The Pittsburgh Tribune published a story last week about Bottom Dollar’s expansion to the Pittsburgh market. According to the story, nine stores are in the works (or thought to be, anyway) for the area. If the growth of stores in Philadelphia is any indication, the number could rise quickly.
At this time last year we had just begun to talk about Bottom Dollar’s entry to the Philadelphia market. Now we have 16 stores operating in the Greater Philly region, with more planned. I hear they aren’t performing up to expectations, but they’re obviously doing well enough to spur continued expansion – here and to our west.
The Tribune story also made some interesting points, including the following:
- Sales in the limited-assortment grocery segment (which include growing retailers Bottom Dollar, Aldi and Save-A-Lot) increased 14.4% to $27.1 billion in 2010, according to a report by Willard Bishop, a food retailing consultancy.
- “At one time, grocers had most of your wallet for grocery purchases,” said a Willard Bishop managing partner. “Today, they only have about a third.”
I think Bottom Dollar will be around for a while, although I expect parent company Food Lion will eventually have to close some of the under-performing stores in the Philadelphia area. It’ll be interesting to see how they are received in Pittsburgh.
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