Discount grocer Aldi welcomed customers into its Downtown store June 17, preparing for the ceremonial grand opening June 18 and bringing a grocery store back to the location after a year.
The German-based company, with U.S. headquarters in Illinois, replaced the Harveys Supermarket that closed in June 2025 at 777 N. Market St., at Union Street.
“Everything’s ready to go,” Regional Vice President JR Perry said during a tour at the store, fresh off a renovation of at least $1.16 million to divide the space for Aldi.
“We’ll go ahead and open up a day early, just to make sure that all of the IT is working OK, all the systems are working OK, and then we feel really good going into the into the grand opening tomorrow,” he said.
Aldi said the ribbon-cutting will be at 8:45 a.m. The first 200 customers will receive a gift bag with a sampling of Aldi products and a gift card. Regular store hours will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
The Downtown store is the first of three opening in the coming weeks.
The next two, which also will have grand-opening ceremonies, are:
• June 25: 1531 Monument Road, at St. Johns Bluff Road, a converted Winn-Dixie.
• July 2: 12777 Atlantic Blvd., near Girvin Road, a converted Winn-Dixie.
City building permits show project costs of at least $1.16 million in permits issued since August for site work interior demolition, renovations and signs at the Downtown store.
Perry said the Downtown location, like all of its sites, are chosen based on traffic counts, median household income, population density, retail synergy, site access, visibility and other factors.
The Market Street site also is near Pearl Square and Gateway Jax’s Downtown development of apartments, hotel rooms and other uses, including a Publix Super Market.
“This was a bit of a gap in the market for us,” Perry said of Downtown. “We’re going to really be a nice addition to this community where people can get high-quality groceries without having to take a hit at the checkout.”
Aldi built-out 25,000 square feet of the closed 31,000-square-foot Harveys Supermarket. The remaining space for lease is represented by TSCG’s Kelly Pulignano and Alison Maas.
The store was built in 1981 for Winn-Dixie, which later converted into the Harveys banner.
The new store is similar to all other Aldis, which average about 22,000 square feet. The strategically calculated selection covers fresh produce and meats; refrigerated and frozen foods, meats, seafood and dairy products; breads and baked goods; beer and wine; and center-aisle staples that include canned goods, spices, baking needs, cereal, condiments, beverages, cleaning and personal care supplies, and more.
Aldi says 90% of its food items are its store brands.
“What we do to build trust with the customer is every single one of our private label items has what we call as a twice as nice guarantee,” Perry said.
“If you don’t think that this meets or exceeds the national brand quality, we’ll replace the product for you with something at comparable price, and we’ll refund your money.”
The company also limits its assortments to the most-used sizes of items rather than carrying multiple offerings. Don’t expect three sizes of the same type of spaghetti sauce, for example.
The Aldi Finds aisle displays special and seasonal clothing, foods, decor, gadgets and toys, and is heavily stocked with summer and patriotic accessories.
“This section is a really interesting part of the store that the customers enjoy, so on average we get about 100 new items in every week, so that’s a mix of food and items,” Perry said.
He said Aldi corporate tracks seasonally relevant items and what’s trending on social media.
“Every single thing we do at Aldi is with one goal in mind,” Perry said.
“That is to allow our customers to stretch their grocery dollar further, and people are finding out every single month that they could save up to 36% on their weekly shopping by switching from a traditional grocery store over to Aldi.”
Fresh produce is delivered daily and regionally sourced when available, Perry said.
Shopping carts, which are lined up inside the front doors, cost a quarter to use, with the coin returned when the cart is returned. The parking lot perimeter has a system that locks the cart wheels so the carts don’t leave the property.
Perry said the cart system saves Aldi “millions” that it passes on to the customer, including not having to pay people to chase carts in the parking lot or repair vehicles that are dinged up.
“We do everything that we can to have the most efficient operation,” he said.
Customers are encouraged to bring their own grocery bags, but can buy paper or reusable bags at the store, or find an empty box in the store for free as merchandise is restocked.
Customers pack their own groceries in the store, although customers take wheel the cart to their vehicles and fill their bags there so they don’t have to do that work in the store.
Aldi also offers curbside pickup and works with delivery services. The store does not offer services such as bakeries, money services or pharmacies.
The Downtown store has five checkout lanes but no self-checkout. Perry said the store is designed to add self-checkout if demand dictates.
As for the checkout clerks known for their speed, they are trained so that they have their reps in before staffing their stations.
Perry said the store is one of the many joining its expansion.
“We’ve got more than 2,600 stores now in more than 40 states and by 2028 we will have nearly 3,600 stores in the U.S.,” Perry said.
In March 2024, Aldi bought Jacksonville-based Southeastern Grocers Inc., which operated about 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Aldi sold back about 170 stores to the Jacksonville grocer, which was renamed The Winn-Dixie Companies LLC.
Winn-Dixie has continued to sell off stores so it can focus on Florida and South Georgia under the Winn-Dixie name. It expects to operate 130 stores.
And Aldi is eclipsing the hometown chain.
According to their websites, Aldi will have 24 stores in Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties after the next openings and the conversion of a Chaffee Road Winn-Dixie.
Winn-Dixie has 23 stores in the four counties as well as several liquor stores.