Aldi to open 180 U.S. stores in 2026 as shoppers seek value

As Americans across incomes look to trim the grocery budget, Aldi plans to open more than 180 stores in the U.S. this year — including on the traditional turf of rival supermarkets and big-box stores.

The German grocer’s latest growth plans follow an already aggressive expansion over the past decade. Aldi, which is known for its low prices, small stores and emphasis on private brands, has become the third-largest grocer in the country by store count, trailing behind only Walmart and Kroger. And last year, Aldi marked its biggest expansion since it opened its first U.S. store in Iowa in 1976 by opening nearly 200 locations. It had 2,614 stores in the U.S. as of Dec. 31.

Along with opening more locations, Aldi said it will relaunch its website and enter Maine, its 40th state, this year. The company will also add new distribution centers in Florida, Arizona and Colorado in the next five years.

Grocery in the U.S. has long been a fragmented industry, with slices of the business divided up by regional grocers, specialty players, large supermarket operators, big-box stores and membership-based clubs. Yet Aldi’s growth illustrates the fiercer competition traditional players face as discounters lure away shoppers and win more of their weekly grocery runs.

“Consumers now really are not looking for fancy stores, and tens of thousands of different items to choose from,” said Atty McGrath, CEO of Aldi U.S. “They’re really savvy shoppers. They know that private labels can save them money without sacrificing quality.”

She added, “people, more and more, are really safeguarding their resources, whether that’s the wallet or their time.”

In a recent survey of grocery shoppers by consulting firm AlixPartners, the percentage of key shopper groups that said they spend most of their grocery budget in the traditional grocery channel dropped for every group compared with 2024. The survey was conducted in September and included 1,635 people.

Those declines were sharper among more affluent households and younger shoppers, with a 7 percentage point year-over-year drop among households with an annual income of more than $100,000 and a 6 percentage point year-over-year fall among shoppers between the ages of 25 and 34, the survey found.

Matthew Hamory, co-leader of the global grocery practice at AlixPartners, said in particular, large supermarket chain operators such as Kroger, Albertsons and Stop & Shop’s parent company Ahold Delhaize have lost ground as discounters like Aldi, Walmart and Costco offer produce, meat and other staples for less.

“U.S. customers have learned that if you go to a discounter, you’re not buying crap cheaply,” he said. “You’re buying good quality fresh food, good quality private brands. They’re in stock. They’re local to you. And they’re convenient.”

Plus, he said U.S. shoppers have gotten more used to buying private brands because of their success at big players like Costco.

Despite its rapid growth, Aldi’s share of the U.S. grocery market is still small. Walmart is the nation’s largest grocer by market share with 21%, according to market researcher Numerator, followed by Kroger, Costco, Albertsons and Publix to round out the top five. Aldi has 2.8% of U.S. market share, according to Numerator data, which runs through the beginning of October 2025.

Aldi, which is privately held, does not share financial results, but market research shows it’s attracting more shoppers to its locations. Store traffic rose by more than 50% from 2019 to 2024, according to Placer.ai — an analytics firm that uses anonymized data from mobile devices to estimate visits to locations — and commercial real estate firm JLL.

Aldi’s store traffic gains outpaced both the overall grocery sector and its major competitors in 2025, according to Placer.ai. Its store visits rose 8% year over year in 2025 from the prior year, compared with Costco’s 5.9% growth, Albertsons’ 1.6% increase, Kroger’s 0.8% rise and Walmart’s 0.5% growth. Store visits for the overall grocer sector increased 3.1% year over year.

Results from some of Aldi’s competitors reflect their challenges. Last week, Albertsons gave a weak full-year forecast and its CEO, Susan Morris, said on the company’s earnings call that even higher-income shoppers are “becoming more conscious of price and value.”

Kroger, too, has acknowledged more competitive pressure. On an earnings call in early December, Kroger’s interim CEO, Ron Sargent, stressed ways the company is trying to “strengthening our competitive position,” such as accelerating capital investment in new stores and lowering prices. He did not call out Aldi or other discounters by name.

He said on the call that the retail environment is always “very competitive,” but said that’s “especially true today when consumers are looking for great value.”

Other value-focused grocers are growing, too. Lidl, another discounter heavy on private labels, relaunched in the U.S. in 2024 and has more than 190 stores across nine East Coast states.

Walmart, for its part, has spoken about attracting more affluent shoppers from households that earn an annual income of more than $100,000 per year as it adds more fashion-forward and trend-driven brands. One of those is Bettergoods, a chef-driven private-label grocery line that it launched in 2024 with most items priced under $5.

Aldi stands apart from rivals in a few key ways. It has smaller stores, a narrower selection of merchandise and a heavy emphasis on its own brand. More than 90% of its assortment and about the same of its total sales come from private-label items, a sharp difference from other grocers and big-box retailers that typically lean on national brands and household names like Heinz ketchup or General Mills’ Cheerios.

Nearly every aspect of its stores and strategy are designed for efficiency — it puts multiple bar codes on each item to speed up checkout and requires customers to bring or pay for their own bags. It’s also famous for requiring customers to deposit a quarter for a shopping cart, which they get back when they return it. Some items are stored on shelves in cardboard boxes or on wood pallets.

Scott Patton, chief commercial officer of Aldi U.S., said the smaller stores and curated merchandise save shoppers’ time and allow them to skip the overwhelm of browsing a vast aisle with different types of ketchup or other items.

Aldi stores are about 10,000 square feet. That’s a tiny fraction of a Walmart supercenter’s average size of 178,000 square feet, according to Walmart’s annual report.

Still, Patton said Aldi’s smaller assortment includes creative flavors and trendy items, such as collagen-infused drink mixes, avocado oil and freeze-dried banana snacks. Plus, it offers a fun, “treasure hunt” experience, he said.

In the middle of the store, Aldi shoppers can browse “Aldi Finds” — a mix of merchandise that’s only available for a limited time. For example, at the beginning of this month, Aldi’s store in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood sold an electric glass tea kettle for $19.99, an air fryer for $39.99 and a Valentine’s Day-themed plush throw blanket for $7.99. Items also included some recognized food brands, such as a 20-pack of Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish crackers and a bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing.

Yet Aldi’s strategy of emphasizing private label and a rotating selection of random items can come with downsides, as it may not carry all of the products that a shopper has on their list.

“You might have to shop at another store and that’s actually OK with us,” Patton said. “What we want our customers to do is shop Aldi first.”

The company has also faced lawsuits over its packaging. Chips Ahoy and Oreo parent company Mondelez sued Aldi last year, alleging that the discounter is copying the packaging of its competitors to confuse shoppers. Some of the boxes for its store-brand items have near identical colors and fonts as the competing product from national labels.

Last year, Aldi revamped its store packaging — a move that Patton said “was independent of any lawsuit or any infringement claims.”

For some loyal customers, Aldi’s no-frills approach and private-label emphasis is an attraction. Emily Curtis, an actor and barista who lives in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, heads to Aldi each week for a grocery run. She and her husband battle traffic for at least 30 minutes each way on a drive to and from Aldi’s Harlem store.

Curtis, 27, said she grew up in a frugal family where cereal choices were typically off-brand rather than Lucky Charms. She started shopping at Aldi when in college at the University of Alabama.

“When I was in school eating beans and rice, it was Aldi beans and rice,” she said.

Even as she moved to Georgia and then New York, she kept making regular visits to Aldi. When she and her husband first moved to New York City, they found that they saved money when shopping at the Aldi across town — even when tacking on Instacart delivery fees — compared with buying from neighborhood grocers like D’Agostino and Gristedes.

“Prices are the main draw and that’s why we go out of our way,” she said.

But, Curtis said she also likes the rotating items that she finds in Aldi’s middle aisles. In her closet, she has Aldi sweatpants and even Aldi-themed Christmas sweaters. She keeps her kitchen utensils into a holder from Aldi. And she stocks up each year on a limited-time pumpkin tomato marinara sauce.

“It’s become a personality trait, for better or worse, my undying devotion to the brand.”

— CNBC’s Natalie Rice contributed to this report.