other carts. When the cart was returned, the customer was refunded their coin, effectively costing the customer only the time to return the cart. This was a practice also used by Aldi. Though ubiquitous in Europe, where both Aldi and Bottom Dollar's parent company Delhaize Group are headquartered, it is rare in American stores which often have employees return carts left in parking areas. In August 2014, it was learned that Delhaize wanted to sell all 66 of its remaining Bottom Dollar stores Forty-six of the stores were located in the Delaware Valley and Lehigh Valley in southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and 20 in the Pittsburgh-Youngstown corridor of Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio. Bottom Dollar stores were reported to range in size from 16,848 square feet (Ambler, PA) to 30,352 square feet (Catasaqua Road, Allentown, PA), an average store being about 20,000 square feet, with weekly sales volumes from $296,800 (North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA) to $103,000 (East Windsor, NJ), the average sales being around $150,000 weekly. Although 10 of the New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania stores were company-owned, most stores were leased, with leasehold rents are in the $10–12 per square foot range. On November 5, 2014, Delhaize Group announced they were selling the Bottom Dollar chain to Aldi, with plans to close the stores by early 2015. The stores were scheduled to close on January 15, 2015, but closed three days early on January 12 due to all the stores selling out their inventory quicker than expected. Aldi hasn't announced whether or not it will reopen any of the locations, although Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto is reportedly in talks with Aldi to reopen a Bottom Dollar location as an Aldi in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Garfield, as there is no other grocery store in the neighborhood. Delhaize finalized the sale of the shuttered locations to Aldi on March 27, 2015, with plans to reopen 30 of the locations purchased as Aldi, including the aforementioned location in Pittsburgh's Garfield section. The remaining locations—all of which are near existing Aldi locations—will either be flipped or sublet by Aldi. Store brands and competitors The stores sold the My Essentials and Hannaford private brands. Bottom Dollar Food competed with other discount supermarket chains - including PriceRite, Save-A-Lot, Aldi, and C-Town Supermarkets. References External links Bottom Dollar Food Official website Discount stores of the United States Supermarkets of the United States Defunct companies