Aldi opening another Long Island grocery store this week, as discounter pushes fast growth
Aldi is planning to open a grocery store in Bethpage on Thursday, the Germany-based grocery chain said. Seen here is the Aldi store in Rocky Point in 2024. Credit: Tom Lambui
Aldi’s rapid local expansion continues as the discount grocer plans to open its 17th Long Island store — the 11th in five years — Thursday.
Located at 3988 Hempstead Tpke. in Bethpage, the 21,000-square-foot store will open at 9 a.m., according to the Germany-based discount chain.
“At our new Bethpage Aldi store, shoppers will find that every decision we make, from our product selection to store layout, is to provide our customers with the best products at the lowest possible prices of any national grocer,” Chris Daniels, regional vice president for Aldi, said in a statement Monday.
Aldi, which opened its first U.S. store in Iowa in 1976, is one of the fastest-growing grocers in the nation. It has more than 2,400 stores in nearly 40 states, including nearly 120 stores that opened last year.
The growth is being fueled in part by the chain improving the appearance of its stores more than a decade ago, which made them more appealing to higher-income customers, said Jon Hauptman, founder of Price Dimensions, a Chicago-based pricing strategy consulting firm for grocery stores.
A growing number of those customers have been concerned about inflation in recent years, so they are seeking cheaper grocery options, he said.
About 80% of the products Aldi carries are its own private-label brands.
"While Aldi doesn't consistently carry many national brands, their proprietary labels are typically well-regarded by consumers. And Aldi's low, market-leading prices allow shoppers to get more bags of groceries for their weekly shopping budgets, which has never been more critical with inflation and tariff worries causing people across the country to try to save money wherever they can," Hauptman said.
Also, because its stores are smaller than traditional supermarkets, Aldi has more options for sites where it can open stores than larger competitors, he said.
In February, Aldi said it planned to open a record 225 U.S. stores this year as part of its five-year growth strategy, announced in March 2024, to invest more than $9 billion to add 800 U.S. stores by the end of 2028.
On Long Island, the chain opened a Medford store at 2799 Rte. 112 in June.
At least two more openings will take place by next summer on Long Island. One will open this month, on Aug. 28, at 153 Ronkonkoma Ave. in Lake Ronkonkoma, Daniels told Newsday on Monday.
In summer 2026, an Aldi store will open in Great Neck, at 38 Great Neck Rd.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
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