When Mary Porter walked into Manhattan’s newest Aldi store hunting for bargains, the long-time resident found what she considered a retail miracle in plain sight: a $4 jar of almond butter that costs $22 in her own neighbourhood.
“Aldi has the reputation for being inexpensive, so I thought I would come and check it out, and by golly, it is amazing,” Porter, 79, told the BBC, marvelling at the savings alongside the fresh spinach and organic raspberries filling her basket.
To the unassuming passer-by, the storefront is completely hidden, tucked away in an underground car park beneath The Ellery, a luxury apartment complex where the cheapest rent starts at nearly $5,000 (£3,725) a month.
In fact, the building’s own website completely omits the grocer from its curated online neighbourhood guide, choosing instead to highlight pricier nearby options like Whole Foods and Brooklyn Fare.
But step past the luxury façade into the basement, and the quiet disappears. Even on an early Tuesday afternoon in July, the brightly lit, bustling space hums with high energy as a lunchtime crowd of New Yorkers tightly navigates the narrow aisles with oversized canvas bags.
Porter’s discovery is part of Aldi’s $9bn US expansion plan to add 800 new stores over five years, specifically targeting dense urban hubs like Manhattan. It marks a massive scale-up for the German supermarket, which first entered the US in 1976 and has steadily grown its footprint to nearly 2,800 storefronts.
The aggressive real estate blitz signals a bold shift for a brand traditionally associated with suburban strip malls and lower-end consumers.
