Aldi fever came to Middlefield Village early Oct. 3.
Aldi fever came to Middlefield Village early Oct. 3.
Anxious shoppers were waiting, some in lawn chairs, outside the new store on South Springdale Avenue at 7:30 a.m., an hour before the chain grocery store’s soft opening.
“We had a huge line out there,” said store manager Kyle Toth, adding he opened the doors an hour before the usual 9 a.m. since the crowd was clearly raring to shop.
The response to mailers announcing the pre-opening of the discount store included a little bait — the first 100 shoppers would receive gift cards.
“We beat our projections. I’m grateful for that,” said the 2010 Cardinal High School graduate.
Toth said he was hired a year ago and, although he lives in Stowe now, he asked to work in the Middlefield store when it opened.
Customers were still crowding in for the grand opening the morning of Oct. 4, depositing their quarters in the grocery cart chain and patiently making their way around the new store.
Kyle, still in possession of the giant gold scissors, said he had only been with the Aldi chain for a year as he greeted customers.
Sam Climer, operations director for 23 Aldi stores east of Cleveland, said Middlefield had been flagged as a likely site for a while.
“Obviously we always have an eye on new sites,” he said.
The closest Aldi store is in Chardon, about 25 miles away, so the demographics indicate Middlefield and the surrounding communities will spell success for the new operation, Climer said.
Last Thursday, Middlefield resident Chris Morrow said she had been one of the early shoppers Oct. 3, arriving at 8:20 a.m.
“I was number 42 in line,” she said, adding she received a $10 gift card.
In addition to stocking up on frozen foods and salads, she was able to buy her favorite beverage — iced coffee.
“I’m so glad Aldis is here,” Morrow said. “Now I will never run out of iced coffee. It’s wonderful.”
Mary Kangas, of Huntsburg Township, said she heard about the soft opening last Tuesday when she bumped into an Aldi employee taking pictures at a rival store.
“I like to shop here. Now we have more choices,” she said, adding she made the trip to Middlefield on Thursday to take another look around.
“There were probably 100 people in here (Wednesday). They sent fliers in the mail with coupons,” Kangas said. “It was like road rage trying to get in here.”
Village Mayor Ben Garlich joked the Aldi store might need a bigger parking lot, but was enthusiastic in his praise of the store staff who worked to get it off the ground.
“What a nice improvement to the town and the entire area. This building is a tremendous attribute to the community,” he said during the short ceremony. “I’ll be glad to stop going to Chardon and seeing all the Middlefield people (at that Aldi store.”
