Dollar Tree is going through a crime wave and now locking up items behind cases to prevent thugs and criminals from stealing items, causing the store to lose revenue and put them at risk of closing down or laying people off. The American Tribune reported on it with information from Dollar Tree CEO. That crime and business news article reported the following:
Speaking about the matter in a recent earnings call, Dollar Tree CEO Richard Dreiling and CFO Jeffrey Davis noted that the company's tumbling profit margin had been deleteriously affected by theft, which led to large inventory losses.
The problem so severe was that company's gross profit margin tumbled to 29.8% last quarter from 32.7% a year earlier, with the theft-induced "shrink" being one of the primary issues for the struggling retail giant's profit margin.
The problem was apparently even more severe than the company thought and is getting even worse, with CFO Jeffrey Davis saying that the "shrink" problem is “definitely advanced a little further than what we had anticipated.”
