Since January 2017, OSHA has inspected more than 270 Dollar General stores and found 111 instances of workplace safety violations. The agency has also imposed more than $15.5 million in penalties during that period, according to data provided by a White House official.

OSHA inspectors have found issues such as obstructed fire exits and boxes of merchandise cluttering the aisles or stacked precariously high.

In some cases, federal inspectors have gone into a store to demand that a hazard be fixed, only to find in a follow-up visit that the problem was still there, according to two federal officials who spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity to discuss the violations.

The fines represent a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars in sales that Dollar General generates every year.

And until recently, the officials said, the company was not willing to engage with OSHA about resolving these issues broadly, and it has contested many of the penalties.

OSHA and Dollar General are now in the very early stages of a settlement discussion to resolve the penalties and come up with a plan to improve certain conditions in the retailer’s stores, the two federal officials said.

Dollar General did not comment on the settlement talks.

Based in Tennessee, Dollar General has been expanding its network of stores at a rapid clip, opening thousands of locations during the pandemic. With 19,000 stores in the United States, Dollar General operates twice as many locations as Walmart and Target combined.