VIROQUA, Wis. – The new Viroqua ALDI store opened it’s doors to the public for the first time on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. About 20 cars with first time customers trickled into the store to check out the newest option for grocery shopping in the area.
Dawn, who lives in Viroqua, was the very first customer to walk though the doors and said she is excited about having another option for shopping and has always found ALDI products to be very high quality.
“Their vegetables and stuff are so fresh,” said Dawn. “And their fruits, I’ve never been disappointed in anything I got.”
We first reported on the announcement that ALDI would be coming to Viroqua back in March. At that time Viroqua Mayor Justin Running told us the companies goal was to have the store open by the end of the year, and they made that deadline by more than a month.
Running said he worked closely with company representatives over several months last spring to clear some hurdles to make the deal happen, but he said he is pleased that consumers will have another choice.
“I think with the closing of the Quillin’s store people were worried about the options,” said Running.
ALDI seems to be a natural fit for the area based on their market strategy. The company has a history of building new stores and recently announced it plans to invest about $9 billion to build 800 new stores in the U.S. in the next five years with about 300 of them in the Midwest. The company currently has about 2,400 stores in the United States.
ALDI is a German company that started after World War II and has expanded worldwide using a model of high quality at discount prices. ALDI stores average around 12,000 square feet. At that size their stores are much smaller than a typical US supermarket of about 40,000 square feet, and more than 90 percent of the brands Aldi sells are its own private labels.
Industry articles related to the recent spike in grocery prices combined with the federal government’s focus on cracking down on price gouging indicate the company may be in a sweet spot of quality, selection, and pricing.
The store will host and official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 8:50 a.m. The ceremony will take place about 30 minutes before the store opens. Customers will be allowed to enter the store immediately following the ceremony. The first 100 customers will receive some giveaways and be eligible for various prizes.
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