Aldi supermarket chain is continuing its expansion across the Gulf South - including the greater New Orleans area - with the opening Thursday of its first location in the city of Metairie.
The new store is the latest of several Aldi locations to open in south Louisiana. In 2022, the company opened three stores in the Acadiana area.
“We have big plans across the entire Gulf Coast, which we define as Lafayette to Tallahassee, Florida,” said Heather Moore, Aldi’s Loxley division vice president. “We opened 20 stores in that area in 2022 and will open 13 more this year.”
The company kicked off its regional expansion last summer with the opening of a 564,000-square-foot distribution facility in Loxley, Alabama that services the entire Gulf Coast.
Moore said the expansion will continue beyond 2023, with the company adding about 10 new stores a year until it has 100 in the Gulf Coast market.
Aldi has more than 2,200 stores across 38 states and is already the third-largest U.S. grocery retailer by store count.
"We look for locations with a high population density," Moore said. "There are a lot of people in this area and this particular road is incredibly busy and also easy to access."
Aldi was launched in Essen, Germany, in 1961 and came to the U.S. in 1976.
Its stores are smaller than traditional grocery stores, at about 12,000 square feet, with a layout designed for simplicity and efficiency, the company said. Nearly all the products Aldi offers are its own brands.
Source: Nola.com
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