WAUPACA COUNTY POST

October 3, 2002

 

Aldi to Open New Store in Waupaca

By Robert Cloud, Post Editor

 

            A new discount grocery store is scheduled to open in Waupaca early next spring.

            Chris Stair, a director of real estate for the Aldi USA division headquartered in Oak Creek, said the company purchased the former site of the Oakwood Restaurant on West Fulton Street.

            Aldi plans to tear down the existing building and construct a 15,150-square-foot facility.  Construction should start this year and be completed “as soon as the asphalt plants open again,”  Stair said,  The new store will have a velvet brick exterior.

            Stair said Aldi will employ seven to eight people when it opens.

            There are currently 42 Aldi supermarkets in Wisconsin, with two opening this year in Shawano and near Menominee.

            Nationwide, Aldi has more than 650 stores in 22 states.  A German-based company that started in 1962, Aldi opened its first U.S. store in Iowa in 1976.

            Stair said Aldi’s marketing philosophy is to sell groceries “for the lowest price around.  We do everything with efficiency in mind.”

            Aldi stores carry a limited assortment of the 700 top-selling items in the grocery industry.

            For example, a shopper looking for ketchup will not find a wide selection of various brands and sizes.

            “If 24 ounces is the most popular size, that’s what we’ll be carrying,” Stair said.  “We’ll offer only one choice, but it will be the right product and the right size.”

            Stair said consumers can save 25 percent to 40 percent on their grocery bill.

            “You can’t get everything at Aldi’s, but you can get about 80 percent of what you need,” Stair said.

            Aldi also offers private-label brands on most of its products, which cuts down on national advertising costs.

            The first sign of Aldi’s cost-cutting efforts will be seen as soon as the consumer enters the store.  Instead of traditional shelving, Aldi’s displays its products in the same cases that they are shipped in.

            Stair noted that new customers sometimes think they have to buy the entire case, but the products are sold individually. Stair said stocking product in cases lowers the labor costs, since the cases are usually on wooden pallets that are taken directly from the dock into the store, rather than opened and shelved.

            Aldi stores also saves money by not providing free grocery bags.  Although the store sells paper bags for 5 cents and plastic bags for 10 cents, it encourages customers to recycle their bags and bring their own.

            Stair said that the bags provided at other grocery stores are not actually free, but included in the price of the groceries.

            Customers are also less likely to see shopping carts out in the parking lot.

            “When you get a cart from the stand in front of the store you have to put a quarter in a slot,” Stair said. “When you bring it back, you get your quarter back.  This cuts back on labor and car damage.”

            In addition to canned and dried goods, Aldi’s will have a freezer and cooler section offering dairy and deli meats, frozen steaks and frozen entrees.  The store will also carry about 30 fresh produce items.