Mall mogul The Westfield Group, which operates its Westfield shopping centers across the country, has teamed up with discount grocer ALDI to bring the nation its first grocery story in an enclosed mall. May 20 ALDI opened a brand new store inside the West
Mall mogul The Westfield Group, which operates its Westfield shopping centers across the country, has teamed up with discount grocer ALDI to bring the nation its first grocery story in an enclosed mall. May 20 ALDI opened a brand new store inside the Westfield Chicago Ridge shopping mall, at 9640 S. Ridgeland Ave. in southwest suburban Chicago Ridge.
The concept of a grocery store inside of a mall is a common one for Australia-based Westfield, which operates a total of 119 shopping centers in the U.S., New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. Chris Barnett, the company’s senior vice president for development and regional leader for the Midwest, told the Defender at the grand opening that having a grocery story inside of the Westfield malls means “one stop shopping” for consumers.
“It’s very common to us outside the United States,” Barnett said.
The idea, he explained, is to allow Chicago Ridge consumers to do traditional mall shopping, take in a movie at the mall’s movie theater, partake in the food court and round out the experience with an opportunity to grocery shop.
Barnett said Westfield looks forward to putting a grocery store – not necessarily an ALDI – in each of its 55 U.S. malls.
For ALDI, moving into the Chicago Ridge mall made good business sense.
“There’s thousands of people who shop the mall,” Mike Jessen, ALDI vice president for the Valparaiso region, told the Defender.
The grocer operates several stores in the vicinity of the mall, including one at Harlem Avenue and Southwest Highway. But that store wasn’t serving the ALDI customers in the way the company wanted it to, Jessen explained. So it was closed and replaced with the brand new 20,000-square-foot store located at the northeast end of the mall.
“This really opens the opportunity for a whole new set of customers,” Jessen said. “We are opening the first ALDI in an enclosed mall to help customers stretch their dollars even further.”
The brightly lit store offers the same prices and products as other ALDI stores, but with more of a “one stop shop” opportunity, he said. Chicago Ridge mall has over 140 other stores.
This store was one of the five the grocery retailer plans to open in the Chicago area this year. In total, ALDI plans to open 80 stores this year, nationwide.
Copyright 2011 Chicago Defender
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