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Special Report: ALDI - NYC

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ALDI
Opened: June 19, 2026
Owner: ALDI Sud
Previous Tenants: non-grocery tenants
Cooperative: none
Location: 311 W 42nd St, Manhattan, NY
Photographed: October 7, 2026
The most popular discount supermarket in the US continues its expansion here in New York City, this time with a very high-profile location in midtown Manhattan. It's located right on busy 42nd Street, in a basement just about a block and a half west of Times Square. Though LIDL has expanded across Manhattan (including a brand-new one 16 blocks south), they haven't yet established an outpost here in famously-expensive Midtown.
I used to commute daily into New York on a bus that would stop just outside Port Authority -- basically right outside this store's front door -- but now that I'm not commuting in anymore, I haven't really been back to midtown. So we're seeing this store about four months after its opening. In total, this store is 25,000 square feet, and the whole supermarket is below ground level (there are a handful of other NYC supermarkets like that, though the more common setup is a split between two floors).
When you descend to the basement, you enter the produce department in the first aisle. Meat and deli items are on the back wall, with frozen and dairy in the last aisle on the left side. It's a standard ALDI setup, but not the usual appearance. You can see different signage and decor here, not to mention the multiple digital screens that show sales and promotions.
One other really unusual feature at this ALDI: aisle markers! Every supermarket has 'em, but most ALDIs (and LIDLs, for that matter) don't actually, instead opting for category markers over individual shelves in most stores. This one has aisle markers mounted to the shelving in each aisle, possibly as a result of the lower ceiling in this basement space.
These big, bold signs aren't something I've seen in other ALDIs either. It does seem that this store got a custom decor package, which is truly unusual for ALDI.
This ALDI is a block east of an independent called Big Apple Meat Market, but the two are hardly comparable. Big Apple, owned by the local chain Western Beef, is a two-floor, full-service supermarket complete with an in-store bakery, a massive deli, and the trademark walk-in meat cooler room. Although it's newly expanded, Big Apple is still only about 14,000 square feet -- smaller than this ALDI. Four blocks west, where 42nd Street meets the West Side Highway, a much larger and full-service Lincoln Market is under construction that'll span almost 40,000 square feet.
That's it for this unusual ALDI for now, but the chain has more recently opened another NYC location...


ALDI
Opened: September 9, 2026
Owner: ALDI Sud
Previous Tenants: non-grocery tenants
Cooperative: none
Location: 535 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed: October 7, 2026
...out here in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This store is around the same size -- a little over 20,000 square feet -- but is a pretty typical ground-level store with a parking lot out front. This store doesn't have the unusual Times Square interior, but instead the same one we saw in Acton.
Produce is in the front-left corner with baked goods behind that, and meat/deli line the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the right side of the store.
There aren't a whole lot of other grocers over on this side of Greenpoint, a somewhat industrial area near the border of East Williamsburg. There's a seriously old-school Met Foods in an old A&P about a quarter mile west.
As you can see, this one looks much more like a typical ALDI.
It's interesting to see how even ALDI, a supermarket chain that loves to stick to a firm formula for its stores, has managed to adapt for some more unusual stores here in the city. There's plenty more to see this weekend, and you can preview it all here!

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