Aldi's First US Location Launched In This Unexpected State 16 Years After Starting In Germany

These days it feels like Aldi has always been a part of the grocery landscape, quietly anchoring shopping centers and routinely delivering low prices. Since opening its first store in 1976, the chain has earned a devoted following by building trust in its in-house brand products and convincing shoppers that a quirky shopping experience is worth the savings. Surprisingly, Aldi's first American store didn't open on either of the coasts, or really in any major metropolitan area. Instead, the German company launched its first U.S. store in low-key Iowa City, Iowa.

While it might seem a little unexpected for the German-based company to kick things off in the Midwest, what better place to launch a grocery store for high-quality, inexpensive private label foods in a no-frills format than the modest Midwest? Thanks to the values of minimalism and practicality passed down from Scandinavian and German settlers, Iowans were primed to be early adopters of a grocery store model that prizes value, efficiency, and substance over expensive displays and sales gimmicks. While the people of Los Angeles, New York, and other big cities were being wooed by various supermarkets, the folks in Iowa City seemed to be more than willing to give Aldi's new simple concept a try.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for Aldi in Iowa City. The original store, which opened in a former Giant Food store, actually closed in 1977 and a new store wouldn't open in the area again until 1985. The lessons learned about adapting the successful German model to the U.S. from that first store, however, became the base of many of the company's standard practices in the U.S. to this day. Methods that felt foreign at the time, like bringing your own bags, depositing a quarter to get a shopping cart, and scoping out sales in the so-called Aldi aisle of shame have become welcome rituals for Aldi shoppers rather than inconveniences.

As Aldi looked to break out of the Midwest, it wisely stuck to the basics of selling good food at low prices and waited for the rest of the country to catch up to the experience that many Iowans had already accepted. Although it was a bit of a slow burn, the chain built what started out as a modest experiment from that initial Iowa City store into a network today of more than 2,600 stores across the country, with more planned for 2026. It's a great reminder you don't need to woo shoppers on Madison Avenue to get Americans on board for any concept, you just have to meet them where they're at with quality products and low prices (it's the cheapest grocery store in America, to be exact).