Bottom Dollar expands into Pennsylvania, Ohio

The Salisbury-based Bottom Dollar grocery chain, owned by Food Lion's parent company, said Friday that it will open 14 stores near Pittsburgh, PA, and Youngstown, OH, early next year.

Bottom Dollar sells food in a no-frills, bag-it-yourself format. Much like other low-cost chain's, such as Aldi's, Bottom Dollar has a limited selection of about 7,000 items, with a focus on private label products. The chain was started in High Point in 2005, and has since grown to 47 stores.

Last year, Bottom Dollar said it planned to significantly increase its number of stores as part of an effort to capture increasingly price-conscious shoppers. The chain opened 16 stores in the Philadelphia market.

Locally, there are Bottom Dollar stores in Mooresville and Hickory.

Belgium-based Delhaize operates seven U.S. supermarket chains: Food Lion, its biggest, with over 1,300 stores, and the smaller Bloom, Harveys, Reid's, Hannafords, Sweetbay and Bottom Dollar.

Revenue at Delhaize's U.S. stores declined about 1 percent in 2010, to $18.8 billion, and sales at stores open for at least a year fell 2 percent. Delhaize doesn't break out results for its different U.S. chains.

Delhaize is also in the midst of converting its N.C. and S.C. Bloom stores into Food Lions, while it expands Bloom stores around suburban Washington, D.C. Charlotte stores are expected to change over in the coming weeks.