Dollar General Opens on Altoona's E. 25th Avenue, Hiring Up to 10 Workers

The Pizza Hut at 404 E. 25th Avenue in Altoona is gone. Dollar General demolished the building and opened a new store in its place, with a formal grand opening event scheduled for Saturday, March 28, starting at 8 a.m.

The first 50 adult customers through the door that morning will receive a $10 gift card; the first 100 will get a "DG" tote bag. Both giveaways are tied to the grand opening event, not the store's soft open earlier this week.

The new location will employ six to 10 people. Dollar General listed the benefits package as competitive wages, health insurance coverage options, a 401(K) savings and retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, and what the company describes as award-winning training and development programs. For workers in Altoona's retail labor market, where part-time roles with limited benefits remain common, the 401(K) and tuition reimbursement line items are worth noting, though the overall headcount is modest for a community that has watched the E. 25th Avenue corridor change over the years.

Matthew Simonsen, Dollar General's senior vice president of business intelligence and development, framed the opening in economic terms: "At Dollar General, we believe the addition of our new Altoona store provides positive economic growth for the community through the creation of new jobs and career growth opportunities; increased accessibility to affordable products; the generation of tax revenue and access to Dollar General Literacy Foundation grants."

That last point has practical implications for schools and nonprofits nearby. The opening makes institutions within a 15-mile radius of the store eligible to apply for Dollar General Literacy Foundation grants, which fund literacy programs at schools, nonprofit organizations, and libraries. Applications and program details are available at dgliteracy.com.

Dollar General now has multiple locations in Altoona. The E. 25th Avenue store is the chain's latest footprint expansion in a city it has targeted alongside other small and mid-size Pennsylvania markets where dollar-store density continues to climb.