Well I’ve been driving past 2 of the location in Penn Hills since mid summer, as construction workers remodeled existing stores in Penn Hills into new Bottom Dollar Food stores. And today, after a long wait, they finally had their grand opening.

As I drove past this morning on my way to work, people were literally lined up in the parking lot, wrapped all the way around the lot, carts in hand – waiting to get in. Rumor has it that the first 200 people in the store were given a free bag of groceries (can anyone confirm?) They’ve also been sending out coupons in the mail for $10 in free groceries for up to 5 weeks.

NOTE: Shop n Save will also honor these coupons – 1 per week – according to a sign I saw in the Penn Hills’ Shop n Save last night.

According to this article in the Post Gazette:

Bottom Dollar Food, which launched in 2005 and entered Pennsylvania via the Philadelphia market in late 2010, is part of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Belgium-based Delaize Group. The Food Lion and Hannaford grocery chains are owned by the same parent company.

The Bottom Dollar Food concept is part of the trend toward smaller stores packed with core grocery offerings, rather like competitors such as Aldi or Save-A-Lot. The 18,000-square-foot format fits well into spaces that wouldn’t fit many traditional grocery stores.

Besides the two locations in Penn Hills (Frankstown Rd. and Saltsburg Rd.), other locations that opened today include: Aliquippa, Baldwin, Bridgeville, Carnegie and McKeesport. A friend in Youngstown also mentioned that one or more locations are set to open in Ytown as well.