Family Dollar stores, a subsidiary of Chesapeake, VA-based Dollar Tree, has pleaded guilty to operating its former West Memphis, AK distribution center in an unsanitary (and dangerous) manner and will pay the U.S. Justice Department $41.7 million in forfeitures and fines, the largest monetary financial penalty in U.S. history. You may remember that in 2022, the 850,000 square foot "Rathouse" was found to have housed thousands of rodents potentially tainting products that were shipped to about 400 FD stores in the region. To give Dollar Tree its due, the company was fully cooperative with the government's investigation and has made a commitment to build an expanded new facility on site which will employ about 300 associates. Still, you gotta wonder why companies like Family Dollar and Dollar Tree continue to operate or have operated stores and warehouses that are unsanitary, unsafe and unappealing on so many levels We have a couple of obituaries to report this month, including one from the food industry.