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ALDI won’t open at any former Bottom Dollar stores
and Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
With ALDI’s decision not to reopen three former Bottom Dollar Food stores in the city, Henry Nemenz, whose family owns 24 grocery stores in the area, said he’s interested in the three locations and a former Sparkle Market spot on the city’s West Side.
“We see potential in these locations,” he said. “My family is interested.”
Nemenz, whose family owns four of the city’s five remaining full-service grocery stores, is among the business owners city officials have contacted about the locations.
Nemenz also said Friday his family is interested in the former Sparkle Market at 1912 Mahoning Ave., which closed about three years ago.
On Friday, ALDI announced it completed its $15 million purchase of 66 former Bottom Dollar Food locations, including the three in Youngstown, one at 1756 North Road in Warren and another in New Castle, Pa., at 1700 Wilmington Road. It is converting 30 of the locations into ALDI stores. The four in the Mahoning Valley and the one in New Castle were on the list of sites to “be evaluated for sale, sublease or assignment.”
ALDI considered a number of factors when determining which locations to reopen under the ALDI name. Those factors include site location, proximity to other ALDI stores, population density and community feedback.
Youngstown officials want ALDI to either donate the two locations it owns — at 2649 Glenwood Ave. and 890 E. Midlothian Blvd. — to the city or use the city as an intermediary to sell the stores to a third party that would want to put grocery stores there.
Also, the city wants the 3377 Mahoning Ave. location that Bottom Dollar leased from The Schreiber Co. of Pittsburgh to reopen as a grocery store. ALDI assumed the lease for the store with the Bottom Dollar purchase.
Doug Schreiber, director of leasing and marketing for The Schreiber Co., said the company is disappointed about the loss of a grocery store in the plaza. Schreiber said his plaza is a “strong location” and there is a need for a grocer in the area.
“There is a real opportunity there for someone,” he said.
The city also has received some inquiries about the former Bottom Dollar stores.
“We have had some folks who are interested in the locations ask that we contact them when the final decision came from ALDI,” said Mayor John A. McNally. “We’ll start to reach out to them. There are opportunities, and we’re discussing them with ALDI. We also want to do something with the closed Sparkle location on Mahoning Avenue.”
He declined to disclose the names of those who’ve expressed interest in the former Bottom Dollar stores.
T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s director of community planning and economic development, said she has had conversations with an ALDI official in charge of determining what is to be done with the Bottom Dollar locations the company doesn’t want to keep.
“They’re willing to be flexible with the city,” she said. “We’re going to talk more with their real-estate person to look at all of our options. We’ll be aggressive.”
There are two full-service grocery stores near the former Bottom Dollar location on Midlothian — one in Boardman and the other in Struthers.
But there are no full-service grocery stores near the Glenwood and Mahoning avenues locations. That’s created “food deserts” — a term used to describe struggling urban areas without full-service grocery stores within a mile.
“Glenwood is our greatest concern because people in that neighborhood have to travel further for groceries,” Woodberry said.
Another reason for the city’s focus on the Glenwood location is the city purchased that land from the school district and sold it to Bottom Dollar for a store in 2011.
About 74 percent of Youngstown’s residents live in food deserts, according to Youngstown State University’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies. The center considers those who live more than one mile from a full-service grocer as being in a food desert. About 86 percent of the city’s total land area is in food deserts, YSU research shows.
“My main concern is [Glenwood] is a food desert, and people need to travel to full-service grocery stores,” said Councilman Paul Drennen, D-5th. His ward includes the Glenwood location. “We don’t want residents left with no choice but to shop at corner stores.”
Of the five full-service grocery stores in the city, four are owned by Nemenz and his family: two on McCartney Road, one on Gypsy Lane and the other on South Avenue. There is a Sparkle Market on South Meridian Road.
The three Youngstown locations opened in 2012 with hopes from city officials the stores would spur more retail growth — something that didn’t happen. By the next year, Warren also would have its own Bottom Dollar food discount store. These would be the only four locations to have Bottom Dollar locations.
The Belgium-based parent company of the Bottom Dollar company, Delhaize Group, opened 66 locations with the first in the Philadelphia market in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The company spread its food-discount stores to the west and started to open its Pittsburgh market locations, including the Valley’s stores, in 2012.
Last November, Delhaize Group, which also operates Food Lion and Hannaford brands in the U.S., announced it would leave the discount-food market to focus on the traditional supermarket segment. Consequently, the four Valley locations, and all other Bottom Dollar locations, closed in January. About 100 employees locally and 2,200 altogether were affected.
ALDI, headquartered in Illinois, has 1,400 U.S. stores in 32 states. In 2013, the company started a growth plan to open 650 new stores by the end of 2018. The company’s goal is to have 2,000 stores in its portfolio.