- October 24, 2024
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A brand-new South Tampa Aldi may open as soon as next week.
The grocery chain has not officially announced the opening yet, nor has it replied to several emails over the past two months on an opening date, but on Thursday a message showed up on its Google listing alerting anyone searching for it that the grand opening would be Oct. 31.
A call to the store seeking verification Thursday went to a general mailbox with a message announcing that as part of its cost-cutting efforts the grocer did not list the phone number to individual locations. And its website still listed the store at 213 N. Dale Mabry Highway as “coming soon.”
While there hasn’t been an official confirmation, according to Google Help the only way to change one of the search engine’s listings is by a business verifying its identity and approving edits. Only when this is done can “these changes can be published on Google Search and Maps.”
The new store, whenever it opens, will be in a reconverted space that housed a Barnes & Noble store for nearly 29 years. Aldi has spent nearly a year retrofitting the building and from the outside appears to be nearly done. The signage is up, and the familiar interior and exterior design elements are in place.
Aldi is primarily known for its no-frills approach to shopping, focusing on keeping prices low rather than offering extras like hot bars and cheese counters. Instead, stores run with few employees, stock about 90% private label products and don’t offer free grocery bags or bag your groceries.
One of the biggest examples of its operating principle is its approach to shopping carts. A quarter deposit is required to take one from the cart stable and is returned when the cart is brought back.
The chain opened its first discount grocery store in 1961 in Germany and its first U.S. store in Iowa in 1976. Its U.S. footprint today includes about 2,427 stores in the 39 states. That includes 221 in Florida.
This will be its first Tampa store south of Hillsborough Avenue.
