Grocery chains continue to expand rapidly as shoppers ‘cut prices’ to cut costs

Aldi is expanding rapidly, with plans to open more than 180 stores in the United States shop This year, more Americans are skipping restaurants and cooking at home amid concerns about the nation’s economy.

The discount grocery chain’s U.S. operations are headquartered outside of Chicago, and it’s not long before a series of expansions begin inflation 2021 has begun with a surge, with a record number of new stores opening last year.

U.S. data show food inflation has slowed but still rose 2.4% last year and has surged about 25% since the pandemic began.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor said groceries price It rose 0.7% month-on-month in December, and prices will rise faster in 2025 than in the previous two years.

Beef and veal prices rose 1% last month from November and 16.4% from last year. Coffee prices rose 1.9% in a month and nearly 20% in a year. Egg prices fell 8.2% in December, continuing their decline after rising sharply following last year’s avian flu outbreak.

president Donald TrumpThe president’s message about inflation during his campaign and his promise to lower prices immediately after his election angered some Americans, who felt it was not a priority for the government after all.

An overwhelming majority of U.S. adults say they have noticed higher-than-usual prices for groceries and electricity in recent months, according to a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Aldi is trying to grab market share as more households buy items at lower prices, which means they are changing where they shop to cut costs.

Americans are abandoning trusted name brands in favor of cheaper store brands and turning to discount or thrift stores where they have shopped for years. That’s a boon for national budget chains like Dollar General and Dollar Tree.

This shift had begun before Trump’s trade war began but appears to have accelerated over the past year.

Aldi said in 2024 that it planned to open 800 new stores by 2028 as inflation concerns spread. Last year, the company announced plans to open a record 225 stores in the United States

Aldi said on Tuesday it would add new distribution centers in Florida, Arizona and Colorado and remained committed to investing $9 billion in the United States by 2028. The company also plans to open more than 50 stores in Colorado over the next five years and plans to double the number of Las Vegas locations by 2030.

The expansion will bring Aldi to nearly 2,800 stores by the end of this year, closer to its target of 3,200 stores by 2028.

Traditional grocers face pressure from off-price chains, big-box retailers like Walmart and relatively new players like Amazon. In December, Amazon said same-day delivery of perishable groceries had expanded to more than 2,300 cities and towns, and the online giant said it had more expansion plans this year.