Dollar Tree, Family Dollar threatened with boycott over unclean stores following distribution center rodent infestation

• Community leaders in Memphis are threatening to boycott Dollar Tree over unclean stores.
• Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, came under scrutiny over a rat infestation at its warehouse.
• The discount chain closed 404 stores and recalled certain products because of this. 

Community leaders in Tennessee are threatening to boycott Dollar Tree if it fails to properly clean its stores after a rodent infestation was discovered at a distribution center in Arkansas, which supplies its Family Dollar chain.   

The Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association held a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the plan of action if Dollar Tree's discount stores in the area are not properly cleaned and waste disposed of, local news site The Commercial Appeal reported.

Several Family Dollar Memphis stores were closed after the infestation was reported last month. 

"We're asking them to make a collective effort to clean up, and clean up their act," community reverend Rickey Dugger reportedly said at the press conference.

Dugger said he is advising his congregation to be cautious when shopping at these stores. But if they find that stores have not been properly cleaned, he plans to call for a boycott.

Insider reached out to Dollar Tree for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Patricia Rogers, who runs a PR business in Memphis and has been vocal about sanitation issues at dollar stores, described "nasty garbage, and pests all over the place" when she spoke at the press conference. 

"We cannot just sit back and let this billion-dollar corporation wreak havoc on this community. They are manipulating Black folks, they know we're their main customer base here," Rogers said, per the Commercial Appeal. 

Dollar Tree closed 404 Family Dollar stores after news of the rodent infestation came out. It has since been gradually reopening some of these stores. 

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, inspectors reported finding live rodents, dead rodents in various states of decay, rodent feces, and dead birds at the warehouse in question. 

Scott Mushkin, CEO of consultancy firm R5 Capital, whose team has visited more than 50 of Family Dollar's parent company's stores in the past year, told Insider last week that rodent infestations were unsurprising given chaotic backrooms and inventory pileups he witnessed during store visits.

"To call it chaotic is an understatement, there were inventory mountains," he said. "I've never seen anything like what we witnessed in those back rooms ... there was plenty of cover for rodents to move around."

Insider's Brittany Chang visited a Dollar Tree store in Bushwick, Brooklyn in January and found boxes blocking aisles and others stacked up in a way she called "unsafe."