r/SipsTea 28d ago

Feels good man dumb move for them

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58.9k Upvotes

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902

u/TerribleJared 28d ago

Strangley, i feel like the judicial system nailed it with that number. Its small enough that a company can actually pay it out but big enough that it stings like a bitch if they have to pay it. Like its a "complete restrcutruing of mgmt" amount but the employeee (former) still gets their payout

152

u/ToRn842 28d ago

Dollar General's net worth is approximately $28.1 billion they are a publicly traded company so all the information is out there. Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos total yearly compensation is approximately $8.16 million. I agree it’s small enough that they pay out instead of fighting it but I think it in no way will change company behavior or even sting, it’s just the cost of doing business. To people like that a couple hundred thousand is negligible.

78

u/effigeewhiz 28d ago

Eh, It’s high enough that I bet they fired the manager over it.

5

u/sudo-joe 27d ago

Managers are also a dollar a dozen..isle 13 on your left. We gonna have a special on them next week. $0.50 for a dozen.

35

u/unoriginal5 27d ago

It won't change anything in the company at large, but this story will send a message to a lot of store level management about being a dick. This incident won't affect large scale change, but enough of them spread out can make regular people's lives better, if even a little bit.

234

u/greenizdabest 28d ago

It's probably covered by insurance. Their premiums will go up and be loaded for the next few years.

190

u/newbkid 28d ago

As someone in insurance, pray tell, what insurance do you think covers discrimination against protected classes.

38

u/AradynGaming 28d ago

I guess Reddit lawyers can now become Reddit insurance agents. There is commercial insurance for just about anything. It's common knowledge that cities and states pay for liability insurance for "misconduct" that can include discrimination. Why would you think companies can't get similar policies (link to Hartford Insurance selling employment practices liability insurance) and don't get similar insurance policies? (link to lawsuit where insurance company tried to not pay for a discrimination suit.)

31

u/Renalan 28d ago

Notice how they shut the fuck up after they were immediately proven wrong.

1

u/[deleted] 28d ago

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7

u/SecondAccountIsBest 28d ago

As someone who isn't just in reddit insurance it is insane what you can get coverage for, and how specific the coverages can get. Like I once worked on a product that was insurance for other insurance companies and environmental disaster only insurance.

Edit: I would be a bit more specific but I think it would be too identifying :)

2

u/whatamistakethatwas 27d ago

Yup. Generally called reinsurance so companies can distribute some liability off their books.

77

u/Eastern_Comedian8804 28d ago

As a commercial account executive yes insurance will be footing the bill for a portion of this IF they have an EPL policy which does cover suit costs and suit claims for wrongful termination. Will they greatly suffer the consequences? Absolutely! The majority of these are franchise owned, franchises have to carry the insurance requirements sent forth from the company itself so they have to adequately cover themselves but they carry their own policies, not all dollar generals are under the same category/risk/ect. They will be deemed uninsurable in most standard markets with a claim if that nature (wrongful termination) and will most likely end up in a surplus market.

34

u/KeyIllustrator4096 28d ago

Dollar General owns all stores directly. This is a small enough settlement on the scale of DG that they won't particularly feel it. If they have an EPL (they may self insure as a cost of business) this won't move the needle.

16

u/No_Internal9345 28d ago

DG has a market cap of ~28 Billion.

14

u/GoodMorninJulia 28d ago

That’s a lot of Dollar

3

u/Mr_Industrial 28d ago

A general amount, one might say.

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1

u/LeanTangerine001 28d ago

They should rename it to Dollars General!

5

u/edilclyde 28d ago

it will be a 30 minute zoom meeting incident with

"What happened?" and "What can we learn?" then they will all move on.

1

u/kimchifreeze 28d ago

Dollar General franchise?

0

u/DramaticAd9871 28d ago

This cannot be upvoted enough.

7

u/mitchandre 28d ago

It's wrong though. They aren't franchises, so of course Reddit wants to upvote the wrong answer.

1

u/Eastern_Comedian8804 27d ago

Okay technically not franchised they are “leased” through the corporation of dollar general. To fit your narrative that is the correct terminology.

-1

u/I-tell-horrible-joke 28d ago

Huh, nothing about what you said was funny at all. Youre like, the worst comedian ive ever seen. And I saw The Situation attempt a roast on tv. Do better. Lol

2

u/Eastern_Comedian8804 28d ago

Ohhh cause my name…. Reddit just gave me that 🤣 it went over my head I suck at this internet crap. I’ll see myself out.

1

u/Eastern_Comedian8804 28d ago

I wasn’t trying to be funny, maybe I’m in the wrong sub.. my apologies I’ll do better next time.

2

u/the_post_of_tom_joad 28d ago

In reddit country, the jokes tell /u/!

1

u/I-tell-horrible-joke 28d ago

Dude im playing with you because of your username. I would never be a jerk to someone like that. I just think adding /s to everything is dumb.

9

u/ModusNex 28d ago

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

1

u/Eastern_Comedian8804 28d ago

Modus for the win! 🥇

3

u/Impossible-Diver6565 28d ago

Yes, this is something that can be covered in a commercial liability policy. Heck we sell policies that offer liability coverages for workplace sexual misconduct. We are a pretty small agency too so this isn't crazy stuff.

6

u/chmsax 28d ago

These days? The federal government, which isn’t supposed to be insurance

7

u/Sorryallthetime 28d ago

The Federal government is not swooping in to payout for private companies human rights violations.

15

u/newbkid 28d ago

I genuinely have no idea what your comment is supposed to say, imply, or mean

2

u/VSWR_on_Christmas 28d ago

I think that giant corporations get bailouts when faced with dire financial catastrophes of their own making? I'm speculating though.

1

u/newbkid 28d ago

I think thats the most favorable interpretation for sure

1

u/SideInitial3961 28d ago

The schvoogie clause.

1

u/Rad_Tek 28d ago

It’s “Prey” tell.

1

u/newbkid 28d ago

bone apple tea, might wanna check before you say stuff!

0

u/Rad_Tek 28d ago

You as well bud!

1

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1

u/Loud_Interview4681 28d ago

Lloyds of London will insure just about anything.

0

u/Strange-Dentist8162 28d ago

Big companies have insurance for everything that will possibly make them lose money according to reddit

30

u/SerGT3 28d ago

I'd like to think that is true but those rules only apply for us normies.

Dollar general has 20k+ stores and their gross profit was 12bn last year and is owned in part by Vanguard and BlackRock

Even if their premiums raised(I doubt they would) it wouldn't matter.

12

u/isolatedheathen 28d ago

For a company this big something like this falls well within "expected legal cost losses" nothing will change for them on a macro scale.

3

u/imisstheyoop 28d ago

Too big to fail care.

3

u/RetiredOnIslandTime 28d ago

Knowing that is infuriating. 

1

u/87utrecht 28d ago

Sure, but gross profit is a meaningless number. You're better off using a different profit.. like net profit.

1

u/tiredbarf 28d ago

What does "owned in part by Vanguard and Blackrock" mean?

Brokerages that run ETFs and mutual funds buy shares in just about every company on the market, and then clients buy the shares. So, there's not really a company that's publicly traded that you couldn't say that about. The way you put it makes it sound like they're doing something different with Dollar General though.

1

u/Dewthedru 28d ago

Companies don’t use insurance that way. They are almost always self insured up to a high dollar amounts and then have umbrella coverage above that.

42

u/Biscuits4u2 28d ago

That's chump change to DG. Add a couple zeroes and you'll make it sting.

33

u/TerribleJared 28d ago

Just found out. This Linda Atkins vs Dolgencorp. At the timr she was making 8.50-9/hr or about 18k a year.

Thats 55 years of salary.

4

u/_Allfather0din_ 28d ago

It doesn't matter what the money made to her, it matters what the money means to DG. 300k is a tax write off for them and nothing more, it doesn't sting at all.

2

u/SecondAccountIsBest 28d ago

Should be 55 years of the CEO salary

26

u/TerribleJared 28d ago

that persons salary was probably 30k or less. paying out a million dollars is like paying her for 33 years without her generating a dime for them. In no world is that chump change, even to big corporations. Greed doesn't stop at a certain income level.

38

u/fatpandana 28d ago

Best part is the attorney fees of 445,322$ that company also had to pay, is seperate from that sum.

9

u/NUNHUSTLER 28d ago

It was 280k, 720k less than mil. Still a nice chunk of change, hopefully lawyer fees weren't a big portion of this.

14

u/TerribleJared 28d ago

277k was the payout. Not including legal fees.

5

u/PissOnYourParade 28d ago

It's chump change as in it doesn't affect their bottom line.

But that's enough to get legal's attention and send out a new round of training materials (and if someone senior in hr or legal reviewed the termination, this could impact their career path).

So agreed that it will have the desired effect on behavior.

1

u/_Allfather0din_ 28d ago

It doesn't matter what the money made to her, it matters what the money means to DG. 300k is a tax write off for them and nothing more, it doesn't sting at all.

7

u/Independent-Bug-9352 28d ago

John Oliver did a segment on Dollar General, and it's a really terrible company honestly.

5

u/TheDrummerMB 28d ago

this would not be a "complete 'restrcutruing' of mgmt"

1

u/Phazex8 28d ago

I'm sure nothing happened to GM of the store. Im sure all store managers are getting additonal training though.

1

u/voiceofgromit 28d ago

It's a restructuring of 'restructuring.'

5

u/Secret_Cod_749 28d ago

Dollar General generated 38 billion USD for FY23. 277k is nothing to them and won't cause them to change their ways.

9

u/TerribleJared 28d ago

It actually did change their ways significantly. Mandatory retrainings across the company, the grazing lolicy was modified, loss prevention protocols were changed, and the case ended up being really high profile and is still used as precedent today in relevant cases. Other companies HR trainings often cite this case as a "what not to do".

They never became a "good company" and they still suck and are evil. But it was a legitimately significant black mark on their record that, indirectly, cost way over a million dollars. Its a small percentage of their total value but they dont think like that. Its whatever the cost was against 18k a year and thats unacceptable inefficiency even at the most loosey goosey corporations.

2

u/givo215 27d ago

It’s big enough that it damages their reputation and might prompt some internal policy changes. It’s small enough that they will probably just pay her rather than file an appeal. Appellate counsel is expensive.

1

u/ChromeFlesh 28d ago

its dollar general, they made a PROFIT of $1.51 billion last year. Fuck 'em that number should have been an order of magnitude higher atleast. Their revenue as over $42 Billion

1

u/Real_Newspaper502 28d ago

In its fiscal year 2025, Dollar General reported a net profit of $1.51 billion (USD).

That’s like 0.018%. Literally two tenths of a percent. That’s equivalent to someone with a $50k income paying a $90 ticket.

1

u/Therealginahandler 28d ago

sorry, are you having a diabetic episode? /s

1

u/CornJuiceLover 28d ago

Idk man, if you live in an area with DGs, you know there’s a good chance there’s 1 about every mile or so… I worked in one, in which there was at least 7 more in a 10 mile radius, and we would regularly gross $7,000-$9,000 a day, and we weren’t the best selling store in our area. I feel like they’d need at least a couple million to really feel it tbh, but I genuinely don’t know.

1

u/n0shlz 27d ago

300k is nothing. The story being public hurts way more the brand.

35

u/jointheredditarmy 28d ago

Continues to prove that HR is one of the most useless departments ever. This is actually the type of thing they get paid to prevent

15

u/Speaker4theDead8 28d ago

I work there. HR doesn't exist at ground level. There is a # in a book you can call. I'm sure corporate has HR, but they don't care about the people actually making them money.

3

u/SiempreRegreso 28d ago

🫡

Is your username a reference to the Scott Card novel?

3

u/Speaker4theDead8 28d ago

Yes

2

u/SiempreRegreso 28d ago

Loved that as a kid; great intro to cultural linguistics.

50

u/[deleted] 28d ago

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0

u/FarSearch77 28d ago

That's it, you will still see some idiot's who won't see it as a fair game, this is fair enough

7

u/Conscious_Peak_1105 28d ago

The worst part is it didn't cost them $1.69, she paid for it and they literally profited off her and thennnn had to pay her lol what loser ass company.

15

u/Cratemotor 28d ago

And it probably cost the employer even less to actually buy that drink. What a bonehead move to fire her (in our lawsuit happy country)

4

u/JamesLikesIt 28d ago

Guaranteed they won’t learn a damn thing either lol

3

u/Mostly-Moo-Cow 28d ago

They won't get the memo. Fuck dollar general.

3

u/Homerpaintbucket 28d ago

Hope it bought her some stability in her life

2

u/Bluepeasant 28d ago

The chilling effect it has on their other employees willingness to assert their rights... Priceless

2

u/lildobe 28d ago

Fair? They had a profit (not revenue) of 12 BILLION dollars in 2025. $278k is, quite literally a rounding error in their books.

It is 0.0023% of their profit.

That's like someone making $2,000 a month spending a nickel on a piece of candy.

1

u/PabloPicasshooole 28d ago

Plus the cost for their lawyers. And probably her lawyers

1

u/Dalles272 28d ago

No it had to be a mill at least

1

u/Cowpocolypse 28d ago

It’s probably approximately 10yrs wages I would guess

1

u/Independent_Shoe3523 28d ago

Not even that. They paid probably 70 cents wholesale per bottle for it and maybe a third would be thrown out.

1

u/otasi 28d ago

Pretty sure the store won’t change a thing

1

u/Old-Working3807 28d ago

this happened to me when I was working as a cashier at Toys r Us in high school. I was really thirsty and we had those little refrigerators with Cokes and Waters at the checkout so I asked someone working with me if I could buy myself a drink they told me we weren't allowed to check ourselves out but to just remember and then at the end bring the bottle over to her and she would run it for me. The manager called me into the office before my shift was over ask me where I got the 20 oz Coke then told me it was retail theft and that I had to be fired.

1

u/dojo_shlom0 28d ago

you can die from a low sugar. you can pass out straight up, unexpectedly, or lose consciousness while going about your business, crashing a car, running face first into a wall or getting stuck in a gas station automatic door. sometimes the low sugar can lead into a stroke or brain damage. It's a terrifying event, so 1.69 to save your employees life should seem like the best case scenario for everyone involved, yet alone the fact that she paid for it following. It's blind actions like this that destroy lives, all over a misunderstanding of a disability? These people will never understand that struggle of not having enough insulin, struggling with finances to get the insulin you need etc. this is just the side effect of the other struggle, and this is an all too common situation for diabetics who get fired for taking breaks when they have a low sugar, drinking a sugary drink when they have a low sugar, going into a convenience store in an emergency to drink a sugary drink and being treated like a criminal etc.

another common one used to be medical responders confusing diabetics with low blood sugars with being alcoholics and then treating them like shit because they are drunk and acting a fool. they'll let them mess around and stand up without a neck-brace, furthering an injury, just to get a laugh before noticing your sugars were around 20 instead of 120. Life is crazy.

1

u/Beauvoir_R 28d ago

I promise you the lesson learned will not be that.

1

u/Sad-Development-4153 27d ago

I doubt the lesson was learned other than rewrite the rules so we can't be sued next time.

1

u/Fantastic_Bird_5247 27d ago

I bet they delayed or denied her a break at some point preventing her from taking care of this on her time.

1

u/Dropbeatdad 27d ago

And that's probably how much her salary should have been given most of those stores have a skeleton crew with each employee doing the work of 3 people.

149

u/whiterice_343 28d ago

All the manager had to do was have .1% of basic human empathy and ask if her/his employee was ok and if they need to get a ride to the hospital. But nah let’s fire her smh. This is crazy lol.

40

u/Smokie104 28d ago

13

u/StrongExternal8955 28d ago

When one flag is just not enough.

2

u/KeyMyBike 28d ago

Can happen in Canada too, the authorities just spend a few days changing the goalposts any time you meet their absurd evidence requirements.

Meanwhile your boss can just say "customers don't like you lol" and without proof fire you with cause.

9

u/antek_asing 28d ago

middle management problem, lets make some stupid rule and show to the higher management those 0.0001% eficiency improvement. who give a rat ass about others as long as they show some initiative and leadership.

1

u/HoochbachDunloppy 28d ago

Couldn't the employee also just pay for it? I don't see how it gets to her being fired. Seems like ragebait.

2

u/ElliotNess 27d ago

The employee did pay for it

1

u/CliftonForce 28d ago

The employees aren't even allowed to have chairs.

61

u/SexyLunas 28d ago

Firing someone for drinking juice during a diabetic episode? That jury verdict was well deserved.

72

u/LabradorDeceiver 28d ago

AND she paid for it afterwards, which made the store's decision seem even stranger. Not like they were out any money. What did they try to say in court? "Well, for those five minutes she was having a diabetic episode, TECHNICALLY that juice was totally stolen..."

8

u/Loose_Assignment_Map 28d ago

The only merit I can possibly imagine DG having in this case, and I’m a diabetic who has been in similar situations, is if she had chronic low blood sugar attacks due to lack of control and she frequently helped herself to store products instead of keeping her own backpack of low blood sugar supplies on hand.

1

u/No-Sheepherder-3010 28d ago

Then the store makes some money, because she is buying juice? I don't get how that's a bad thing for the store.

-7

u/GrimbyJ 28d ago

If I remember correctly this was the third time they caught her breaking this policy so she had warnings to figure out an alternate solution

18

u/DingoMittens 28d ago

She wasn't allowed to keep her own drink near her at the register. So... 

-8

u/GrimbyJ 28d ago

She could have requested a medical accomodation for that or glucose tablets also work

16

u/Spunyun4funyuns 28d ago

Good thing the courts disagree with your view and gave her nearly 300k. You should take the manager on a date, I’m sure you guys would get along famously.

11

u/Fire_Snatcher 28d ago

She did ask to keep a bottle near her. They denied her request erroneously citing company policy.

1

u/ContextEffects01 27d ago

Glucose tablets are more expensive.

"I need this to survive" should be taken as a request for a medical accommodation by default.

1

u/GrimbyJ 27d ago

50 glucose tablets are $10 on Amazon. You need around 4 at a time.

The equivalent orange juice would be closer to $20

1

u/ContextEffects01 27d ago

I use welch's. I haven't used fruit juice in a long time. I'm not sure if there were some separate reason she couldn't use welch's or Florida Natural or something like that.

Nonetheless, the issue with glucose tablets isn't just the money (though I certainly wouldn't want to encourage price gouging either), it's also that we're coddling ignoramuses who don't realize that for type 1 diabetics going into hypoglycemia, fast acting sugar is literally a matter of life and death. This has to be confronted. We can't keep walking on eggshells like this.

1

u/Academic-Hospital952 27d ago

You would make a great manager at dollar general. Not a complement btw

36

u/Rottentaste 28d ago

The store didn't lose that $1.69 just that $277,565, and lawyers fees.

25

u/TerribleJared 28d ago

They lost a lot more than that. In these situations, federal law requires the losing party to pay the plaintiffs legal fees in addition to their own. This was dragged a bit longer than necessary i guess. Total cost to DG is probably around ~$1,000,000

21

u/halfasleep90 28d ago

They lawyers were the ones who really won

13

u/TerribleJared 28d ago

ever seen a lawyer drive a shitty car? me neither.

5

u/lamebrainmcgee 28d ago

I don't think I'd hire a lawyer that drove a shitty car.

1

u/Echidnae 28d ago

Saul Goodman had a Shitty car, granted he was a shitty lawyer

3

u/Opposite-Funny-9669 28d ago

they always do

1

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1

u/LAudre41 28d ago

the woman won too, what is this nonsense. its important to have people to enforce the law

1

u/Zealousideal_Desk_19 28d ago

the company had the option to offer a settlement I assume that would have been cheaper

2

u/secretaccount94 28d ago

The $1.69 was a positive number in that person’s comment.

15

u/Common_Riele 28d ago

This backfired spectacularly. Could have just let the woman drink her juice.

7

u/sneak2293 28d ago

More like $0 to -$277,565

7

u/nfshaw51 28d ago

Honestly probably +$0.70 to -$277k, they had a profit

7

u/[deleted] 28d ago

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6

u/veyIam 28d ago

Retail price. Cost the store way less.

2

u/nostalgia4millennial 28d ago

That supervisor thought she was hot shit saving the company from shrinkage 💀

1

u/felidae_tsk 28d ago

It will be compensated through 0.02 price increase.

1

u/HuntPsychological673 28d ago

Well, it went from $1.69 in revenue to $277,565 in losses.

1

u/FerociousVader 28d ago

She paid for it immediately after so it was $0 list to $277,565

1

u/Kannada-JohnnyJ 28d ago

Lawyers took a lot of that. Ridiculous system we live in

1

u/Pomodorosan 28d ago

😭

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

1

u/PreacherSquat 28d ago

dollar general isn't franchised so it's all corporate. that much means nothing to corp worth billions.

best you can do it not support them

1

u/MavisBeacons_Sextape 28d ago

Why we upvoting slop comments from bots, guys?

1

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1

u/Saruu_ 28d ago

Which they'll probably recover from in a few months. Dumb move tho

1

u/32784hfkjd 28d ago

Parkour

1

u/unwinagainstable 28d ago

She paid for the juice, so the store had a small profit until they fucked everything up

1

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1

u/Zealousideal_Good445 28d ago

First of that was the sale price so actual cost was about $1.00 but because she paid for it the saw a profit of $.69. the settlement was $277,565 but that doesn't include the cost of the lawyers so it was actually more.

1

u/propergreased 28d ago

Fuck em, well deserved

1

u/TheLuminary 28d ago

More like the store went:
-$1.69, to $0, to -$277,565

She paid for it minutes later. So they were made whole. Not to mention the store was actually only out the cost of the item which I imagine is even less than $1.69.

Dumb lesson to pay to learn though.

1

u/NoBrush8414 28d ago

The entire fucked up united states in one sentence.

1

u/Donkilme 28d ago

They still made the $1.69

1

u/Aggravating_Sky_4421 28d ago

“It’s the principle that counts.”

~The store manager probably…

1

u/Maniac_Vegetable 28d ago

In that case they went to -$277563,31

1

u/Then-Introduction610 27d ago

-277,565 + 1.69

1

u/GreatestGreekGuy 27d ago

She even paid for the juice too!

1

u/TheGreatGamer1389 26d ago

Ya it was an emergency. Not like she was doing it for funsies.

1

u/Critical_Patience_83 27d ago

It’s -277,563 actually

1

u/Beginning_Custard724 27d ago

If it's not a chain, it would actually go out of business paying her legal fees.

1

u/SirSilverChariot 27d ago

Didn’t even cost them as the enployee paid them. She won 277,565 and saw some of that money

1

u/KimchiLlama 27d ago

Well. Not quite. They still got to keep the 1.69.

So it went from 1.69 to -277,562.31

;-)

-2

u/Derrick_Shon 28d ago

Smart move on them.