Business & Tech

Customers Stream Into New ALDI Food Market in Wexford

Grand opening starts with Thursday morning ribbon cutting.

Ray Rounds stood outside the front door at , waiting for the Thursday morning ribbon-cutting ceremony that would officially open the new grocery store in Wexford.

He joked that he had nothing better to do -- he is retired and his wife had given him a list. 

"I'm very happy to have an ALDI here," the Wexford resident said, adding that it was a bit of a drive to get to the ALDI store on McKnight Road.

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"The prices and deals and quality are good," Rounds said.

That was exactly the message ALDI's Brent Laubaugh delivered as he gave Pine-Richland Patch a tour of the store located at the intersection of Route 19 and North Chapel Drive in Pine Township. Laubaugh is the ALDI Saxonburg division vice president.

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Prices are up to 50 percent off the traditional grocery store prices, he said, which is a "pretty shocking differential."

He said the typical family can save $4,000 to $5,000 a year by shopping at ALDI.

ALDI already has several stores in the North Hills -- at 8000 McKnight Road in Ross Township; 4578 William Flynn Highway/Route 8 in Allison Park; and 880 Butler St. in Shaler.

A store will open in Cranberry in the spring, said Laubaugh, and stores in Shadyside and South Side also are planned for 2012.

A number of Wexford customers already shopped at the McKnight store, he said, so opening a store in Wexford was "a natural extension for us."

In deciding where to locate stores, ALDI looks at a number of demographics -- including population density and traffic patterns, he said.

ALDI also looks for a convenient location in the main retail area of a community, he said.

As Laubaugh guided a tour of the new store, he said ALDI stocks 1,400 of the most popular items to be found in a grocery store. 

About 95 percent of ALDI's inventory is its own product line -- items that are tested "to meet or exceed" brand-name products, he said.

Occasionally a shopper will find a brand-name item -- like Butterball turkeys, which were priced at $1.09 a pound on Thursday. Arizona Iced Tea was selling for 89 cents for a 23-fluid-ounce can.

But, by and large, ALDI saves money by stocking its own line of products, said Laubaugh. Some of those products come from brand-name producers like Tyson and General Mills, he said

Hard-to-find items? Probably not at ALDI.

Laubaugh smiled as he pointed out that shoppers would not find a lobster tank in an ALDI store.

But they will find the basics -- meat, milk, bread, fresh produce, frozen and canned goods and all the other items with which a shopper typically fills a cart.

Speaking of carts, ALDI charges customers a quarter for a shopping cart, which is refunded when the cart is returned at the end of the shopping trip. Doing that saves on the labor costs of retrieving carts, according to the ALDI "guide to shopping" that was handed out to customers in the store.

ALDI also saves by not bagging customers' groceries. The purchased items are put directly into the cart and shoppers move the cart to a bagging area where they put the items into their bring-your-own bags or boxes.

Everything about ALDI is designed with efficiency in mind, said Laubaugh, as he pointed out that no storage area exists in the store. Everything goes right to the store shelves or, in some cases, entire pallets of merchandise are placed on the floor along the store aisles.

All of that saves on labor costs, he explained. The store will employee 10 to 15 workers, he said.

Money is saved on advertising and marketing too, Laubaugh said.

"The cost built into advertising and marketing is substantial," he said. "When you strip that away, it means substantial savings to customers."

Shoppers within a 10-mile radius were notified of Thursday's grand opening by direct mail that included $5 and $10 coupons, he said. 

"Customers try us first for the prices," Laubaugh said. They come back because of the quality, he added.

"We have confidence in our products; we want people to try them," said Laubaugh. If customers are not satisfied, they get their money back plus another product, he said.

"We are comfortable that once they try (ALDI products), they'll be satisfied," said Laubaugh.

Customer Barbara Eichelberger said she was not a regular ALDI shopper.

"It's so close to my house, I thought I'd check it out," she said as her son, Dylan, pointed out pastries and cookies he wanted to put in their cart.

"I like it," she said. "It's nice and big and looks like a nice variety of food."

The Wexford store will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Aldi accepts cash, debit and EBT cards as forms of payment.

 


 


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