Trash keeps piling up at Gwinnett dollar stores, leaders demand stores do better

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Local officials are holding a big corporation accountable for ignoring citations and allowing their stores to become breeding grounds for illegal dumping.

Gwinnett County leaders tell Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes that trash has been accumulating outside Dollar Tree and Family Dollar properties for years.

Now, they say they aren’t going to deal with it anymore.

“You’ve taken no action – now I’m here today to work with you,” said Gwinnett Solicitor General Brian Whiteside.

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There are several Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores, which are owned by the same corporation, all over Gwinnett County.

Over the last couple of years, there has been visible trash all over the properties like old mattresses, furniture and litter.

County officials said the problem is many of the stores just leave it until gets out of hand and nothing happens when they cited the properties.

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The Gwinnett solicitor general called a meeting Thursday inside a courtroom to hold the Dollar Tree Corporation officials accountable.

They admitted that they’ve got to do better.

“We’re prepared to retrain our employees at the district and store levels, and hopefully that’s where a lot of our issues will be resolved,” a Dollar Tree representative said.

Whiteside believes this more than an issue for store managers.

“If you keep getting citations then that should be a warning to you. If you keep getting citations then you take action,” Whiteside said. “We can’t always blame the lower management – you need to start educating your corporate execs.”

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