October 29, 2015 | Filed in: Boynton Beach.
Alexandra Seltzer
Palm Beach Post

Joe Pittelli had to make it to the new Family Dollar in Boynton Beach by 8:30 a.m. Thursday, and the traffic on southbound Interstate 95 was not making that easy. He decided to get off at Lantana Road and took Dixie Highway down and eventually was greeted by a sign welcoming him to Boynton.
“The truth of the matter is, it was a long time coming,” Family Dollar’s regional vice president said at the store’s grand opening.
Boynton had a Family Dollar store on Dixie about 10 years ago, Pittelli said. Once gone, the customers started shopping in Lantana, he said.
The store is at the southeast corner of Seacrest and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards in the Heart of Boynton, a low-income neighborhood that the city and Community Redevelopment Agency are working to redevelop.
It’s the first commercial development in that area in about 45 years, Mayor Jerry Taylor said.
The store had a soft opening this past week, and since then customers have said they are happy they won’t have to travel to Lantana to shop, said Rob Sanford, the store’s manager.
Tony Parker is one of those customers. He was in the store Thursday morning to buy soup for his daughter who wasn’t feeling well. Parker lives across the street from the store, and said he usually does his shopping at Winn-Dixie in Lantana or at Walmart on Federal Highway in Boynton. He said the Family Dollar is more convenient for him and is good for the area.
The store has three full-time employees and five part-time. It’s about 8,200 square feet and is projected to make about $1.6 million in one year, Pittelli said.
Taylor said he was pleased to see the amount of items the store offers. For example, the store has clothing and food, cleaning products, cooking supplies, home decor, a frozen section, and Halloween and Christmas decorations.
“They got the basics, milk and bread and that, and then they got everything else,” Taylor said. “I think it’s going to be really popular.”