Discount grocer Aldi to open more than 70 stores by end of year as part of national expansion

Discount grocer Aldi to open more than 70 stores by end of year as part of national expansion

A sign hangs outside an Aldi grocery store in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Discount grocer Aldi said Tuesday that it will open more than 70 stores by the end of the year, with hopes of attracting new customers and wooing some away from grocery rivals, including Walmart and Kroger.

The expansion plans will bring stores to the greater Phoenix area for the first time, according to a news release. It will add more stores to states including New York, Texas, Kansas and California. The company will open a new regional headquarters and distribution center in Loxley, Alabama in 2021 to support growth along the Gulf Coast in southern Alabama, Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.

Aldi U.S. is part of a privately held German company, Aldi Sud, which opened its first U.S. stores in 1976. It caters to value-conscious customers with private label brands that cost less and penny-pinching business strategies, such as requiring customers make deposits to get shopping carts to eliminate the need for employees that round them up. Stores have a smaller footprint and a more limited variety of items, which drives down costs, too.

Even before the pandemic, Aldi U.S. had big ambitions. It is in the middle of a five-year plan