Family Dollar Class Action Says Cluttered Aisles Violate ADA

A recent class action lawsuit claims that Family Dollar fails to make their stores accessible to individuals with disabilities by having cluttered aisles that are hard to navigate.

Aisles in the Family Dollar stores are reportedly obstructed by “merchandise, merchandise displays, stocking carts and/or other items positioned so that they block or narrow the aisle pathways of its stores,” according to the Family Dollar class action lawsuit.

Plaintiff Gayle Lewandowski says that Family Dollar puts “profit ahead of the rights of people with disabilities.” The stores are reportedly hard to navigate even for customers without disabilities, meaning that disabled consumers struggle even more to shop in the stores.

Lewandowski says she’s visited Family Dollar stores on multiple occasions but was denied “full and equal access” to the store because her disability made it impossible to shop through the cluttered aisles. When she brought her concerns to the manager, she was allegedly asked to leave the store and not come back. She claims that the lack of equal access is uniform across numerous Family Dollar stores.

“The access barriers described herein are not temporary and isolated. They are systemic, recurring, and reflective of Defendant’s marketing and store policies and practices,” the Family Dollar class action lawsuit claims. “Plaintiff has encountered the same barriers on multiple occasions and has been repeatedly deterred from accessing Defendant’s goods and services as a result.”

According to the Family Dollar class action, the lack of equal access violates the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This law requires all businesses to provide full and equal access to individuals, regardless of whether or not they have a disability.

Family Dollar allegedly fails to meet the expectations of the ADA by running stores that are hard to navigate by disabled individuals.

Lewandowski argues that Family Dollar’s crowded aisles are not simply a symptom of poor management or understaffing. Instead, she claims that the practice is intentional and “driven by a calculated judgment that impeding interior paths of travel increases sales revenue and profits.”

The Family Dollar class action references articles from numerous news outlets including The New York Times which states that dollar stores such as those run by Family Dollar are intentionally messy to encourage purchasing.

“Although this practice may increase profits, it does so at the expense of basic civil rights guaranteed to people with disabilities by the ADA because it results in unlawful access barriers,” Lewandowski claims in her Family Dollar class action lawsuit.

Lewandowski seeks to represent a Class of consumers with mobility disabilities who have attempted to access the interior of any Family Dollar store and who experienced access barriers. She also seeks to represent a Class of the same consumers in Pennsylvania as part of a state-wide class.

The Family Dollar ADA class action lawsuit seeks injunctive relief, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Lewandowski and the proposed Class are represented by R. Bruce Carlson, Kelly K. Iverson, and Bryan A. Fox of Carlson Lynch LLP.

The Family Dollar Cluttered Aisles Class Action Lawsuit is Lewandowski v. Family Dollar Stores Inc., Case No. 2:19-cv-00858-MJH, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

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