Family Dollar is a variety stores chain in the United States. It has locations in 45 states of the country along with District of Columbia. Let’s take a look at employment opportunities at Family Dollar distribution centers.

Company History –
Family Dollar was founded in 1959 by Leon Levine. The first store was opened in Charlotte, North Carolina. By the end of the 1960s, the company had 50 stores. The chain’s hundredth store was opened in the year 1971. The chain was expanding almost at the rate of a 100 stores a year, with the 400th store opening in 1981 and the 500th in 1982. By the 1990s, the expansion slowed down and there were 1000 Family Dollar stores. However, since the new millenium, the expansion has been relatively faster. The company now has stores in more than 7000 locations and employs more than 45,000 employees.

Jobs at Family Dollar distribution centers –
Below are some of the jobs you can get at Family Dollar distribution centers:

Security Guard: As a security guard, your responsibility is to secure the grounds of facility, maintain reports, perform regular inspections of distribution center and check the trucks in and out according to procedures.

Repack Order Filler: As a repack order filler, your duty is to select items ordered by stores and pack them properly in boxes and containers. You will be required to pull store orders according to set production and quality standards.

Yard Switcher – As a yard switcher, you will move trailers around the yard as needed to provide trailers for the shipping and receiving dock doors, provides some maintenance of trucks and runs local routes. This job requires Class A CDL, 1-year Over-the-Road driving experience and safe driving record.

Maintenance technician Team Member: As a maintenance technician team member, your responsibilities are to ensure safe work environment and maintain an organized work area, to ensure that all material handling equipment batteries are properly maintained for efficient performance, to complete the daily P.I.T checklist to ensure that equipment is working properly and to report any defects to management. You will also be required to operate the P.I.T equipment in a safe manner. A High school diploma/GED is preferred for this job. One year certificate from a college or technical school with six months of experience or training in a retail distribution center is preferred. One to three years of industrial maintenance experience is preferred in a retail distribution center.

Warehouse Team Member: For this position, your responsibilities are to maintain accuracy of documents, to focus on labels to select from correct location in order to provide the stores with the correct merchandise ordered, to ensure that the labels are placed properly on merchandise in order to be scanned correctly and to ensure that damaged merchandise is handled through the proper procedures. In addition to a High School diploma/GED, four to six months of retail distribution center experience is preferred. You will be using the following equipments for the job: Tugger, Walkie Rider, tape, crayon, box knives, telephone, modular phone, RF unit, aprons, computer labels, and voice equipment.  Required to use PPE per center requirements.

Note that some of the above jobs require you to be able to lift 50 to 60 pounds of weight and require adequate fitness level to meet the demands of frequent lifting, walking, moderate climbing etc.
All the above jobs require you to submit to a background check and Drug screening.

Family Dollar distribution centers are located in
Duncan, OK,
Front Royal, VA,
Maquoketa, IA,
Marianna, FL,
Matthews, NC
Morehead, KY,
Odessa, TX,
Rome, NY.
West Memphis, AR

What are the benefits offered by Family Dollar?
The following are the benefits offered by Family Dollar. For part-time employees, Family Dollar offers Medical, Dental, Vision, Voluntary life insurance including coverage for spouse and children, 401(k) and ESPP(Employee Stock Purchase Plan). For full-time employees, Family Dollar offers the following benefits in addition to the benefits mentioned for the part-time employees: Short term disability, long term disability, Critical illness, Accidental Death and Dismemberment, on-site health risk assessments through Major Medical Plan.

How to apply online for a job at a Family Dollar distribution center?
To apply for a Family Dollar distribution center job, go to: http://corporate.familydollar.com/pages/distributioncentercareer.aspx
There, you will see the second link is for Hourly jobs. Click on it. It will then take you to a screen where you can select location as well as job field. Select the appropriate options. Once done, click on the ‘Search for jobs’ button. The job area need not be selected as there is just one area, which is of course ‘Distribution and logistics’. You can search by location though. However, the page does display the list of all jobs in all locations below the fields. Select one of the available positions listed below. This will take you to the job description and requirements page. At the bottom of the page, you will see the ‘Apply Online’ button. Click on it. It will take you to a page asking for login. Assuming that you’re a new user, click on the ‘New User’ button right there to create a new account. Once the account has been made, you can use it to apply for jobs of the website.

Following are some additional points that might help you know about the jobs at Family Dollar:

• The average salary for a forklift operator is $11/hr.
• The average annual salary for a merchandise allocator is $41,500 with the highest reported salary being $43k and the lowest being $40k.
• The average salary for a shipping loader is $12.5/hr with the highest reported salary being $13/hr and lowest being $12/hr.
• Sample interview question – “Describe a time when you faced with a challenging task. How did you handle it?”
• Sample interview question – “What do you think you bring to Family Dollar that would benefit the company?”
• Sample interview question – “Why did you leave your last job?”
• Sample interview question – “Why should Family Dollar hire you?”

That’s all about employment at Family Dollar distribution centers. Coming to the employee satisfaction, it is very low, ie. many employees are dissatisfied with their jobs. The dissatisfaction seems to be largely because of overbearing management and low pay, many jobs paying very little over minimum wage. Only 41% approve of the C.E.O Howard R. Levine.