Sponsored By

Aldi moves ahead with Long Island expansion

New store in New York’s Suffolk County turns up heat on rival Lidl

Russell Redman

August 25, 2020

3 Min Read
Aldi_US_storefront.jpg
Aldi will have eight Long Island stores with the opening of the new location in North Babylon, N.Y., later this week.Russell Redman

Aldi U.S. is set to expand to eight locations in New York’s Long Island with a new store in North Babylon.

Plans call for the store, located at 1251 Deer Park Ave., to open on Aug. 27, Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi U.S. said yesterday. The store will mark Aldi’s second new Long Island location this year, with the first opening in Valley Stream on Feb. 27. Both of the stores have about 12,000 square feet of retail space, as in typical Aldi locations.

“Long Island is an important market for us, and we are proud to be opening our second new store this year,” Chris Daniels, South Windsor division vice president for Aldi U.S., said in a statement. “Opening new stores and providing even more customers access to healthy, low-price groceries has always been one of our top priorities, and it’s more critical now than ever before. While food costs are rising across the country, our Long Island stores offer prices that are significantly lower than the competition.”   

With the opening of the North Babylon store, Aldi will have seven locations in eastern Long Island’s Suffolk County. The other Suffolk stores are in Bay Shore, Lake Grove, Lindenhurst, Patchogue, Riverhead and Selden. 

The Valley Stream store represented Aldi’s first location in Long Island’s Nassau County, which borders the New York City borough of Queens, where Aldi has a store in Rego Park. The chain also has six other New York City locations, with two stores apiece in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan.

Related:Q&A: Aldi U.S. CEO Jason Hart says pandemic hasn’t slowed growth plans

Including the upcoming North Babylon location, Aldi will have 15 stores in New York City and Long Island. The North Babylon and Valley Stream stores represent Aldi’s first new Long Island locations since 2016. Aldi opened its first Long Island store, in Bay Shore, in 2011.

Aldi passed the 2,000-store mark in the United States in June and is slated to open another 70-plus new locations by the end of the year, which will its reach into a new state. According to Jason Hart, CEO of Aldi U.S., the company expects to open nearly 100 stores overall in 2020, including four new stores in the greater Phoenix market that will bring Aldi into Arizona, its 37th state. In 2021, plans call for a Gulf Coast expansion that will extend Aldi into its 38th state, Louisiana, and add a new regional headquarters and distribution center in Loxley, Ala.

A $5 billion, five-year growth strategy launched in 2017 calls for Aldi to remodel and/or expand more than 1,300 stores and extend its retail network from 1,700 to 2,500 stores by the close of 2022. In July, the hard discount grocer was named as “Value Leader” for the 10th-straight year and its private brands as the most preferred in Market Force Information’s Grocery Benchmark Study, which polled 10,000-plus U.S. consumers.

Related:Aldi to roll out curbside pickup to nearly 600 stores

Aldi’s Long Island expansion comes as rival discount grocer Lidl ramps up its presence in the region, as well as across its nine-state U.S. East Coast footprint. Arlington, Va.-based Lidl US today unveiled a $500 million plan to open 50 new stores by the end of 2021. Long Island is a key part of Lidl’s U.S. expansion since the retailer’s November 2018 acquisition of 27 Best Market stores in metropolitan New York, a deal that closed in early 2019. Lidl currently operates 103 U.S. stores.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

Stay up-to-date on the latest food retail news and trends
Subscribe to free eNewsletters from Supermarket News

You May Also Like