The State With The Most Aldi Grocery Stores
Many grocery chains in the United States are regional ones — in the South, Publix is king, while H-E-B is a Texas thing. Aldi, however, is more international in outlook, with stores throughout Europe as well as in Australia and China. In the U.S., 38 states plus the District of Columbia have Aldi locations, but which state comes out on top? You expect the answer to be California, Texas, or Florida, as these are the most populous states in the union. Florida, in fact, does rank second in terms of total Aldis, as it has 209 to its name. Just edging it out to take the top spot, however, is Illinois, with 211 Aldis. This is despite the fact that it's just the sixth-most populous state. Coming in a distant third is Ohio, with a mere 156 stores. (The Buckeye State ranks seventh in population, in case you were wondering.)
While most cities have but a single Aldi, a few metropolises have more than one. Topping the list of Aldi-rich cities is Chicago, which has 33 stores, or approximately 16% of the state's supply. Other multi-Aldi cities include Houston with 14, Philadelphia with 13, Dallas with 10, and Milwaukee with 7. NYC, surprisingly, only has one lone Aldi outpost in East Harlem, while Los Angeles has no Aldis at all.
Not all states have Aldis, though
Sadly, there are some states that are still without a single Aldi — Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. As to why there are no Aldis in these locations, Aldi Reviewer speculates that the corporation (which, by the way, is headquartered in Illinois) may prefer to focus more of its expansion efforts on areas where it has distribution and transport already in place.
So what are the people who live in Aldi deserts to do when it comes to satisfying their budget grocery needs? They could just be patient and wait — in 2022, Jones Lang Lasalle said Aldi was the fastest-expanding grocery chain for the third year in a row. In the meantime, though, all of the Aldi-free states except for Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, and Wyoming have Trader Joe's, which is Aldi's somewhat more upscale cousin. In addition to this, Colorado and Maine also have Save A Lot, which operates on a similar model but with more of a no-frills aesthetic.