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After a summer of sporadic hours and frequent closures, Dollar General in Luverne will soon be back on track for regular business.
That’s according to new full-time store manager Adam Smith, who recently moved to Luverne from the Twin Cities to take the reins of the 15-year-old convenience retail business.
“I like the town and I’m looking forward to immersing in the community,” said Smith, who is also a Luverne Rotary Club member. “It’s exciting and it’s a challenge.”
The doors were locked Monday afternoon when he and store employees worked to reorganize aisles.
“We’re closed,” he told customers, offering them a cold bottled water or cherry cola. “But we’re open tonight from 6 to 9, and starting Friday we’ll be open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.”
In the near future, Smith said the store will be back to Dollar General’s regular hours of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. “I want to meet people – that’s why I do this,” he said about the free beverages.
Smith, who hails from Rosemount, delivered mail for 22 years with the postal service in Rosemount and has 35 years of retail convenience store experience, including in management.
“I’m a people person – even though I’ve worked full-time jobs, I like retail and I’ve always worked retail part time on the side,” Smith said.
He said he can’t speak for management prior to his start in Luverne last week, but he admitted the Luverne store “was a mess,” especially compared to Dollar Generals in nearby communities of Pipestone, Rock Rapids, Garretson and others.
“I saw the condition of the Dollar General in Luverne, and it pained me that a store this centrally located couldn’t do better,” Smith said.
“I visited some of the other Dollar Generals. They said they get Luverne customers all the time.”
The sign on the door says Dollar General in Luverne is hiring, but for now Smith said he has a solid staff of eight people, including previous cashiers and employees. He added that they’re “always hiring.”
Smith said he wasn’t familiar with the company’s starting wages, but one worker said she started at $9.86 per hour two years ago and her wage was recently increased to $12.
A weekend worker at the Luverne store said he’s starting at $11 per hour.
Dollar General opened its 8,492-square-foot store on South Highway 75 in Luverne across from Casey’s General Store in March of 2006.