ALDI grocery opening on Ann Arbor's west side set for Nov. 20
The ALDI supermarket on Dexter Road near the intersection of North Maple Road will open Nov. 20. | Photo by Dan Meisler
The chain offers deep discounts on food staples by purchasing products straight from manufacturers and cutting costs on everything from grocery carts to shopping bags.
Its first Washtenaw County store will be on Dexter Road near Maple Road, on a site that was previously contaminated with pollution from a gas station and auto repair shop.
The store will be close to Plum Market, Kmart and Arbor Farms, but David Kapusansky, ALDI's director of real estate in Michigan, said ALDI chose the location because it is in a corridor where people do their everyday shopping.
"We wanted to be within a retail strip," he said.
Kapusansky also said the relatively low cost of the real estate -- for Ann Arbor, that is -- contributed to the site location.
"When we're trying to provide value for our customers, the real estate affordability drove a lot of it," he said.
City records show the one-acre plot of land was purchased by ALDI for $750,000 in November 2008. According to the CPIX commercial real estate database, there are only two similarly sized properties for sale in the city of Ann Arbor: the old Ann Arbor News building, which contains a 54,000-square-foot, Albert Kahn-designed building on 1.47 acres and carries an asking price of $9.3 million, and an office complex on South Industrial.
ALDI, which is run by an independent American subsidiary of a German company, uses a variety of methods to keep costs low, including charging a 25-cent refundable deposit for use of a shopping cart, and a 6-cent charge for shopping bags. Customers also bag their own groceries.
Kapusansky said the shopping cart deposit cuts down on the need for staff to collect them from the parking lot. The bag charge encourages customers to bring their own, he added.
ALDI is opening four other stores in Michigan this year: Howell, Waterford, Redford and Canton. The Ann Arbor store will be its 50th in the state.
One retail analyst said last year that ALDI tends to locate in low- to middle-income areas.
Freelance reporter Dan Meisler can be reached at danmeisler@gmail.com.
Comments
Chilepepper
Wed, Nov 11, 2009 : 11:15 a.m.
Gee, when I lived near an Aldi I was able to pick up some delicious German items like stollen, lebkuchen and pfefferneusse (sp?) around the winter holiday in the same brands as specialty stores for way less. A friend had a German exchange student who loved going to Aldi because they carried many of the goodies she enjoyed at home. Sure some of the items are not up to the standards of some of our supermarket items (as are some generics) but there are also some good buys available with top quality. I will add it to my options and select what works for me. Vive la competition! Hope they have organic milk!
westsidereader
Sat, Nov 7, 2009 : 1:11 p.m.
Go ahead and take a wait and see attitude. Wait at Plum Market and let them rip money from your hands while you see it happening. I'm reassured that yuppies lack a sense of humor. While I slog to Aldi's in my KMart boots, should I stop and help load groceries into your BMW SUV and buckle your children into their designer car seats? If you get offended, you can pay more at Plum and let the bad attitude management and staff do the favor. Invite the Wal-Mart bashers to come to Aldi's and gawk at my neighbors and me for hanging out in our neighborhood store. Traffic congestion? Those poor softball players dodging traffic on Dexter. "What? No beer!!" If you want liquor, go to Plum and pay $40 for a merlot or go to the liquor store across from the court house. If you get panhandled, tell them you're from the West Side and have no change. If Aldi's is bleak and bland, did you see the corner a year ago? I'll go into bleak and bland and walk out with bleak and bland savings.
Neo
Sat, Nov 7, 2009 : 12:47 p.m.
I'm sure the union can't wait to greet them with open arms. I suspect this store will be the next poster child for the left's smear campaign in addition to Walmart. http://minnesotaindependent.com/34377/union-protesters-aldis-ufcw http://www.greenleft.org.au/2004/584/32414
A Pretty Ann Arbor
Sat, Nov 7, 2009 : 6:47 a.m.
ahem...this is what I get for typing without coffee It was meant to say "the carts aren't traveling"
A Pretty Ann Arbor
Sat, Nov 7, 2009 : 6:45 a.m.
I have shopped at several Aldi stores as I travel around Michigan and find all of them to be kept up, the carts are traveling (amazing what 25 cents does to the brain - return the cart, return the cart) and good prices. They don't accept credit cards - but yes to debit and cash and I think if I remember right they take checks. I too have been driving to Ypsi once a week to get things from Sav-a-lot. I have always been happy with my purchases and my bill total at Aldi and cannot wait for it to open. Hopefully it will be in compliance with the Michigan Scanner laws - unlike Plum which continues to violate every part of the law.
voiceofreason
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 11:29 p.m.
UAWisok, They took our jobs!
Jo
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 10:05 p.m.
I have shopped at Aldi's in Ohio and while serving in Germany used it as my primary grocery. It is clean, comfortable, "green" (bring your own bags and return a shopping cart and get your.25 back). You will find very competetive prices and good quality as long as you aren't hung up on name brand products. Thanks for coming to Ann Arbor.
anonamoose
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 9:45 p.m.
The picture is an accurate representation of Aldi: bleak and bland.
bunnyabbot
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 8:54 p.m.
The ALDI in Canton on Ford Road is not unkept. It is amazing the turn around at the Aldi site from crappy old buildings to nice new building. They got that done in a year, but then they talk about the Stadium Bridge timeline as three years, that is INSANE) someone mentioned the corner lot on miller and maple. Just recently a chain link fence was installed around on it and their was heavy equipment on the site. From what I heard several years ago is that Speedway owns the property. So they will hopefully put in a Speedway Gas station/convienence store there. The corner does need a Gas station that close to the freeway, and the last one heading out of town to the west. Miller Maple strip mall. SIGH. It use to be a great place up till about 8-10 years ago. A coney island would probably do well there in the old Hop-In corner. as for the old Shell station, when will that be done? that man has been working on that building FOREVER!
Rosie
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 6:22 p.m.
I am a "yuppie" and the comment from uawisok shouldn't be directed at a particular age group but rather to people who don't use common sense or are unwilling to take a few steps out of their way to get a cart. I always pick up my cart from the parking lot on the way into the store and return it to a corral when finished. Once while in a major retailer there was a women standing in the store near where carts are kept and she was SCREAMING to everyone around about the fact that no carts were there in the store. She complained that she had been waiting for ten minutes for a cart. In those ten minutes she could have gone out to the parking lot and gotten a cart and come back into the store and shopped for seven or eight minutes while the store employee was trying to bring in every single cart from the store!!! It never occurred to her she should have grabbed one of the few dozen carts she had passed on her way through the parking lot. The worst part of this story is that she was not the only one standing there waiting for a cart. There were seven or eight other people standing there waiting for carts as well. Common sense one these people's parts would have eliminated this story altogether and eliminate the stores' need to pay so many people to retrieve carts.
a2girl
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 4:54 p.m.
uawisok - That's unnecessarily harsh. 1) Stores like Kroger's and Target hire people who are able to perform jobs such as bagging groceries and collecting carts, but are not able to run a cash register. AND 2) Sometimes, but certainly not always, I don't return a cart the the coral because I have children in the car that are too young to be left unattended, but old enough to unbuckle their car seat harness and escape. Since you are kind enough to collect an abandoned cart, how about next time you see a tired parent loading their car with kids and groceries, you offer to take their cart, even if they are wearing designer boots?
ownrdgd
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 3:58 p.m.
Goodbye, High priced, bad attitude management, PLUM MARKET
wacky_walrus
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 3:14 p.m.
me too, Rusty.
ResidentAnvil
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 2:11 p.m.
I really think this intersection is going to be worse than the Jackson intersection for traffic congestion.
uawisok
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 1:03 p.m.
everyone could just walk in from the parking lot with a cart like my wife and I always do...that lowers costs and also usually frees up a parking space because yuppies don't know how to use a "cart corral", or they don't use the corral because they forgot to wear their designer boots??
debling
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 12:23 p.m.
I'm curious if and when the Walmart bashers will start bashing Aldi. Do they pay their employees better? How about the benefits? Do they use union labor? What about drawing the wrong crowd to the west end. I heard all of those complaints before the Pittsfield Walmart opened.
justwondering
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 12:14 p.m.
I'm going to take a wait and see attitude towards this store. I am familiar with Aldi where I grew up. They took cost saving to the extreme and their site was unkempt, messy, the building was in poor condition; basically an eyesore to the area. I hope this one doesn't follow that business model. It is entirely possible that it is now owned by a different corporation than it was decades ago.
larry
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 12:10 p.m.
This intersection looks so much nicer thanks to this new development. Is there any hope for the Maple/Miller intersection? I say combine the closed gas station and little plaza next door and develop something nice. The prices for these sites have to be more reasonable like the Dexter Rd. site one would think.
Kristine
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 12:10 p.m.
saltedpistachio: I checked out ALDI's website, and this store will NOT be selling beer and wine. (Who knows? Maybe that'll change at some later date.) :)
David Bardallis
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 11:56 a.m.
Interesting ideas -- sounds like the Southwest Airlines of grocery shopping. I'll have to check it out, so to speak!
Atticus F.
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 11:53 a.m.
I can't wait. I've been driving to Save-Alot in ypsi, because it usually cuts my grocery bill by %50 compared to Kroger. I dont mind boxing up my own groceries, or putting a deposit on my cart because they savings are so great. Hopefully they will be able to keep the cost as low as Sav-alot on staple items.
saltedpistachio
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 11:41 a.m.
Will they have a liquor license? Also, the ALDI site says the public grand opening is on Thursday, Nov. 19: http://bit.ly/annarboraldi
Jessica Webster
Fri, Nov 6, 2009 : 11:21 a.m.
The shopping cart deposit is a pretty standard thing for grocery shops in Europe. Interesting note: ALDI and Trader Joe's are both owned by the same German parent company. http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/do-you-know-who-owns-trader-joes/