At the Aldi grocery store, you won’t find check cashing, pharmacies or photo processing.
You’ll bag your own groceries.
And you’ll pay a 25 cent deposit to check out a cart and get the quarter back after returning the cart to the corral.
These are all part of the company’s philosophy to keep prices down. Dalton residents can experience this low-cost method when Aldi opens a 17,000-square-foot store next spring at 2210 E. Walnut Ave., at the corner of Walnut and Airport Road. The store will employ between 15 and 20.
“Any cost savings that we have we pass on to our customers,” Aldi spokeswoman Heather Tarczan said. “It’s important for us that our customers know that they’re getting the actual grocery item. We don’t build in other charges for grocery bags or an in-store photo developing department. Everything that we have is designed for efficiency as well as cost savings.”
The company says it sells more than 1,400 of the most frequently purchased grocery and household items, and customers find 90 percent of their average weekly shopping list there. About 95 percent of the items are Aldi’s premium products “sold under its exclusive, select brands to further keep costs down and (which) are manufactured by many of the nation’s leading food producers.”
“They are products that we have rigorously tested, and tested throughout the year even once they become products,” Tarczan said. “We make sure that they meet or exceed the tasting quality of the national brand equivalent.”
Stores are open during the “most popular” shopping hours from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tarczan said each store can operate with as few as three to five employees “at any given time.”
After paying for your items, the cashier will place the groceries back into the cart. Customers proceed to the “bagging wall” where they bag their groceries. Heavyweight paper grocery bags are available for 6 cents each, while plastic bags are 10 cents each. After dropping off items at their car, customers can return the cart to the corral and receive their deposit. Customers are encouraged to bring their own bags.
“We don’t have to have extra employees chasing down carts,” Tarczan said. “The cart doesn’t get damaged in the parking lots.”
Aldi only accepts cash and debit cards.
The company began in the U.S. in 1976 in Iowa and is headquartered in Batavia, Ill. It has more than 1,100 stores in 31 states and says it serves more than 20 million customers each month. There’s a store in Fort Oglethorpe, and a store opened in Cleveland, Tenn., in September.
For information visit www.Aldifoods.com.
Local News
Related Photos
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A sign in front of the grocery store under construction on Walnut Ave. in front of Walnut Square Mall advertises what the store should resemble once completed. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
Discussion
November 4, 2010
Grocery store to bring up to 15 jobs
- Local News
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‘I’ve got to protect myself somehow’
A small house on Gay Street was the scene where Frank Bozzie ran over Horace Morgan with a pickup truck on June 10, according to Sheriff Scott Chitwood. (File photo by Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)
A man police say was murdered when his attacker ran over him in his yard with a pickup truck told a 911 operator the offender broke in his house and began threatening him.
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