Aldi is doubling its store expansion pace in China to reach 150 outlets nationwide by the close of 2026. The German hard-discount chain expects to launch around 60 locations this year, roughly twice its annual total from earlier years, China chief executive Jacqueline Chen said in an interview published this week.

The company operates more than 70 stores in Shanghai and over 50 across the southern region of Jiangsu province. Most locations run on a compact footprint of roughly 1,000 square meters, carrying about 2,000 stock-keeping units. Over 90 percent of those goods are private labels, allowing the retailer to bypass third-party distributors and strip out wholesale markups.

To support that density, Aldi recently brought online its third major warehouse in East China, located in Nanjing. Supply chain capacity must be built before entering a new market, Chen said, pointing out that the distribution hub will let the company launch regional branches faster while balancing logistics costs, speed and inventory resilience.

Price architecture drives the operational model. Between a quarter and a third of all products on Aldi shelves in China sell for less than CNY10 (USD1.49). Merchandise buyers identify the band between CNY9.90 and CNY12.90 as the critical psychological threshold to secure impulse basket additions, with shopper conversion dropping steeply once single-item pricing crosses CNY13.

Domestic rivals including Kinglomo, Mart Fresh and Sanjiang Shopping Club are competing aggressively around the same ten-yuan price point. Across Chinese retail, discount formats and membership warehouse clubs remain the sole grocery models gaining share in an otherwise strained consumer environment.

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