Pensacola’s newest Aldi on Ninth Avenue is now open after an exuberant ribbon cutting ceremony March 5.
The store at 7135 N. Ninth Ave. was converted from a former Winn-Dixie as part of an ongoing conversion process. The store is the fourth to open in Pensacola, with more on the way.
“We have a lot of construction going on,” said Heather Moore, vice president of Aldi for the Loxley (Alabama) Division. “So, Cantonment and Bayou Boulevard will open later this year, and our second store down on Blue Angel will open in the coming months.”
Shoppers lined up the morning of March 8 to get their first peek at the new Ninth Avenue store and shop for deals.
The new Aldi is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
What is Aldi?
Aldi is an international chain of no-frills grocery stores with no coupons and few if any big-name brand products. You pay a quarter to get a shopping cart (you get it back when you return it) and you bag your own groceries with empty boxes from the store, bags you can purchase at the store or containers from home.
There is a double-your-money-back “Twice is Nice” guarantee on its store brand products and the chain regularly offers “FINDS,” limited-time offers that change weekly or seasonally and other discounted deals. The company does not offer a membership program, although this April as a joke they announced a new, free, no-subscription, cardless program with 331.9 million members (i.e. the population of the United States) to get the same low prices they offer anyway.
The Aldi chain was founded by Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946 (Aldi is an abbreviated form of “Albrecht Diskont”). After the brothers got into an argument over whether the stores should sell cigarettes, in 1960 they split the company into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, which both operate stores internationally in different regions. U.S. stores, including the new Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores, are operated by Aldi Süd. Aldi Nord also owns Trader Joe’s.
Aldi U.S. is based in Batavia, Illinois.
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This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Get first look at new Aldi now open on Ninth Avenue
Reporting by Brittany Misencik, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
