National + Apartments | September 29, 2017

Aldi Store Redesign Targets Whole Foods

The big grocery news dominating the retail landscape the past few months has been a fixation on Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods. While the giant ecommerce retailer’s move is bold, it was also a bit of a head-scratcher.

Not for German discount grocery chain Aldi. It wasted little time upping its strategy that clearly placed Whole Foods in its sights. Aldi’s new store design, rapidly being rolled out, has a similar, almost mirror, look and feel as 365 by Whole Foods, the lower-priced Whole Foods chain.

Aldi plans to open up more stores featuring the new design, and says it is investing $1.6 billion to renovate stores. That decision is also supported by strong performance at stores that Aldi opened with the new layout.

The new Aldi stores have softer, more natural lighting than previous versions, as well as larger fresh produce sections, wider aisles, electronic displays on the walls, and very little signage – though digital displays and lit signs abound, promising quality and freshness. One difference found at an Aldi store are home good items like pillows and holiday decorations.

Aldi is roughly 30% cheaper than Walmart, and has some 1,600 stores in the U.S. with plans to add another 500 stores in upcoming years. In comparison, 365 by Whole Foods has six stores, and plans to add 16 more in the next year.

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About Dennis Kaiser

Dennis Kaiser is Vice President of Content and Public Relations for Connect Commercial Real Estate. Dennis is a communications leader with more than 30 years of experience including as a journalist and in corporate and agency marketing communications roles. He is responsible for Connect’s client content operations and is involved in a range of initiatives ranging from content strategy, message development, copywriting, media relations, social media and content marketing services. In his most recent corporate communications roles, he led a regional public relations effort across Southern California for CBRE, played a key marketing role on JLL’s national retail team, and was responsible for directing the global public relations effort at ValleyCrest, the nation’s largest commercial landscape services company. In addition to his vast commercial real estate experience, Dennis has worked on communications and launch strategies for a number of residential projects such as Disney’s Celebration in Florida, Ritter Ranch in Palmdale California (7,200 homes, 22,000 acres), WaterColor in Florida and PremierGarage in Phoenix. Dennis’s agency background included firms such as Idea Hall and Macy + Associates. He has earned an outstanding reputation with organization leaders as a trusted advisor, strategic program implementer, consensus builder and exceptional collaborator. Dennis has developed and managed national communications programs for Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, both public and private. He’s successfully worked with journalists across the globe representing clients involved in major-breaking news stories, product launches, media tours, and company news announcements. Dennis has been involved in a host of charitable and community organizations including the American Cancer Society, Easter Seals, BoyScouts, Chrysalis Foundation, Freedom For Life, HOLA, L.A.’s BEST, Reach Out and Read, Super Bowl Host Committee, and Thunderbirds Charities.

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