Cash-strapped consumers are flooding the aisles of discount grocer Aldi – giving it the boost it needs to emerge as a winner in the inflation era, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The supermarket chain is seeing an increase in shoppers on the hunt for bargains, according to Jason Hart, chief executive officer of Aldi’s U.S. operations, who spoke to the publication.
Hart told the Journal that for Aldi to keep its prices low for customers, the company has had to be intentional about the way it runs its business. And that has meant making changes, such as switching to in-store digital tags, selling more of its own products, and working with various freight carriers.
Those changes are also trickling over to the sales floor. According to Hart, it means putting items for sale in the packages they were shipped in. It has also meant buying private brands rather than national ones. That tailored selection of items gives Aldi the ability to buy more of those products for less money, he told the publication.
Even with the clear-cut strategy in place, Hart said Aldi has been having “tougher conversations on how we can extract costs,” so that labor and production expenses aren’t passed down to consumers.
Nonetheless, German-founded Aldi plans to expand its U.S. footprint. In early March, the company said it would invest more than $9 billion to open 800 new stores nationwide in a five-year expansion plan. The company has nearly 2,400 U.S. locations.
That could bode well for Aldi as it looks to keep up with competitors like Walmart and Target. Currently, Walmart has over 4,600 U.S. locations, while Target has more than 1,900 stores.