 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | September 21, 2005; 20 years ago (2005-09-21) |
| Founder | Created by parentDelhaize America |
| Defunct | January 12, 2015 |
| Fate | Sold toAldi |
| Headquarters | Salisbury,North Carolina,U.S. |
| Products | Grocery |
| Parent | Delhaize Group |
Bottom Dollar Food is a defunct American soft-discount grocery chain. It was a subsidiary ofDelhaize America, the U.S. division of international food retailerDelhaize Group. Its headquarters was inSalisbury, North Carolina.[1]
Bottom Dollar Food sold an assortment of both private brands and national brands at low prices. To curtail costs, the grocer offered customers the option to buy bags to sack their groceries, and also used alternative display and stocking techniques, such as cut cases on shelves.
Bottom Dollar was created by parentDelhaize America at the same time as the upscale chainBloom in 2004.[2] The first Bottom Dollar Food opened inHigh Point, North Carolina, on September 21, 2005, and eventually there were around 30 stores in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio[3] before the expansion into other states in 2010.[2]
Beginning in October 2010 in King of Prussia, PA, Bottom Dollar Food opened 19 stores in theDelaware Valley andLehigh Valley areas.[4] The first store inPhiladelphia was opened on April 15, 2011.[5] Some industry analysts believed those markets were already overstored with discount competitors such asAldi,PriceRite andSave-A-Lot.[2] A Philadelphia area competitor was quoted as saying
In January 2012, Delhaize announced that it would close six and convert 22 others of the original southern Bottom Dollar stores toFood Lion supermarkets as part of a restructuring; the Bloom brand was also retired.[6][7] The restructuring resulted in the Bottom Dollar name disappearing outside of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In late February 2012, Bottom Dollar expanded intoPittsburgh andYoungstown, Ohio, neither of which have the parent Food Lion chain and are dominated byGiant Eagle. In these markets, Bottom Dollar also competed with variousSuperValu-supplied stores (including low-priceSave-A-Lot),Aldi, andWalmart.[8]
In spring 2013, in order to cut costs, Bottom Dollar started to require aquarter to use ashopping cart. When the quarter was inserted, the cart would be unlocked from the other carts. When the cart was returned, the customer was refunded their coin, effectively costing the customer only the time to return the cart. This was a practice also used byAldi. Though ubiquitous inEurope, where both Aldi and Bottom Dollar's parent companyDelhaize Group are headquartered, it is rare in American stores which often have employees return carts left in parking areas.
In August 2014, it was learned that Delhaize wanted to sell all 66 of its remaining Bottom Dollar stores[2] Forty-six of the stores were located in the Delaware Valley and Lehigh Valley in southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and 20 in the Pittsburgh-Youngstown corridor of Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio. Bottom Dollar stores were reported to range in size from 16,848 square feet (Ambler, PA) to 30,352 square feet (Catasaqua Road, Allentown, PA), an average store being about 20,000 square feet, with weekly sales volumes from $296,800 (North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA) to $103,000 (East Windsor, NJ), the average sales being around $150,000 weekly.[2] Although 10 of the New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania stores were company-owned, most stores were leased, with leasehold rents are in the $10–12 per square foot range.
On November 5, 2014, Delhaize Group announced they were selling the Bottom Dollar chain to Aldi, with plans to close the stores by early 2015.[9] The stores were scheduled to close on January 15, 2015, but closed three days early on January 12 due to all the stores selling out their inventory quicker than expected.[10][11] Delhaize finalized the sale of the shuttered locations to Aldi on March 27, 2015,[12] with plans to reopen 30 of the locations purchased as Aldi,[13] including a location in Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood.[14] The remaining locations—all of which were near existing Aldi locations—were eitherflipped orsublet by Aldi.[13][14]
The stores sold theMy Essentials andHannaford private brands.
Bottom Dollar Food competed with other discount supermarket chains - includingPriceRite,Save-A-Lot,Aldi, andC-Town Supermarkets.
