Aldi doubles down on Chicago-area growth as Walmart opts out

This week, Aldi revealed that another store is moving into the Chicago area, while Walmart said several of its stores are moving out.

The fast-growing German discount grocery chain told WGB on Wednesday that it will open a new store in the Chicago suburb of La Grange Park, furthering its expansion already underway in and around the Windy City.

“We are excited to share a store will be coming to La Grange Park early next year,” Heather McCarthy, division VP, told WGB. “At this time, we don't have an estimated timeline or opening date, but will be sure to share once those details become available.”

Aldi is slated to open a new location later this year at Six Corners, a shopping district in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago's Northwest Side.

Illinois is the state with the highest number of Aldi stores, according to the discount grocer’s website, which lists over 210 Illinois locations.

Walmart has a total of 184 total retail units in Illinois, which includes supercenters, discount stores, neighborhood markets and Sam’s Clubs, according to the retail giant’s website.

Walmart, which will close four stores in Chicago on Sunday said this week that “collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago—these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years.”

Earlier this year, Walmart’s pickup-only store, in Chicago’s inner suburb of Lincolnwood closed, along with stores in the surrounding suburbs of Plainfield and Homewood.

According to the 2023 Most Trusted Grocery Retailers in America list, Walmart is the most-trusted conventional grocer and Aldi is the most-trusted discount and small-format grocer.

The fifth-annual ranking from market research firm BrandSpark International, conducted in partnership with Winsight Grocery Business and Newsweek, surveyed more than 10,000 U.S. shoppers about their most-trusted food retailers in a variety of categories