BANGOR – Family Dollar, a nationwide chain of dollar stores in legal trouble for its labor practices, is opening a store on the corner of State Street and Broadway.

Florence Stanley, a Family Dollar spokeswoman, said the company plans to open the store on Aug. 26, after construction is completed on the 11,000-square-foot building that previously housed Rite Aid pharmacy.

“[Family Dollar] offers first-quality, low-priced basic merchandise for family and home needs,” Stanley said Thursday. “The majority of the merchandise is priced below $10, and we have an everyday low price policy.”

Stanley added that the store would employ seven or eight full- and part-time employees, including a manager and assistant manager.

Family Dollar, based in Matthews, N.C., operates more than 5,300 stores nationwide in 44 states, according to the company’s Web site.

Family Dollar already has stores locally in Brewer, Old Town, Verona, Dexter and Dover-Foxcroft. The company claimed it opened 475 new stores in the last fiscal year, which ended Aug. 30, 2003. Family Dollar became a Fortune 500 company in 2002.

The construction being done on the store’s future home is focused on the building’s leaky roof, according to city Code Enforcement Officer Dan Wellington. The rest of the construction is “largely cosmetic” and involved installing new shelves, floor tile, and painting interior walls. Tom Ellis is the general contractor for the job.

The building, which overlooks downtown Bangor across Broadway from All Souls Congregational Church, is owned by Jack Knapp and Susan Giguere of Newton, Mass. Family Dollar is leasing the building. Leasing information was not available.

Family Dollar employs 21,000 full-time and 1,600 part-time employees nationwide, not all of whom are happy with the company’s labor practices.

A class-action lawsuit against Family Dollar, originally filed in January 2001 by two former store managers, now represents more than 2,500 current and former managers.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alabama, claims Family Dollar violated the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act by classifying managers as “exempt” and ineligible for overtime compensation. The plaintiffs are seeking unpaid overtime compensation, attorney’s fees, and other costs and expenses.

Stanley declined to comment on the suit, but pointed to a Jan. 9, 2003, Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the company that rebutted the claims of the lawsuit.

“While the outcome of any litigation is inherently uncertain, the company believes that the store managers are ‘exempt’ employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act and have been properly compensated and that the company has meritorious defenses that should enable it to ultimately prevail,” the filing said.

The case is set to begin later this year.