Aldi supermarket coming to SR70 East in Manatee county? (Sarasota: 2014, rental)

[Sunshine Rules]

The Observer, a local paper, ran an article this week stating Aldi, the discount gracery chain, has submitted preliminary plans to Manatee county to open a location on the NE corner of SR70 & 45th St E (Lockwood Ridge Rd runs south of SR70, 45th runs north of SR70). Aldi already has one location in west Bradenton on Cortez Rd.

This is good news for thrifty shoppers who put prices ahead of some other conveniences such as a store bakery and deli.

[RoadVettes]

Good news for my wife. She like's Aldi's.

[loves2read]

We have Aldi's in area of TX I live in but don't shop there--
small, crowded aisles, dark--don't like how they pre-pack their veggies--or how I have to pack my own groceries--can't do that and watch them ring up the items...
have good chocolate at fairly low price is main positive in my book...

[beninfl]

Finally! I hate having to drive through to West Bradenton to get there. I hope it gets built fast!

loves2read: Most of their veggies are not pre-packed. They are in a double row just like at Publix. Pick the ones you want, put em in a bag.

[sware2cod]

North Port is also getting a new Aldi at intersection of 41 & Salford

http://www.rkmdev.com/wp-content/upl...t_11-11-13.pdf

Current Projects | R.K.M. Development Corp.

[beninfl]

"EAST COUNTY — Aldi is adding a second grocer location to Manatee County and its first East County location.
Batavia, Ill.-based discount grocer Aldi Inc. has submitted preliminary plans to open a 17,018-square-foot location at the northeast corner of State Road 70 East and 45th Street East, at 4505 53rd Street E.

It will sit on four parcels of land that make up 3.87 acres. The store will have 85 parking spaces.

Aldi, a German corporation, opened its first location in the area in September 2010 in west Bradenton, at the southwest corner of Cortez Road and 47th Street West.

The grocer appeals to thrifty shoppers willing to sacrifice traditional offerings in lieu of more savings.

The company, for instance, charges for bags and requires each customer to use a quarter each time he wants to use a shopping cart. The company does not take credit cards or personal checks and doesn’t carry well-known brands. Aldi also doesn’t have a bakery or a deli.

But for staples such as bread, eggs, milk and more, the company touts its prices as at least 50% lower than nearby grocery stores. More than 90% of an Aldi store’s offerings include Aldi-exclusive brands.

The company is also known for its flash sales, bringing quirky products, such as tablets, other electronics and sporting goods, to its shelves for brief periods of time. The store does not promote the deals in advance to customers.
Manatee County Planner Rossina Leider said the Aldi application will not come before the Manatee County Planning Commission until early next year. Comments on the application provided by planners are being made for Aldi representatives next week.

Aldi representatives and the application’s agent did not return phone calls seeking comment about the new location.

The store’s approximate construction timeline and opening date is unknown until the planning commission reviews the application next year.

Aldi operates close to 1,300 stores in 32 states and more than 4,000 stories worldwide.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at kschultheis@yourobserver.com.

Aldi readies East County presence - The Observer Group

[gypsychic]

I look forward to this. West Bradenton is not far from my Whitfield house, this one will be same distance; however it will be a quick drive from the new ALDI to the wonderful new expanded Detwiler's market which will be opening in the near future. Always love new shopping!

[loves2read]

re the veggies--not at the store I was at--

and just imagine how slow it can be with two registers (the store in my neighborhood) when you have no space for grocery carts at the registers and yet you need to sack your groceries --there was no place to stack the sacks--
the one I saw was just not that well designed...

[beninfl]

Wow, loves2read, that's way different than the Bradenton Aldi's is. It has 5 registers, and all the barcodes go all the way around the products so they swipe about 10x faster than any other supermarket. Usually other stores swipe, wait to hear the beep, if no beep swipe again. Not Aldi! Swipe, beep, swipe, beep, swipe, beep. Their barcode placement is quite nice. Other manufacturers should follow!

After shopping, there's a giant bar the length of the store where you bag your groceries. But only newbies try to bag stuff. Everyone else uses the boxes that hold the products on the shelf that are super simple to grab a half dozen to hold your goods in. Bringing them inside is even easier because they all have handles. It takes me about 2 minutes to box the entire shopping cart of groceries.

Give the one in West Bradenton a try, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Headacher]

loves2read, you've GOT to try one of the newer Aldi stores. They are so nice now!

We're still up here in northeastern Ill-Annoy. There's an Aldi nearby in Crystal Lake and another closer in Cary. The Crystal Lake location is old. It's cramped, narrow aisles, no windows and simply not a place I want to shop in.

The Cary location is new. It's huge, really wide aisles and the east and south walls are windowed. If the Cary location and the Crystal Lake location didn't have the same name, Aldi, on the building, you would never know the two locations were the same company.

Again, that's because the Cary location is new. Obviously, the new locations down there in the Sarasota, Northport areas are going to use the new architecture and layouts. It will be a joy to shop in.

And the check-outs are THEE fastest check-outs I've ever encountered in a grocery store. When I first started shopping at Aldi, I would see someone at the checkout with a shopping cart overflowing and get all flustered because I thought we would be there for 10 minutes. NOPE! The checkers are lightning quick. I soon realized that it didn't matter how many groceries a customer in front of me had. I'd be up next in no time.

And you can certainly watch the prices on the read-out to make certain they're correct. (I can only recall once when the pricing was wrong in the stores favor. Usually, if it's wrong, it's in the customer's favor. Like the Burritos I bought yesterday - the price in the freezer said .69, but they rang up at .39.)

New customers are thrown by the cart rental too. I know I was. It's simple. Just put a bunch of quarters in your car (for futures sake.) When you get to the store, you walk up to the carts, put a quarter in a slot on the handle and that forces out the little chain that holds one cart to the one in front of it. Take the freed cart, do your shopping, afterward put your groceries in your car, return the cart, push the little chain in to the slot and your quarter pops out.

I have bunches of strong plastic bags from a local Home store (Menards) which I've been using for a couple of years now to bag my groceries. Yes, you can grab a box from somewhere in the store or you can purchase reusable bags there at the checkout for .10 cents.

Well, I think I've stated my case for Aldi. I'm hoping that Aldi will get around to building a store or two in the Nokomis/Venice area. You know, loves2read, that that's where we plan to relocate to when we leave Ill-Annoy.

Do yourself a favor and try a NEW Aldi location. They're completely different from the old locations.

Gosh, all that, and I didn't even really get to all the great products and fantastic prices Aldi has!