How Aldi is flexing its muscles in the grocery world: more stores, jobs

Aldi, which expanded into Southern California in a big way in 2016, has announced its next big wave of growth.

The discount grocery chain has announced $3.4 billion capital investment to expand from 1,600 stores to 2,500 stores by the end of 2022.

Aldi’s U.S. operation is based in suburban Chicago and has its local headquarters in Moreno Valley.

The growth plan calls for 25,000 new jobs in stores, warehouses and offices, according to a news release.

Aldi hasn’t announced how much of that growth will come here.

Aldi opened its first eight Southern California stores, all in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley, on March 24, 2016.

Its Moreno Valley warehouse now serves 38 stores in seven counties, from Simi Valley to Calexico.

Its newest stores opened June 1 in Downey and Garden Grove.

The expansion will make Aldi the nation’s third largest grocery company, after Wal-Mart and Kroger, although the three businesses are very different.

Aldi is classified as a limited assortment market and stocks less than 2,000 items, “weekly must-haves,” unlike Kroger’s supermarkets and the Inland’s Stater Bros., which stock 50,000 items with a wide assortment of name brands.

It keeps prices down my selling exclusive brands and providing no-frills service. Customers not only bag their own groceries, they stack shopping carts in order to get back a 25-cent deposit they pay to use them.

Before announcing the expansion, Aldi had already planned to invest $1.6 billion in remodeling 1,300 of its stores by 2020, a program that didn’t affect Southern California because all the stores here are new.

Although Aldi opened some of its stores in existing retail space, such as the San Bernardino store on Hospitality Lane, it built several from the ground up.

Aldi stores encouraged new retail around them, such as in Yucaipa, where Starbucks and Great Clips opened in a new pod on the same lot.

Aldi’s arrival in California created a sensation among job seekers. In September, 2015, more than 27,000 applicants showed up for 100 warehouse positions at a Moreno Valley job fair, with traffic clogging streets to the 60 freeway.

The number of Inland jobs Aldi has created was not available at press time.

Grocery is a competitive industry and shortly before Aldi’s arrival two chains, Fresh & Easy and Haggen, went out of business, partially due to rapid growth.