Aldi eyes 2,500 stores by 2022
Aldi is having a good year, surpassing 2,000 stores with its latest expansion into the Phoenix area and recently being named the Value Leader in the Market Force Information Grocery Benchmark Study.
Aldi U.S. CEO Jason Hart recently spoke with Store Brands about the importance of its value strategy and growing in COVID-19 era. He also spoke with sister publication Progressive Grocer for its August cover story on the chain.
The stores fill roughly 12,000 square feet with a product assortment that is 90% private brand, and they’re hitting the mark with consumers, as the story addresses, adding 623 stores over the last five years.
The retailer is always working with its unique customers in mind, as Hart said in the piece: “Our loyal shoppers serve as our ambassadors to help spread the great news there is to share about Aldi — from our amazing lineup of products to the incredible savings they can find at our stores. The Aldi business model is intentionally different by design, and everything we do is in order to offer our shoppers the lowest prices possible, every day. Whether it’s our purposeful store design, our vast selection of private label products or how we merchandise our goods, our primary goal is to create savings and pass them along, which allows us to provide the items shoppers want at unbeatable prices, no matter what.”
Aldi has been revamping stores over the years too, upping fresh food assortment by 40% and is in the midst of a $5 billion program to modernize existing stores as well as open the new locations.
The article goes into Aldi’s fast-paced growth to 2,000 stores, set in December 2013. Hart said the new goal is 2,500 stores by 2022.
“We’re growing by more than just store count — we’re expanding into new areas of the country, broadening our product range and scaling our Curbside Grocery Pickup operations, to name a few examples,” Hart said in the article. “While we’re growing on all these levels and the specific number of stores we’re targeting may shift, Aldi is pleased to still be on pace to become the third-largest U.S. grocery retailer by store count by 2022.”
Read the full article on the Progressive Grocer site.