ALDI coming to Milford

by Terry Rogers

ALDI’s is coming to Milford Plaza

ALDI has announced that they are coming to the Milford Plaza Shopping Center. The new store will be located in the section of the shopping center recently vacated by Sav-A-Lot.

“We are excited to confirm we are planning to open a new ALDI store in Milford,” Jeff Baehr, Frederick Division Vice-President of ALDI, said. “We are opening the store later this year but do not have further details at this time.”

Bringing ALDI to Milford required some changes to leases for stores already in the shopping center, James Grant of Tsionas Management told Milford City Council in June 2021. The management company required approval from council to place a sign for Sherwin Williams farther north in front of the shopping center in order to move that store to the former Sears location.

Grant explained at the time that The Plaza is in talks with ALDI who were considering placing a store in the former Sav-A-Lot location. In order for Aldi to have enough of a footprint, they would need to take over the Sherwin Williams store that is adjacent, requiring Tsionas Management to relocate Sherwin Williams.

“To give you a brief overview of what has happened,” Grant said. “Sherwin Williams has a lease, and we are asking them to move. There is no clause in the lease for that which means they come to the landlord and ask for everything. When a store moves into the center, we don’t usually touch the façade. However, we are going to redo the entire façade on the front of the former Sears store, do the entire fit out inside the store and they are asking for this sign in order to move. If we don’t give them what they want, they can say “we are fine where are” and we cannot make them move. If that happens, you don’t get ALDI.” Council approved the request unanimously.

ALDI has been in the grocery business for more than 40 years, following the same guiding principle that great quality should come with low prices. The Albrecht family opened the first ALDI’s in 1961 in Germany and opened their first store in Iowa in 1976. They are headquartered in Batavia, Illinois and grown to more than 2,000 stores across the country. The company has a no-frills shopping model offering high-quality food, excellent customer service, low prices every day and a smaller store that makes shopping less timely.