DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit City Councilwoman Angela Whitfield-Calloway is taking a stance against dollar stores. She says there’s way too many of them in the area and something needs to be done about that.
"There’s many of things the city of Detroit needs, definitely not more dollar stores,” said Detroit resident Tatianna Tolbert.
“There needs to be more oversight for ones that already exist and for those that are coming,” said Felicia Tolbert, Detroit resident.
Tatianna and Felicia Tolbert echo the same feelings of Councilwoman Whitfield-Calloway.
“I just want to get a handle on the number that are already in the city which.. we think is hovering around 80 stores, could be more,” said Whitfield-Calloway.
This week, Councilwoman Whitfield-Calloway requested a moratorium or temporary prohibition of dollar stores from coming into the city. Whitfield-Calloway says the moratorium would be in place until city lawmakers can pass an ordinance that will regulate future dollar stores.
“My intent is that if a dollar store is planning to open in the city then that’s a requirement that you devote my 10% of your retail space to offering healthy foods,” said Whitfield- Calloway.
Whitfield-Calloway says the number of dollar stores in the city make it hard for local or smaller grocery stores to thrive.
“I believe those mom-and-pop stores that ordinarily would offer healthy food options are being pushed out because of the dollar stores that to me have a monopoly on convenience stores,” the councilwoman added.
Under Whitfield-Calloway’s proposed ordinance, there will also be regulations that will make sure the dollar stores are clean and up to code.
“The dollar stores in our area have accumulated over $585,000 in blight tickets,” she said. “They’re not keeping their property on the outside clean, neither are they maintaining a clean environment inside the stores.”
The Dollar Tree, Dollar Store, and Family Dollar are all owned by the same company. 7 Action News reached out to the parent company for a statement regarding the story, but we haven’t heard back yet.
