The Debate About Dollar Stores Comes to Linden

What is going on in my neighborhood?”

Longtime Linden resident Luster Singleton asks that question in a late-March Facebook Live video from the Family Dollar at East Hudson Street and I-71, where Singleton filmed a buildup of trash in the parking lot and condemned the incorrectly priced items in the store.

Nicknaming the chain of discount stores “Family Squalor,” Singleton began filming the East Hudson location and another store just over a mile away at East Weber and McGuffey roads last August. “I didn’t realize it was a crusade, but I started to see that something had changed,” Singleton told Alive, suspecting that the decline was due in part to the 2015 acquisition of Family Dollar by Dollar Tree, a chain that sells its items even cheaper.

In the videos, Singleton implores the North Linden Area Commission and Mayor Andrew Ginther to take action. “I’m tired of it,” Singleton says while filming. “This is all we’re left in our neighborhood. You took our grocery stores out. You took any viable businesses out, and all we’re left is with this trashy store, just taking advantage of poor people.”

Continue reading Erica Thompson's article at Columbus Alive.