KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. — Delhaize debuted its price-impact discount format Bottom Dollar in the Philadelphia market on Friday — the first of up to 20 stores it expects to open in the market by the end of the year.
The 19,000-square-foot store is the 29th Bottom Dollar that Brussels-based Delhaize has opened since introducing the concept in 2005. Other stores are in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
“We are very fortunate to have a strong emerging banner that we can continue to grow in new markets,” said Meg Ham, president of Bottom Dollar, which was split off from Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion as a separate division earlier this year.
Bottom Dollar carries a limited assortment of about 6,800 items in what it describes as a “full-shop, soft-discount” format emphasizing low prices in a fun, colorful environment.
The move is seen as intensifying price pressures in the market, where Supervalu’s Acme chain has the No. 1 market share and where the struggling A&P operates its Pathmark and Super Fresh banners. It's also a major market for the highly promotional ShopRite banner.
“Philadelphia is one of the toughest markets in the United States right now,” Scott Mushkin, managing director at Jefferies & Co., New York, said at the recent SN Analysts’ Roundtable. “It's one of those markets where you'd think, in three or four years, that it's going to have to consolidate.”
Bottom Dollar has also signed leases in the greater Philadelphia market at the following locations:
· 2134 Street Road, Bensalem Township, Pa.
· 154 Airport Road, Valley Township, Pa.
· 889 E. Lancaster Ave., East Caln, Pa.
· 11 Bellvue Ave., Penndel, Pa.
· 1856 Catasauqua Road, Allentown, Pa.
· 1955 Davisville Road, Willow Grove, Pa.
· 782 Bethlehem Pike, North Wales, Pa.
· 2826 Dekalb Pike, Norristown, Pa.
· 219 W. Butler Ave., Chalfont, Pa.
