Aldi opens new look stores to rival Coles and Woolworths
Aldi Supermarkets are shaking things up in the retail world by opening their new look Corner Stores, with the first opening today.
The North Sydney, NSW Aldi Corner Store will be the first of its kind by the retailer in Australia, offering customers a different experience to their standard supermarket.
The boutique-style store will operate on a smaller scale for efficiency and meet the needs of customers in densely populated areas.
But that doesn’t mean the new stores won't have a big offering.
Corner Stores will offer grab-and-go meal options, a coffee kiosk with barista-made coffee, an artisan bakery section and a collection of the supermarket’s famous Special Buys.
The new store’s layout also includes simple and efficient navigation, self-serve checkouts. Corner Stores will also have extended trading hours of 7am to 9pm.
The supermarket’s new artisan "Wild Origins" bakery range offers shoppers 12 types of sourdough bread, vegan burger buns, chocolate croissants, pretzels, and multi-pack cookies.
Additionally, the store has teamed up with OzHarvest to offer customers a "Juice For Good" vending machine.
Customers can purchase freshly squeezed juice using blemished oranges - ensuring good quality produce does not go to waste - with all profits from sales going straight to OzHarvest.
Aldi’s corner stores are set to rival the growing range of Woolworths Metro stores and Coles Local supermarkets popping up in city suburbs across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Aldi asks customers to follow lockdown guidelines
While the new store opening will go ahead today, an Aldi spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia they’re asking customers to follow the current Government advice around the Greater Sydney lockdown.
“We have proceeded with opening the new Aldi Corner Store in North Sydney, taking into account all the current Covid restrictions,” an Aldi spokesperson said.
“Given the lockdowns in Greater Sydney, we don’t feel it is appropriate to drive interest or additional customer traffic to Corner Store at this time.
“We are fortunate that as an essential service we are open for trade, and in these challenging times feel it is our responsibility to ensure North Sydney locals have access to the re-opened store to make their essential grocery purchases as needed.”
Aldi makes moves to rival supermarket competition
The move to open the new concept stores comes as the retailer also introduced self-serve checkouts and online shopping.
The German supermarket giant shocked shoppers when they introduced self-serve checkouts at the beginning of June, after pledging in 2019 to stay away from self-serve options, focussing instead on the customer service of their check-out operators.
The move came after Aldi stores in the UK introduced self-serve checkout to speed up transactions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The retailer has also made plans to move online with an Aldi spokesperson telling Yahoo News Australia in March that it was inevitable eCommerce would become part of Aldi's future.
"Everything we do, we do with our 'Good Different' approach to business, so as we look at how we bring this to Aldi shoppers, we'll ensure this doesn't compromise our ability to give customers exceptional value on high-quality items," a spokesperson said.
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