Aldi and other retailers cater to value-focused middle class

Persistently high interest rates have driven the U.S. middle class—generally considered to include households making $53,000 to $161,000 a year—to trade down on their purchases and shop at discounters.

Many stores and restaurants recognize this trend and are catering to these customers with specials including IHOP, McDonald's and Walmart.

The three most rapidly expanding chains in 2025: ALDI USA and the two big dollar-store chains.

Aldi is now the third-largest grocery chain by store count in the U.S., with more than 2,500 locations. Nearly half of this year’s 200 store openings will be conversions of former Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket locations. Aldi acquired the two chains in 2023.

Aldi plans to open more than 800 additional stores by the end of 2028.

Aldi is smaller than a traditional American grocery store and to deliver low prices, about 90% of the items it sells are private label merchandise. Aldi store sizes tend to fall in the 12,000–20,000 sq. ft. range while traditional supermarkets are about 40,000 sq. ft. or larger. Aldi carries around 1,400 items, versus about 40,000 at traditional supermarkets.

Supermarkets are very different from big-box formats like Walmart Supercenters ~ 178,000 sq. ft. (range 69K–260K sq. ft.) or Costco Wholesale ~ 140,000 sq. ft. (range 76K–240K sq. ft.) vastly larger.

The “Aldi Finds” aisle is a rotating hodgepodge of discounted items, similar to its competitor Lidl US, another German grocery chain expanding in the U.S.

Aldi’s appeal is similar to the “treasure hunt” shopping experience at discount retailers such as The TJX Companies, Inc. store brands, Burlington Stores, Inc. and Five Below, which have also been opening many new stores in the 2020s.

Read more: Aldi Wants to Conquer the American Grocery Store Landscape (The Wall Street Journal)