Save-A-Lot, Bottom Dollar Food Eye Ohio

JON SPRINGER

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The developer and operator behind three new Save-A-Lot stores coming to Northeast Ohio this summer took a swipe at local officials they perceived to be supportive of rival Bottom Dollar Food.

In a press release announcing the three stores, developer Cafaro Co. and Boardman, Ohio-based retailer Horizon Management, which will operate the stores, criticized “certain Youngstown public officials” who praised the impending opening Bottom Dollar Food and “made disparaging remarks regarding the service and quality of products that local retailers have provided. … The operators of Save-A-Lot find those remarks disappointing and shockingly inaccurate.”

Those remarks are an apparent reference to Youngstown city officials’ recent recommendation of a tax abatement to entice Bottom Dollar Food to locate a store there. The chain, a division of Delhaize, reportedly will open two Bottom Dollar Food outlets in the area this summer.

Horizon Management owns and operates 12 Save-A-Lots in Northeast Ohio.