Dollar General brought back Todd Vasos to serve as CEO so the discount retailer could return to better days.
In fact, the Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based company pulled Vasos out of retirement to replace Jeff Owens at CEO. Owens was with the retailer for less than a year.
Vasos has wasted little time coming up with a strategy for the brick-and-mortors, which he shared during the retailer’s Q3 earnings call on Thursday.
Essentially the CEO wants to get a better hold on the number of products offered in stores and give customers a more positive experience.
Vasos said the company had looked at every element of the business that touches consumers to create a plan moving forward.
Dollar General wants more workers interacting with shoppers and has made an additional $150 million investment in store labor hours. Vasos said the company has leaned on self-checkout too much and referred to it as a secondary checkout vehicle during the earnings call. The rise in the number of store managers resigning will also be addressed.
Inventory management will be stressed more. Dollar General will look to reduce the number of items for sale and get out-of-stocks under control. Currently there are 11,000 to 12,000 products offered at stores, and even though Vasos does not have a specific number in mind he said plans are to remove a meaningful number. He said the out-of-stock numbers are the worst he has seen in more than 15 years.
Dollar General has been fined numerous times by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and at one point this year was sitting on over $21 million in penalties. The violations have ranged from blocked fire exits to too much clutter in the aisles to exposed fire hazards.
