Here Comes Aldi
"We're growing at a time when other retailers are struggling."
Kevin Hart, Chief Executive, Aldi
They are coming to make a statement.
Big time.
German grocery chain Aldi Inc [ALDIEI.UL] said on Sunday it would invest $3.4 billion to expand its U.S. store base to 2,500 by 2022, raising the stakes for rivals caught in a price war.
Aldi operates 1,600 U.S. stores and earlier this year said it would add another 400 by the end of 2018 and spend $1.6 billion to remodel 1,300 of them.
First off, I had forgotten that Aldi was a German company.
Secondly, look at the impact that these plans will have on the U.S. grocery landscape:
The furious pace of expansion by Aldi and Lidl is likely to further disrupt the U.S. grocery market, which has seen 18 bankruptcies since 2014.
"We're growing at a time when other retailers are struggling," Hart said in a statement. Hart added that Aldi's prices were also up to 50 percent lower than traditional grocery chains.
The latest store expansion will create 25,000 U.S. jobs and make Aldi the third-largest grocery chain operator in the country behind Wal-Mart and Kroger Co (KR.N), the German chain said in a statement. Aldi's 2,500 stores would equal about 53 percent of Wal-Mart's U.S. outlets.
3rd largest, wow.
As for our family...... yes, we are Aldi fans. Not huge fans, but fans nonetheless. Prices are great. Food quality has been fine. And now that they take other forms of payment than just cash, that's really made them much more convenient.
The biggest problem that I have with Aldi? Store navigation. Everything in 4 aisles. At busy times, the store is very difficult to move through.
Out for now.......
Matt
p.s. #1 Here's the link to the full article quoted above:
p.s. #2 Grocery chain "Lidl" is mentioned above; I'd not heard of them, but here's. little more info:
And their website:
p.s. #3 FUN FACT: did you know that Aldi owns Trader Joe's as well?
