Grocery's Savings Are A La Cart

You won't find gourmet meats and cheeses that you might at other supermarkets. And you have to bag your own groceries.

But that didn't keep hundreds of people from turning out in Brandon on Thursday morning to check out the debut of Aldi, a deep discount grocery that opened four stores in the Bay area Thursday.

For the most part, customers raved about prices at Aldi, which claims it can beat traditional supermarket prices by 40 percent.

"Oh, so far I think the prices are great," said Dolly Canter of Seffner. She was thrilled with the 89-cent price on a package of albacore tuna and the $1.99 sticker on a bottle of vanilla extract.

However, Aldi's policy of requiring people to rent shopping carts appeared to confuse more than a few new customers Thursday. Shoppers must pop a quarter into a cart corral; they get their 25 cents back when they return carts to the corral.

At one point Thursday morning, there was such a long backup at the cart corral - as people apparently didn't know what to do or didn't have quarters - that store employees began walking around and handing out quarters.

Aldi, short for "Albrecht Discounts," is a German grocery chain. Its business model is similar to Save-A-Lot's - both chains offer a relatively small selection of groceries when compared with the likes of Publix and Sweetbay.

Offering a limited supply allows Aldi to buy in huge quantities at low prices, then pass along the savings to customers, Aldi executives say.

About 90 percent of Aldi products are store brands, although it does carry a few national brands scattered around its stores.

Customers shouldn't go there expecting the bells and whistles they would find at a Publix, though. A typical Aldi store has just 15 employees, whereas the smallest Publix stores have 110 employees. Customers must bring their own grocery bags or buy them from Aldi at 6 cents for paper, 10 cents for plastic. Customers do their own bagging.

The company plans to open several stores in the Bay area in coming months. On Thursday morning, many shoppers at the new Brandon Boulevard store said they had heard of Aldi or had visited its stores around the world, and they were eager to see the chain arrive in Florida.

Brian and Pat Shearer, transplants to Valrico from the United Kingdom, said some in England turn up their noses at low-price, low-frills Aldi. But when grocery prices overall started rising, they changed their attitudes and started shopping there in droves, Pat Shearer said.

Most people interviewed Thursday said they were impressed with Aldi's prices. One item making a big impression: the price on a gallon of milk, $2.79, which customers said was at least a dollar cheaper than at other stores.

Diana Vance of Riverview said she liked the milk price but thought that most everything else was priced about the same as at other supermarkets. To her, making the roughly 10-mile drive from Riverview wasn't worth it, she said.

With its entrance in the Bay area Thursday, Aldi enters a grocery market dominated by Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets and Wal-Mart Stores.

In the Bay area, Publix commands 38 percent of the supermarket share and Wal-Mart has a 21 percent market share. Tampa-based Sweetbay has about 13 percent. Save-A-Lot, which may be Aldi's closest rival, has 2.3 percent of the Tampa Bay area market, according to market research firm Trade Dimensions.

BAY AREA ALDI STORES

Four stores opened in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties Thursday. Several more will open next month and in November.

Opened Thursday

•13514 University Plaza, Tampa

•4745 U.S. 98 N., Lakeland

•24756 U.S. 19 N., Clearwater

•6700 66th St., Pinellas Park

Opening Oct. 27

•8521 Hillsborough Ave., Tampa

•1177 N. Missouri Ave., Largo

•2900 34th St., St. Petersburg

Opening Nov. 11

•9021 U.S. 19, Pinellas Park

•3021 James L. Redman Parkway, Plant City