Dollar Tree-Family Dollar now open in Ridgway
RIDGWAY - The former site of Aiello's Cafe has been transformed into a brand new Dollar Tree-Family Dollar combined store after months of remodeling and negotiations with the Ridgway Borough Council concerning parking spaces for the new retail outlet.
Those familiar with Aiello's Cafe will be shocked to see that nothing remains of the interior walls that separated the kitchens from the bar, banquet hall, and restaurant dining areas. The entire interior has been turned into retail space featuring aisle after aisle of seasonal, regular retail, refrigerated and frozen goods, and health and beauty items along with lots of kid's toys and some electronic goods.
Richie Wileman, the store's new manager, was proud to show off his new store on Saturday, even while crowds of customers lined up to be among the first to check out the new stores. Currently, Wileman does not know if the main company will hold a grand opening but is just happy that the store has been so welcomed since it opened on Thursday afternoon.
"Right now we are fully staffed," Wileman said, "But we are always accepting applications, and with all the customers that have come in, we have a nice pool of applicants in case we need to replace anyone or hire more workers.”
The hours of the store are daily from 8 a.m. -10 p.m., currently, but may change in the future. This requires a large staff, but Wileman is happy to say he has a great crew hired and the speed at which customers were being checked out at the registers and aided as they looked for item locations in the new store seems to back up his claims.
While technically the store is divided into two spaces there is only one bank of check-out registers and all sales for items from both stores are handled at the front right part of the store on the Family Dollar side.
The Dollar Tree side deals with more seasonal items, art and craft supplies, toys, cards, balloons, ribbons, shoes, and clothing. The Family Dollar side contains one huge wall that goes the length of the store that sells refrigerated and frozen food items, while the other aisles on that side sell dried pantry items like pasta and noodles, canned goods, pet food, health and beauty items, and cleaning supplies along with paper goods. The amount of frozen food is quite extensive as is the refrigerated drink section.
Parking for the location is available on North Broad Street, across from the store at Aiello's Car Wash, and a dedicated parking lot across North Broad from the Armory which the Dollar Tree-Family Dollar paved and developed after negotiations with the Ridgway Borough Council.
The aisles in the store are wide and the medium-size shopping carts that are available to customers seem ideal for the size of the store. The most commented item by customers was on the enormous size of the stores. Many were amazed by just how much space there was inside the old cafe and banquet hall once all the interior walls were removed and retail shelving placed inside.
Wileman wants to welcome all of Ridgway and Elk County to the new store and encourages everyone to stop on in and check out the new stores.
"People are surprised by the variety of items we have available and I never see anyone leave the store without purchasing at least a few things,” he said.
The Dollar TreeFamily Dollar of Ridgway is currently open from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. every day of the week and has a variety of weekly specials that will be advertised in the future.