Aldi to open sixth discount grocery store on Long Island

Discount grocer Aldi plans to open its sixth store on Long Island next month.

The new store in the Westfield Shopping Center, at 614 Middle Country Rd. in Selden, will open on Sept. 1. The store will have 10,000 to 11,000 square feet of selling space with five aisles. It will employ 10 to 12 people, company officials said.

To celebrate the store opening, Aldi will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 8:45 a.m. It will also host a cookout from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The new location will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays.

The store will feature a new look, offering expanded sections, high ceilings, natural lighting and environmentally friendly building materials, such as energy-saving refrigeration and LED lighting.

Aldi, an abbreviation for Albrecht Discounts, is known for eliminating overhead costs. It carries private-label items and uses a cart rental system, which allows shoppers to insert a quarter to release a cart and receive the quarter back when they return the cart. The food retailer also encourages customers to bring their own shopping bags. The chain now accepts credit cards.

Aldi USA, headquartered in Batavia, Illinois, has stores in Bay Shore, Lindenhurst, Lake Grove, Patchogue and Riverhead. It operates more than 1,500 stores in 34 states and employs more than 24,000 people. It plans to add an average of 130 new stores nationwide each year for several years, officials said.

Aldi USA’s parent, Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, is headquartered in Germany. The company has more than 9,200 stores, according to its website. Founded by the Albrecht family, the first Aldi store opened in 1961 in Germany.

SEE PHOTOS50 chain store openings on LI