Popular Dollar Stores Changing in the Hudson Valley

Theft has gotten so bad at stores in New York and other parts of the country that they could stop selling certain items altogether.

One thing that we've learned over the last few years is that theft at stores most of us shop at has gotten really bad, so bad that some have closed locations due to the problem and others have implemented new theft deterrents to try and stop it.

Popular Stores Locking Up Everything

Last month we shared news that many Home Depot locations have already begun putting certain "high theft" items behind lock and key. The last time I went into the Wappingers Falls Home Depot they had all the power tools locked up. CVS has been locking up specific items for some time now and just last month we learned that a Rite Aid in Poughkeepsie, New York was shutting its doors due to the theft problems, among other things.

Dollar Tree Announces Plans to Stop Thieves

We can now add Dollar Tree stores to the list of places that are going public with the problems they are having with thieves. The company announced recently that they just went through a "miserable" quarter, and are blaming a few factors for the slump including, changing consumer demands, higher prices for fuel and electricity, and theft according to CNN. Dollar Tree's CEO Richard Dreiling and CFO Jeffrey Davis blamed the company's massive drop in its profit margin on what they called "shrink". That's what the retail industry calls inventory losses due to theft, and damages.

Dollar Tree Experiencing "Shrinkage"

The shrink issue seems to be getting worse before it gets better according to company officials and they are preparing to take more drastic measures in the coming months,

"We are now taking a very defensive approach to shrink. We have several new shrink formats that we’ll introduce in the back half of the year, and it goes everything from moving certain SKUs to behind the check stand. It has to do with some cases being locked up. And even to the point where we have some stores that can’t keep a certain SKU on the shelf just discontinuing the item. So we have a lot of things in the works."

SEE ALSO: Someone Actually Stole a Tow Truck in Kingston This Week

Dollar Tree Stores in the Hudson Valley

Dollar Tree has numerous stores across the Hudson Valley with stores in Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Hyde Park, Wappingers Falls, Fishkill, Newburgh, and New Windsor to name a few so the next time you plan to shop at a store near you it might be a bit different than your used too.