CHICAGO — New dollar stores will be restricted in where they can open across Chicago thanks to an ordinance City Council passed Wednesday.
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) introduced legislation in October to scale back where “small-box retailers” can build stores while adding regulations to prompt operators to be more responsive to customer complaints. The council passed the measure 42-7 Wednesday.
Under the law, new small-box retailers 4,000-17,500 square feet in size will not be able to open within 1 mile of an existing dollar store owned by the same company. All stores will also be required to post the owner’s name and contact information on the front and back of their buildings.
O’Shea said that during talks leading up to the vote, companies behind the stores threatened to pursue legal action over the ordinance — but on Wednesday the alderman told them to “bring it on.”
The proposed changes came after O’Shea raised numerous issues with dollar stores in his ward, which encompasses Beverly, Mount Greenwood and Morgan Park.
During a council committee hearing last month, numerous alderpeople complained of cleanliness issues and other problems at dollar stores in their wards.
A Block Club investigation found dollar stores across the city have been fined thousands of times for selling expired infant formula and other medicine, overcharging customers and selling tobacco to underage people — all violations of city health and building codes. O’Shea mentioned the story’s findings several times in his effort to get the measure passed at Wednesday’s meeting.
But O’Shea’s ordinance also received pushback from some business groups and other alderpeople this winter, with some saying they worried the geographic restrictions would be overly burdensome.
Those groups, including the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, had pitched a compromise version that would have limited stores from opening within 1,000 feet of existing ones instead of the 1-mile threshold. O’Shea this month rejected that proposal as “ridiculous.”
On Wednesday, O’Shea called himself a “pragmatic” official, saying he was willing to work with anyone to get this ordinance passed. He had to make “seven concessions” and the ordinance had 10 iterations, he said.
The alderman said the three dollar store companies in the city refused to come to the table and, in the leadup to Wednesday’s vote, asked for O’Shea to wait another month. When he refused, they brought up legal action against the city, he said.
“I don’t like bulls—. I don’t like getting my chain yanked,” O’Shea said.
In speaking with reporters after the City Council meeting, O’Shea said he wasn’t sure what legal action the companies wish to pursue.
“I didn’t even entertain the conversation. It was like — here you’re begging me to hold off yet again while you’re telling people you’re going to sue?” O’Shea said.
A spokesperson from Dollar Tree and Family Dollar told Block Club in a statement the company is committed to working “better, including improving store standards where historically there was insufficient investment, and to working with our community partners including local government and law enforcement.”
The company called the ordinance “essentially a moratorium,” saying it won’t solve issues, such as addressing Chicago’s food desert.
“In fact, as acknowledged by a number of government officials in our many conversations, it will bring more harm than help to the very communities it claims to support by limiting the flexibility to improve stores and provide new offerings to people in these communities,” company officials said in a statement. “With the City Council’s vote, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree as well as other retailers will essentially be prohibited from opening new or relocated stores in Chicago.”
The company didn’t respond to questions about possible litigation.
Many alderpeople on Wednesday spoke in favor of the ordinance, saying dollar store executives for years ignored calls from officials to fix issues related to cleanliness and safety.
“When our attempts to work with a business fails, we have to look for other solutions, and I think that this is a solution that has been brought forward that provides us with another tool to ensure that these businesses are good neighbors and are not negatively impacting the quality of life,” said Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th).
Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) spoke in favor of the ordinance but expressed disappointment the original vote was delayed after she and others had been speaking out against problems in the stores.
Taylor’s two daughters worked at a Family Dollar in the 17th Ward, and she said that one of them was robbed at gunpoint while working at the register. Nothing has been done to improve the safety and quality of the store despite intervention from local Ald. David Moore (17th), she said.
“The fact that the dollar store started off as ‘all is great’ and then decided we aren’t worthy, they still make millions of dollars on the first and the 15th” of every month, Taylor said. “Because our community needs the store, but not to the point where we are compromising who we are in our communities and accepting less.”
Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th) spoke in favor of the ordinance, saying he has three dollar stores in his ward that he now regrets. He won’t shop at those locations because the quality is lacking, he said.
“The Dollar Trees in the suburbs are not the Dollar Trees in the city of Chicago,” Curtis said. “All I’ve been asking Dollar Tree to do is treat our community as they do the suburban community.”
The geographic limitations in the legislation apply to any store that “continuously offers or advertises a majority of the items in their inventory for sale at a price less than $5.00 per item,” but it does not include gas stations, drug stores, thrift stores and a variety of other businesses.
Chicago has nearly 150 dollar stores, and 71 percent are in Black- and Latino-majority community areas, according to city records and U.S. Census data. That’s 63 dollar stores in Black-majority community areas and 43 in Latino-majority areas.
The stores are all owned by three companies: Family Dollar and Dollar Tree — which have the same parent — and Dollar General. Altogether, Chicago has 66 Family Dollars, 60 Dollar Trees and 23 Dollar Generals.
Between 2017-2023, stores owned by the three companies received more than 3,300 city code violations, according to a Block Club investigation.
During this time, the city issued nearly $258,000 in fines against Family Dollar, $162,000 against Dollar Tree and almost $190,000 against Dollar General. Family Dollar still owes the city almost $23,000 in fines accumulated in 2023, and Dollar Tree owes nearly $4,800, according to records obtained from the Department of Finance.
The investigation also found the dollar stores racked up fines for violating federal labor regulations. The three companies combined have faced nearly $1 million in fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Block Club’s Manny Ramos and Quinn Myers contributed.
Support Local News!
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to gift a subscription, or you can support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
