Save-A-Lot to open 7 new Pa., N.J. stores

Discount grocer Save-A-Lot plans five new Philadelphia-area stores. The chain has found two new locations in North Philly, at 7th and Lehigh and 5th and Allegheny; another on Knights Road in the Northeast; and one each in Norristown and Lindenwold.  Save-A-Lot is also adding stores in Bridgeton, N.J., and Lebanon, Pa., says broker Metro Commercial Real Estate, whose broker Michael Murray found the locations.

Save-A-Lot operates 1,300 U.S. stores including at least 10 in Philadelpha and its closest South Jersey suburbs. Of the new stores, the city locations are each around 17,000 sqare feet; Norristown is larger, at 19,500 sf; Lebanon is the smallest of the group at 15,000 sf. Save-A-Lot is owned by U.S. grocery holdings giant SuperValu Inc. (a former owner of Acme Markets, which is now co-owned by Cerebrus Capital, Philadelphia's Lubert-Adler Partners and other investors).

Separately, rival Aldi's said last week it is converting 30 stores of the former Bottom Dollar chain, including 14 in Philadelpha and its suburbs. Aldi's, owned by a branch of Germany's Albrecht grocery family (another branch owns Trader Joe's), bought 66 Bottom Dollar stores for $15 million last year as they were shut down by their owner, Europe's Delhaize Group. Delhaize had opened the Bottom Dollar stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio in 2009-14, hoping to cash in on the U.S. recession that drove shoppers to hunt for bargains.