More than one million new households shopped at Aldi in the year through September, helping rack up double-digit sales growth in that period.
With grocery prices soaring, consumers are changing the way they shop for food. That’s great news for discount grocers like bare-bones supermarket Aldi.
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Aldi, which requires a 25-cent deposit to use grocery carts, sells mostly store brands and doesn’t waste time on elaborate displays, might not be for everyone.
But more than one million new households shopped at Aldi in the year through September, helping rack up double-digit sales growth in that period, CNN reported. Foot traffic across most of its 2,200 US stores jumped about 10.5% year over year, according to Placer.ai – even as grocery sector visits were about flat.
Aldi’s explosive growth is part of a wider trend, experts say.
“We’ve seen a pretty definitive shift in consumers starting to shop at the discounters like Aldi and Trader Joe’s and Lidl,” said RJ Hottovy, head of analytical research at Placer.ai, which uses location data from mobile devices to estimate visits. Given that grocery prices are expected to stay elevated for some time, “I suspect that we’re going to continue to see visitation trends favor these discounters,” Hottovy said.
Stubbornly high inflation, rising grocery costs and shifts in consumer buying patterns are creating a sea change in the industry, said Joan Driggs, VP of thought leadership for IRI, a market research firm.
“This is an absolute pivotal moment,” Driggs said. “Mainstream grocery stores are losing share right now.”
Discount chain Grocery Outlet, who has also enjoyed increased sales in recent months, alluded to that during a recent earnings call: “We’re likely seeing some benefit of the customers shifting from, I’d say, more conventional, more expensive alternatives to the value model or to value shopping,” said CEO Eric Lindberg in August.
