A discount grocery store will return to Baldwin Borough, as the former Bottom Dollar Food in the Brownsville Plaza will reopen as an Aldi.
On March 27, Aldi announced the purchase of 66 properties from Delhaize Group, which owns Bottom Dollar Food stores.
Aldi plans to reopen the closed Bottom Dollar stores in Garfield, Homestead, McKeesport, Ross, Aliquippa and Carnegie as well as the Bon Aire Plaza location in Butler and the Saltsburg Road location in Penn Hills.
The opening of the neighborhood grocery store provides “much-needed local access to fresh food,” in the Baldwin, Whitehall and Pleasant Hills areas, said non-profit Economic Development South executive director Greg Jones.
“The grocery store is an important retail anchor in that area and its continued operation, and the consumer traffic it generates, helps support numerous other retail uses in that area.”
Many years ago, there were more neighborhood-level grocery stores in the area, he said. In the last two decades, grocery stores have shifted to one-stop-shop style services.
“Most people had to drive a bit farther to get to, but got a better price and wider selection,” Jones said.
Bottom Dollar seemed to be a split between the two options, Jones said. It was one of the few grocery stores in this part of the South Hills.
After the Bottom Dollar opened, the Foodland grocery store in the Curry Hollow Shoppes nearby closed, with owners citing the added competition as one of the reasons.
“If you a look at a map of grocery stores in the South Hills you can see that this site is the closest option for a big portion of the neighborhood. Since the Aldi product has historically performed really well in Pittsburgh, I'd expect they'll remain really competitive at this location while not cutting into the business of other South Hills grocery stores,” Jones said.
Stephanie Hacke is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-388-5818 or shacke@tribweb.com.
