Grand Opening Today for New Grocery Store ALDI on Route 50

ALDI, the self-described discount grocery store, will hold a ribbon-cutting Thursday and officially open Friday at Sully Plaza in Chantilly at 13920 Lee Jackson Memorial Highway. The spot is the former location of a Shopper's Food Warehouse.

To celebrate the opening, ALDI will host a grand opening preview event and ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Thursday. The general public is invited to join ALDI executives and city officials until 4 p.m. to tour the new store, sample ALDI exclusive brands and win prizes, including seasonal items and ALDI gift certificates, according to a news release.

The store will officially open for business Friday at 9 a.m. The store hours at the Chantilly store will be Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Owned by the same company that owns Trader Joe's, ALDI was started in 1913 by Karl and Theo Albrecht. The name for the store comes from the brothers' last name and the word "discount": ALDI. The company is broken into Aldi North and Aldi South, both based in Germany.

A recent Forbes magazine article described the grocery store as "small, low margin, high quality food stores with little fancy fixturing." The Chantilly store features high ceilings, natural lighting and environmentally friendly building materials—such as recycled materials and energy-saving refrigeration and light bulbs—"to ensure that customers enjoy a shopping experience that is simple and easy to navigate," according to a news release from the company.

The company operates more than 1,200 grocery stores in 32 states in the United States and nearly 400 Trader Joe's stores.

Keep up with Chantilly area news with the Chantilly Patch email newsletter. Learn more here!