Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposal · 2023
Humane World for Animals (formerly The Humane Society of the United States) at Dollar General
Ask Dollar General to disclose what percentage of its eggs come from cage-free hens, the specific steps it has taken to implement its cage-free egg commitment, and what it will do next to reach its goal of sourcing only cage-free eggs by 2025, within six months of the 2023 annual meeting, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information.
What happened
Result: Not approved at the annual meeting of 31 May 2023, as Proposal 5: 66,880,829 votes for, 116,812,221 against, 1,674,212 abstentions and 11,395,363 broker non-votes, as certified in Dollar General's Item 5.07 Form 8-K. That is 36.4 percent of the shares voted for and against, or 36.1 percent if abstentions are counted in the base.
Not approved, though with the highest support any of the Humane Society's 2023 proposals drew. The Accountability Board, which was not the proponent, told Dollar General shareholders that it was breaking with the board's recommendation and voting for the proposal, pointing to disclosure that the company's competitor Dollar Tree had recently made on the same subject. Dollar General's board opposed the proposal on cost grounds, telling shareholders that many of its customers cannot pay a premium for cage-free eggs.