Dollar General to close 96 stores in portfolio cleanup review

The 96-store closure plan looked small beside Dollar General’s 20,594-store footprint, but for store crews it could have meant immediate questions about schedules, transfer options and whether nearby locations could absorb both workers and shoppers. Dollar General did not publish a national closure list in the materials reviewed, so the practical answer for associates would have depended on local management, district staffing needs and how much labor nearby stores could take on.

The Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based chain said in its fiscal 2024 fourth-quarter results that it would close 96 Dollar General stores, 45 pOpshelf stores and convert six pOpshelf stores to Dollar General stores in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The company recorded $232 million in charges tied to that portfolio review, mostly from store closures and pOpshelf impairment costs. Todd Vasos said the goal was to strengthen the company for the future, and he described the affected stores as locations that had become increasingly challenging to operate, with many in urban areas.

For workers, the scale of the closure plan mattered less than the local fallout. A shutdown can cut hours fast, especially in districts where stores already run lean and one closing location shifts more customer traffic, truck flow and cleaning duties onto the next closest store. Associates also face the same questions every time a store is pulled from the map: whether a transfer is available, how far the new commute will be, and whether there is enough staffing at the receiving store to make the move worthwhile. In markets with single-associate concerns and constant turnover, those decisions can land on managers and hourly workers with little margin for error.

Dollar General’s own filings show the company was not retreating so much as rebalancing. As of January 31, 2025, it had 20,594 stores across the United States and Mexico, and its 2025 real-estate plan still called for 575 new U.S. stores, 15 new Mexico stores and 4,250 remodels. That makes the 96-store cleanup a small slice of the chain, even if it can disrupt a district where one closure changes the workload for every remaining store.

The labor backdrop also matters. In July 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a corporate-wide settlement with Dollar General and its retail subsidiaries over workplace safety improvements, with corrections generally required within 48 hours. Reuters reported the deal carried a $12 million penalty. The settlement covered blocked exits, access to fire extinguishers and electrical panels, and unsafe material storage, a reminder that store-condition problems and staffing pressure often move together. For frontline workers, the real story was not just which stores disappeared, but which stores had to pick up the slack.