Giant ready to open first Philly store

Giant is seeing increases in sales and market share in the Delaware Valley, and now they are preparing for the opening of their first supermarket in Philadelphia. The 74,000 square foot store will open Wednesday at 2550 Grant Avenue in Northeast Philly, and will include on-site gas and a pharmacy. It will be open 24 hours a day.

According to Giant, the store will have 275 employees, both full- and part-time.

With the new store, Giant will have 48 stores in the five-county area that includes Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester counties. According to Food Trade News, these stores averaged approximately $32.5 million in sales in the last year.

Bottom Dollar planning at least 9 stores in Pittsburgh

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.

Related blog posts:

The subtle differences between Aldi, Bottom Dollar and Save-A-Lot

I stopped in the North Wales Bottom Dollar Food Store...

NY Times blogger hails food and grocery efforts in Philly

Mark Bittman blogs for The New York Times in a column called Opinionator, and a couple days ago he wrote an interesting piece on the increase in supermarkets and food options in the city of Philadelphia. In fact, he called Philly one of the most progressive cities in the country when it comes to food. Bittman credits Mayor Nutter, the state of Pennsylvania, and organizations like Food Trust and Philly Bucks.

According to Bittman, "Philadelphia is figuring out its residents' food needs and demonstrating that government and non-profits can lead the fight against diet-related diseases by putting real food into the hands of people - especially children - who have trouble finding and affording it."

Read more here: Go Philly!