When news broke last August that a Dollar Tree store would be opening at the corner of 111th Street and Western Avenue, 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea was not pleased.
In September, he sent a mass email to constituents and said that four other locations in the community that are operated by Dollar Tree, Inc., have created public-safety and quality-of-life issues. He sent a letter to the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) requesting it deny any business-license application from Dollar Tree, Inc., at what would be its fifth local store.
In October, he introduced an amendment to Municipal Code Title 4 and 17, that was cosponsored by 46 other aldermen.
In November, O’Shea published his opinion about the retail chain in the 19th Ward Quarterly.
“These stores have a long history of public safety and quality of life issues for residents and surrounding businesses,” O’Shea said in the publication. “I have repeatedly tried to work collaboratively with Dollar Tree at the local and corporate levels to address these issues with no success.”
On Jan. 24, after being advanced to the City Council by the Committee on License and Consumer Protection, the amendment was up for a vote, but O’Shea unexpectedly motioned to table the vote after opposition from some aldermen.
The amendment targets “small-box retailers,” 4,000 to 17,500 square feet in size, that typically charge less than $5 for their goods. Exceptions include pharmacies, gas stations and specialty food stores. Small-box retailers that dedicate 10 percent of floor space to fresh produce or meat would also be exempt.
Under the proposed amendment, operators would not be able to open a new store within a mile of a dollar store that they currently own. The legislation would also require operators to be more responsive to complaints, requiring each business to display the owner’s contact information on the front and back of their buildings.
Dollar Tree, Inc., operates both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores. with nearly 130 stores throughout Chicago. The company reported a net income of $1.6 billion in 2022 and operates more than 15,000 stores throughout the United States and Canada.
The 19th Ward currently has four Dollar Tree locations: 9255 S. Western Ave., 10601 S. Pulaski Rd., 11041 S. Kedzie Ave., and 11810 S. Western Ave. The fifth location, the site of a former CVS Pharmacy at 11055 S. Western Ave., appears to have been ready to open since December, but it has yet to do so.
In his September email, O’Shea said existing locations have generated complaints from nearby homeowners that include overflowing garbage cans, parking lots filled with debris and litter, illegal use of the public way, and unsafe building conditions.
“In June 2015, I publicly opposed Dollar Tree opening at 106th and Pulaski. Since then, my concerns have been validated time and time again,” said O’Shea. “Dollar Tree is a bad operator that has been squeezing profits out of our community for years with little regard to the problems they create.”
O’Shea did not return requests for comment for this article.
Another vote on the amendment was scheduled for Jan. 31 in the City Council, but the vote was postponed due to other business.