Aldi to open 5 more Long Island stores as grocery discounter plans $9B U.S. expansion

Aldi has at least five more Long Island grocery stores on tap, as the Germany-based chain plans to invest more than $9 billion to add 800 new U.S. stores by the end of 2028.

Aldi and other discounters’ growth is being helped by a growing number of consumers in search of savings amid elevated grocery prices, retail experts said.

“During inflationary times, we offer a great value with a great product,” Chris Daniels, vice president of Aldi Inc.’s South Windsor Division, which includes eastern New York and most of New England, said in a phone interview.

Aldi, which entered the Long Island market in 2011 with a store in Bay Shore, currently has 13 stores on the Island, including four that opened in the last two years.

The five upcoming stores include locations in Bethpage and Lake Ronkonkoma, which will open in 2025. The other three stores will open this year in Central Islip, East Northport and Medford, as Newsday reported in 2023.

More Long Island stores could be in the works, as Aldi’s stores in the area have performed well, Daniels said.

“We’ve experienced double-digit growth [in sales and customer traffic] over the last two years on Long Island” at stores that have been open at least two years, he said.

“We’d definitely like to expand more in Nassau County if we can, but there’s not as much available [real estate],” he said.

“We’re happy with our presence in Suffolk County and there might be a few more locations that we’re looking into,” he said.

Here is the rundown of Aldi’s plans for Long Island:

• Bethpage: Aldi has signed a lease to open a 21,000-square-foot store at 3988 Hempstead Tpke. The store will be in most of the space vacated by an A.C. Moore Arts and Crafts store. The grocery store is expected to open in fall 2025, Daniels said.
• Central Islip: Manhasset-based PX4 Development will redevelop the former Central Islip Psychiatric Center property for retail businesses and housing for seniors, veterans with disabilities and people with autism. The new development will total 150,000 square feet, including a 20,259-square-foot Aldi. The Central Islip site previously housed a New York Institute of Technology campus. Construction work on the Aldi will start at the end of April and the store will open in October or early November, Daniels said.
• East Northport: An Aldi store will take most of the space vacated by a Barnes & Noble bookstore at 4000 Jericho Tpke. in the Huntington Square shopping center. (The relocated bookstore, which is moving to 301 Walt Whitman Rd. in South Huntington, is expected to open in September.) Construction work on the 19,996-square-foot grocery store will start at the end of May and the store will open in late November or early December, Daniels said.
• Lake Ronkonkoma: An Aldi will take most of the space that was vacated in August 2019 by a King Kullen supermarket that was at 153 Ronkonkoma Ave. The approximately 22,000-square-foot Aldi is scheduled to open in summer 2025, Daniels said.
• Medford: Aldi will take over a space at 2799 Route 112 that is being vacated by arts and crafts store Michaels, which is scheduled to relocate to a smaller space in the Medford Crossings shopping center in June. Construction on the approximately 22,000-square-foot grocery store will start in June and the store should open in early November, Daniels said.

Aldi is categorized as a limited-assortment grocer, which is smaller than a traditional supermarket and sells a high percentage of its own private-label brands.

Aldi Inc. is one of the fastest-growing grocers in the United States, where it has 2,372 Aldi grocery stores after opening about 100 annually over the last decade.

Aside from those, Aldi in March acquired Southeastern Grocers and its approximately 400 Winn-Dixie stores and Harveys Supermarkets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, which will “support Aldi expansion in a key region,” the company said.

Last month, Aldi said it would spend more than $9 billion to add 800 stores nationwide by the end of 2028, including nearly 330 in the Northeast and Midwest.

Aldi and other grocery discounters are being helped by consumers’ increasing demand for savings because, while inflation has slowed since hitting highs not seen in four decades in 2022, grocery prices still are about 25% higher than they were four years ago, said Jeff Metzger, publisher of Food Trade News, a Columbia, Maryland-based publication.

“And that’s why you’re seeing a lot more trading down, a lot more purchasing of private-label products,” he said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.