Bottom Dollar to close three Pennsylvania stores

Bottom Dollar Foods, a cut-rate grocery chain operated by the nonunion Delhaize America supermarket group, is closing three local stores - one each in North Wales, Montgomery County; Chalfont, Bucks County; and near Reading.

Bottom Dollar began opening stores in the Philadelphia area in 2010. "We made a few mistakes in terms of opening at the beginning," Delhaize chief financial officer Pierre Bouchut told investors in the company's annual conference call Thursday.

Company spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown said Friday that "while these decisions are very difficult, especially given the impact on our associates, customers and communities, our actions will continue to fuel profitable growth for the company."

Delhaize closed 126 U.S. supermarkets, mostly Food Lions, last year, and plans to close eight Food Lions and 33 Sweet Bay markets this year.

The company, which is based in Belgium, said it would close the local stores by mid-February. Bottom Dollar Food still will have 53 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio, including 37 in Greater Philadelphia, and it plans eight Pennsylvania openings by the end of 2013, Phillips-Brown said.

Bouchut insisted during the earlier conference call that the chain had not given up on building the Bottom Dollar line. "When you are developing a new store format," he said, "you learn throughout the first two years." He said he hoped the chain would be profitable by 2015.