Aldi Plans to Open 800 New Stores Over the Next 5 Years—Here's Where
American consumers are absolutely ravenous for more Aldi stores, apparently. And the discount grocer wants to meet that soaring demand with hundreds of planned openings over the next few years.
The German company announced an ambitious plan on March 7 to open a whopping 800 stores across the United States by the end of 2028. In a statement, Aldi CEO Jason Hart attributed the chain's rapid growth to fans who've been clamoring for more locations.
"Our growth is fueled by our customers, and they are asking for more Aldi stores in their neighborhoods nationwide," Hart said."With this commitment to add 800 stores in the next five years, we'll be where our shoppers need us while positively impacting the communities we serve."
The 800 openings will be a combination of brand-new locations and existing stores—specifically Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets— that will be converted into Aldi locations. Aldi just completed an acquisition of the parent company for the two grocery chains (Southeastern Grocers) and said it plans to transform a "significant number" of their locations into its own brand over the next several years.
The work to convert about 50 of those stores will begin in the second half of 2024, with the majority slated to reopen as Aldi locations in 2025. While Aldi intends to leave a "meaningful amount" of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets as they are now, it said the conversions will help expand its presence in the key Southeast region, where both chains operate.
"With the acquisition of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets, Aldi will serve even more communities in the Southeast, bringing us closer to our customers in a region where we've already experienced significant demand for affordable, quality groceries," Hart said. "As we look ahead to this next chapter in our company history, both the Aldi and SEG teams will play a critical role in driving the business forward for our future collective success."
The Northeast and Midwest are two other regions where Aldi plans to expand significantly in the coming years. Aldi plans to open nearly 300 stores in both markets by the end of 2028, according to the announcement. It will also add more locations in the West, including in Southern California and Phoenix, and enter brand-new cities like Las Vegas.
These planned openings will help Aldi maintain the rapid pace of growth it has achieved over the past few years. The company announced in May 2023 that it planned to open 120 new stores across the United States by the end of the year. It also opened or remodeled another 139 stores in 2022. The grocer currently boasts 2,361 locations in 38 states and Washington, D.C.
In other Aldi news, the retailer was recently crowned as America's cheapest grocery chain in a new study conducted by the discount code and coupon site BravoDeal. The site calculated that the average weekly cost of 12 common grocery items for a three-person household would be just $43.48 at Aldi. Fellow discount chain Lidl came in second with an average weekly cost of $54.24, while Trader Joe's came in third with $60.58. Meanwhile, Costco came in last place out of the 11 chains considered in the study with an average weekly cost of $267.94.
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