her great-grandmother owned a successful Black business. Jones recently visited the plantation where her family lived and worked in Mississippi, and witnessed the large wealth gap between Blacks and whites in the rural area. Given her family's history, she doesn't want people to judge her grandmother if she is unable to participate in the boycott. 'I believe the elders deserve to have a break at times. They deserve to have support and to have care. That is where she [my grandmother] is in her chapter in her life. She's in a place where she deserves care,' said Jones, a communications consultant, whose family travels between Washington DC, where she first heard about the retail boycott, and Mississippi for work. She also notes that there's a difference in the robust grocery market in the DMV (Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia) versus the food deserts in Mississippi. 'In the DMV, we quickly noticed that you don't really have to go to Walmart or Target. You can go to Harris Teeter or Trader Joes,' Jones said. In Mississippi, Jones says she's shopped at Kroger or Costco since the boycott. If she goes to a particularly rural area, she has to stop at a corner store or market for goods. But more importantly, she's noticed the big financial cost to boycotting. Most of her beauty or hair products used to be purchased from Amazon, Jones says, but now she buys items from Ulta, which has remained committed to its DEI initiatives put forth in 2020 and 2021. 'There is a price to pay for protesting,' Jones said. Though Jones has had to pay more for products, she says she will not be going back to big retailers anytime soon, even if they reinstated their DEI initiatives. Target, especially, was a disappointment, Jones said. 'Target marketed itself prior to Trump's last election as being pro-DEI and being pro-Black creatives. Our faces were all around the store and even in the aisles,' she said. Bryant told CNN's Erin Burnett in May that the Target boycott will continue until things shift. He's taking a page out of the history books, pointing to the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted 381 days. That protest, which occurred 70 years ago, serves as a model. Most recently Bryant called for a boycott of Dollar General stores and McDonalds. Renard-Wilson says she doesn't plan to return to the big-box retail stores, even if there is a shift to embrace DEI again. 'I do not have any desire to continue supporting capitalistic systems that put profit over people,' Renard-Wilson says. 'I'm going to use my money and try to invest in people who care about me and my community.' This story was co-published and supported by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Walmart in city plagued by soft-on-crime laws becomes poster child for shoplifting chaos
Walmart was once praised by consumers for being one of the few retailers that did not lock up its merchandise, but it is now increasingly being forced to do so in the face of out-of-control shoplifting. Alarming pictures of a Walmart store in Happy Valley, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, have shocked customers who claim shopping in person is now a dreadful experience. Portland, known for its liberal politics, has seen areas of the city suffer terrible decline after a failed attempt at drug decriminalization. The city has been overrun by theft - 10,000 cases were reported to police last year, triple the number from three years ago - forcing retailers including Walmart to close stores that cannot sustain the losses. A series of viral images posted to Reddit show row after row of Walmart stock, from children's toys and gadgets to frozen food and batteries, behind locked glass cases. Retailers including CVS and Walgreens have resorted to such extremes in areas where shoplifting is so rampant, such as in downtown New York and San Francisco, that it damages stores' bottom lines. The system - which forces customers to call an attendant to open the case every time they wish to add something to their basket - is loathed by consumers. Businesses have also admitted that it does not actually help, as stores which employ the tactic often see sales plummet. 'What is even the point of shopping in-person anymore?' one Walmart customer seethed about the Happy Valley store on Reddit. 'If theft is that bad they're willing to lock up everything they might as well make it a pickup center,' another agreed. Another shopper argued that Walmart is deliberately making it difficult to shop there as they are more keen on boosting their online business. 'They don't want you in the store. They want you to order it online instead,' the Walmart customer alleged. 'Stores don't want you in there, it costs them money. Walmart would rather be Amazon.' Retail experts have suggested the scale of theft must be significant for Walmart to even consider locking its products behind glass. 'Walmart has run the numbers. If they're willing to sacrifice convenience - their second biggest competitive advantage after price - the theft losses must be substantial,' retail analyst Carol Spieckerman told Spieckerman argued that the inconvenience for consumers will undoubtedly have an impact on the store's bottom line. Portland, known for its liberal politics, has seen areas of the city suffer terrible decline after a failed attempt at drug decriminalization Rows of children's toys were among the goods pictured locked up in the Happy Valley location More expensive items such as cameras and computer devices were also locked up Everyday essentials such as toothpaste were also placed behind the Perspex glass Batteries are locked up in a store in Happy Valley, Oregon 'Price alone isn't enough if shopping becomes a hassle,' Spieckerman explained. 'The problematic locations must drive enough business to warrant keeping the doors open despite the friction.' Like San Francisco, Portland's 'doom loop' accelerated in the years following the pandemic. Big firms cutting back on office space hurt local businesses who rely on workers' footfall. As they too pulled back, the homeless population expanded with theft and rampant drug use proliferating. Last year, Oregon was forced to end the state's decriminalized drug laws after overdose rates soared. Portland's new mayor Keith Wilson is also considered to be more pro-business and his district attorney, Nathan Vasquez, tougher on crime. Walmart has also resorted to permanently closing stores in Portland because of the scale of theft. It is not the only chain that has been forced to do so, with beloved outdoor store Next Adventure recently closing all of its Oregon locations amid historic crime rates.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Four fun EVs to ease the switch for petrolheads – but expert warns of two hurdles brands face despite government grant
THE FUTURE is undoubtedly electric, as manufacturers steadily shift their focus from petrol-powered motors to electric ones. However, it's perfectly understandable that many car enthusiasts aren't quite ready to embrace this change. 2 2 The absence of traditional driving traits, such as the sound, vibration and gear changes associated with internal combustion engine cars is widely regarded as a pretty big loss. But in an interview with EVPowered last year, former Top Gear host James May implored enthusiasts to give electric power a chance, adding: 'If you're a true car enthusiast, you have to take an interest in the future of the car.' Change is hard though, and manufacturers face a tricky few years helping drivers - from petrolheads to casual fans - make the transition. It's something Steve Walker, Head of Digital Content at Auto Express, told Sun Motors in a recent exclusive chat. He said: 'The evolution of performance EVs faces two main challenges. 'Firstly, EVs are inherently heavy due to their batteries, which works against them being as nimble and fun to drive as petrol cars. 'Secondly, enthusiasts tend to love cars partly because they've formed a deep emotional connection to the history and heritage of performance brands and their cars over the years. 'EVs are a real break from this past. They don't have the same authenticity and don't offer the same sounds and sensations that petrol cars do. This makes them less appealing initially. 'That said, manufacturers know they need to engage enthusiasts. These are the people who are willing to pay for premium and performance models. 'They're also the people who help generate the culture and interest around car brands through their passion for the cars, bringing the brand's products to a wider audience. Alpine A290 GTS delivers a hot hatch EV that comes with F1-style 'overtake button' 'So, manufacturers are working on creating EVs that feel better to drive and more connected to that heritage. 'We're already seeing features like simulated engine noises and artificial 'manual gear changes' in performance EVs to mimic that petrol car driving experience. 'Looking ahead, technologies such as lighter solid-state batteries and in-wheel electric motors could reduce weight and improve driving dynamics, helping EVs become more exciting and appealing to enthusiasts.' CHARGING UP Something that might sway some drivers - petrolheads or otherwise - is the introduction of the Electric Car Grant by the government that was announced earlier this week. It sees £650 million set aside for drivers to enjoy a discount of up to £3,750 taken off the price of EVs priced under £37,000. That funding, planned to run until the 2028-29 financial year, also only counts towards models from brands that have committed to a so-called Science-Based Target (SBT) for emissions. Fewer than 50 new EV models would qualify for the grant, providing they meet the required criteria. Among them is the super-fun Alpine A290, starting at £33,000 for the base model, as well as the Abarth 600e - specifically, the 237bhp base model, which just fits within the grant threshold - and the Mini JCW Electric with its 255bhp. Walker said: 'While performance car fans aren't likely to be as excited about EVs as company car drivers or family buyers, who are often more focused on costs or practicality, there are a few current models that deserve to grab enthusiasts' interest. 'The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is a prime example - it was actually the first EV to win the Auto Express Performance Car of the Year award in 2024, marking it as a real pioneer of fun electric cars. 'Another interesting option is the Alpine A290, but overall, fun EVs are still very much in their infancy and quite rare compared to petrol alternatives, which remain fundamentally better at delivering the traditional thrills that enthusiasts crave.' MAKING THE SWITCH Switching from a petrol-powered car to an EV can feel like a daunting step for some. The challenge for the industry is to make EVs with emotional appeal Steve Walker, Auto Express However, Walker offers valuable advice for those ready to take the leap into the world of electric cars. 'For enthusiasts making the switch, it's important to recognise that EVs today are different beasts - heavier and quieter, with driving sensations that don't replicate the petrol experience,' he said. 'They're also fast, with an immediate power delivery that most petrol models can't match. 'As the technology improves, expect EVs to become more engaging and responsive. 'Manufacturers still need 'halo' cars that generate interest and showcase innovation. As the legislation stands in Europe, these will have to be EVs. 'Ultimately, without enthusiasts, cars risk becoming just another consumer product like a phone or washing machine. 'The challenge for the industry is to make EVs with emotional appeal through which drivers can express their personality and passion, just as petrol cars have done for decades.' CHARGE ANYTIME OVO's Charge Anywhere gives EV drivers access to everything they need to charge on the go, in one app - everything from route planning to locating working chargers, and paying for charging. And by signing up to a Boost plan, drivers can get up to 15% off public charging. It is open to all EV drivers, you don't have to be an OVO customer, and is free to join, just download the OVO Charge app on the App Store or Google Play. Drivers get access to the biggest charging networks, including over 50,000 UK public chargers and over 400,000 across Europe. More information can be found HERE OVO customers can enhance their energy tariffs by adding Charge Anytime, enabling them to charge their electric vehicles at a market-leading rate of 7p per kWh, any time of the day or night. This rate is 90% cheaper than public charging and 80% less than the cost of petrol. With Charge Anytime, customers can charge their car for just £217 per year, based on average consumption. This represents a saving of £542 compared to the UK's average SVT charging rate. More information can be found HERE. OVO Beyond Customers who sign up to OVO's free rewards programme, Beyond, can enjoy 100 free miles every month for two years. This adds up to 2,400 free miles in total, ready to use when they decide to make the switch to an electric vehicle. OVO Offers OVO customers can benefit from up to 30,000 free EV miles when they purchase or lease an electric car from Volkswagen. This offer applies across all VWG brands, including Audi, CUPRA, Skoda, and VW. Customers receive 10,000 free miles every year for three years, provided they remain OVO customers. Additionally, customers can earn 1,000 free miles on the anniversary of their Charge Anytime sign-up for the first three years.
