ALDI in Bossier City opens to long lines, full baskets and camping gear (2024)

What do you expect when you are invited on a tour of the newest area ALDI store? We can share what we did not expect: ice cream. As The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate crew and Scott Huska, ALDI's Denton, Texas divisional vice president walked past freezers filled with Blue Bell ice cream, Huska made an offer we could not refuse. "Shall we do a tasting of the ice creams?" he asked, a bit hopefully. Who turns down an opportunity like that?

Huska has been in Bossier City for several days prepping for the Thursday opening of the Bossier City ALDI store at 2900 Meadow Creek Dr., just north of Interstate 220. Because 300 people were standing outside waiting to get in, Huska opened the doors early, a little after 8 a.m. Normal daily hours are 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. The store is the second in the area, joining a Shreveport ALDI at 9503 Mansfield Road that opened in November.

ALDI is known for giving gift certificates to their first 100 grand opening customers. That meant 200 people who knew they were not going to get a gift waited anyway, just to get in early— testament to an unusually loyal fan base.

ALDI has unpaid fans across the country who set up Facebook pages to share information about products and purchases. "I'm not sure other grocery stores across the country have fan pages. I think it's amazing that people are that enthused, excited, and loyal — we really appreciate that, and we take that responsibility seriously," Huska told us.

Fans in Shreveport and Bossier have created pages that now claim more than 10,000 members, many of whom come to the pages to get the weekly scoops posted about products on the ALDI "Finds" aisle, or what fans refer to as the "Aisle of Shame."

The Aisle of Shame is an aisle of mostly non-grocery products that changes out every Wednesday. During our tour, the aisle was filled with seasonal items including bathing suits and summer shoes. Take note, ALDI fans, management will scope out fan Facebook pages to see what you like.

"I saw people commenting left and right (on the fan Facebook pages) on the bathing suits on the Aisle of Shame last week,"Huska said. "The ALDI Finds is the most crowded aisle we've been in today, it's always a bit of a treasure hunt." As we walk through, Huska points out the backpacks, camping utensils and other items that shoppers are picking up, items they likely did not have on their grocery list when they walked into the store.

Huska mentioned ALDI's lower pricing and quality of produce, baked goods and meats several times. One way they can keep prices lower, he said, is because their overhead is lower. Their stores are generally about 12,000 square feet. "That helps us keep our costs low. It's a very efficient shop for our customer. They don't have to walk three football fields to go from eggs to fresh meat. We think we can do in five aisles what others do in 35."

ALDI also relies heavily on store brand products to help keep prices lower. While they do stock Blue Bell ice cream, co*ke products, and a few other major national brands, most of the products stocking the shelves are those made for and sold by ALDI.

The chain also tries to source items like meat, eggs, baked goods and produce regionally. "We try to do it on as many products as possible," Huska told us."It's just good business also."

There are a couple of things to know about the new ALDI store. It is a new prototype for ALDI that is going to be rolled out nationally over the next year and it, unlike the Shreveport ALDI, has a self-serve checkout option that "may be added in Shreveport," confirmed Huska.

The big news is that Huska said ALDI is looking at the area for more possible expansion. "We're always looking at opportunities. We're continuing to look in the area," he said.

The biggest news of all, perhaps, was the ice cream taste test. The two we chose to test were the new Blue Bell A&W Float, a root beer and vanilla mix, and the tried-and-true Cookie Two Step, a mix of vanilla, chocolate crème cookie pieces and cookie dough. No one can complain about ice cream, but no one should ever bet against cookie dough.

ALDI tips for first time shoppers

• Take your own bags. ALDI has bags, but you have to pay extra for them.
• Take a quarter. If you want to use a shopping cart, it will cost a quarter. You will get the quarter back when you return your cart.
• ALDI Finds — Aisle of Shame — items are put out on Wednesdays. Popular things go quickly.
• ALDI now has curbside service with personal shoppers to handle your shopping for you.