The discount grocery store ALDI is planning to open a location near downtown Silver Spring by the end of this year.
The store will open at 9440 Georgia Ave. The space formerly housed a Staples, which closed earlier this month.
Jeff Baehr, vice president for the Frederick division of ALDI, confirmed the opening and said the store will be laid out in a new customer-friendly redesign, with more space for products and built with environmentally friendly materials.
“We can’t wait to bring the new look of ALDI to shoppers who know and love us, plus new fans, as we prepare to open the store on Georgia Ave.,” he wrote in an email.
The Germany-based grocery chain has thousands of locations nationally and hundreds in the United States. To cut prices, ALDI stores often have a simple setup with products stored in the boxes they came in. The chain carries a smaller selection of brands than other grocery stores, and many of its items are its own brand.
The Silver Spring store will open less than a block from another grocer—the family-owned independent grocery store Snider’s Super Foods, which has operated there since 1946.
Terry Sweet, a manager at the store, said he was not too concerned about ALDI’s arrival. He said he expects some customers to try out the new store, but thinks people will still return to Snider’s because it has “a different type of operation” with different offerings and a more customer service-based approach.
“We’re a neighborhood store and people love us in the neighborhood, so I don’t think any of them will defect over to ALDI’s, maybe for an item or two, but I’m not too concerned,” he said.
Sweet said he’s known about ALDI coming in and has mentioned it to a few customers.
“As a joke, I’ve even threatened them that if you go in ALDI’s, you’re not allowed back in Snider’s,” he said. “I’m going to stand out there with a camera.”
