When the Bottom Dollar Food store held a job fair in Bristol Township in August 2013, hundreds of applicants came out to apply for the roughly 50 part- and full-time positions.
By 2015, all those jobs are expected to be gone.
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The company that operates stores in Bristol Township and Penndel announced recently they will close all 66 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. The move came after an announcement Delhaize Group in Belgium signed an agreement to sell the chain to Aldi.
U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) on Monday sent a letter to Aldi President Jason Hart. The letter asks Hart to protect the 1,600 jobs that would be lost when the stores close.
Aldi, which operates a store in Middletown, has not yet publicly stated what would happen with shuttered stores. Aldi officials were not immediately available for comment Monday afternoon.
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“Our state’s workforce has earned its reputation as one of the most highly skilled in the country. I’m hopeful that Aldi will consider the quality of our region’s workforce and protect these jobs,” Casey said in a statement. “Keeping these stores open will provide communities across Pennsylvania with the option to purchase fresh food and add to economic growth.”
Several Bristol Township council members have stated in recent weeks they are working to find out what will happen to the store in their township.
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The company owns the 18,000-square-foot store at the intersection of Edgely Road and Mill Creek Parkway in Bristol Township’s Levittown section. The Penndel store, which is on Bellevue Avenue, is leased.
The chain was sold for $15 million. The deal includes the assumption of associated lease liabilities.
The Levittown store opened in October 2013 too much fanfare. The location was the first grocery store to open in Bristol Township in several years, a town official told LevittownNow.com last year. The Penndel location previously housed several grocery stories before sitting vacant before Bottom Dollar took over the space.
