Full list of Aldi closures as ‘retail apocalypse’ sweeps across US – but new stores open in 5 states

ALDI is rushing ahead with its plans to open 1,000 new stores in 10 years even as the retail apocalypse has hit other industry giants.

The affordable grocery store continues its unstoppable expansion in America, despite losing stores in two major cities.

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Aldi was also voted the #1 cheapest grocery store to shop in, which is hugely attractive to consumers as inflation causes food prices to skyrocket.

In 2022, food prices were up 11.8 percent year-on-year, according to the Labor Department.

In January, Aldi brought its “incredibly low prices” to new states across the country.

The supermarket opened stores in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio and South Carolina.

Despite the growth, some locations were still closed.

ALDI STORE CLOSURES

Aldi was not able to survive the retail crisis unscathed and had to close its doors in two major cities.

In June 2022, an Aldi location in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois closed.

The company’s decision to close its Auburn Gresham location was apparently “based on a number of factors, including repeated slumps and declining sales,” according to an Aldi spokesman.

Recently, on February 12, Aldi also closed its store in the Jordan neighborhood of Minneapolis.

A crowd gathered to hear the news of its closure and collectively mourned the demise of the low-price grocery store.

An Aldi spokesman said the store will be closed “because it is not possible to refurbish the store to accommodate our larger range of products and our current lease term is expiring”.

FURTHER GROWTH

Aldi will ramp up its expansion this month as the company hopes to become the third-biggest grocer in the US by the end of next year.

The budget-friendly prices fit the current economic climate and are attractive to customers despite the competitive market, experts say.

“The economic situation we find ourselves in today will only exacerbate yours [Aldi’s] message and value proposition,” wrote Gary Sankary, Retail Industry Strategy at Esri, during a RetailWire online panel in February,

Aldi’s US CEO, Jason Hart, recently said, “There’s nothing quite like watching shoppers discover Aldi for the first time.”

“There is a moment of surprise when they realize how much they can save when they shop with us. We can’t wait to share that experience with more customers as we add new stores across the Southeast.”

The news comes as much of the retail industry is plagued by pandemic-era supply chain issues, rising production costs and the threat of a looming recession.

Sales are falling as cash-strapped Americans cut spending, prompting many retail giants to lay off staff and temporarily close stores to survive the current chaos.

In the same month that Aldi was rapidly expanding into the US, Amazon announced it would cut its workforce by 18,000 – the largest round of layoffs in the retail giant’s history.

Major homewares retailer Bed Bath & Beyond had reported nine months of net losses through the end of November 2022 and racked up $1 billion in debt by the end of the year and was scrambling to close its stores.

Superstore Walmart was forced to close stores in Connecticut, Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Check out the full list of stores also closing this year.

Also, find out which bookseller with 600 locations is also closing its stores this month.