Opening date announced for new Aldi grocery store location in Bluffton

Aldi has announced a Jan. 25 opening date for its Bluffton grocery store.

A note on the discount grocery chain’s website includes the opening date for the store at 1131 Fording Island Road, but no details about expected hours or specials.

“An ALDI near you is opening on 01/25/2023. The savings in Bluffton are getting bigger. Come into ALDI and get your favorite groceries for your home at incredibly low prices. From fresh produce to organic foods, we’ve got it all for less, every day,” the statement reads.

When the store was announced in February, the plan was for it to open by the end of the year, but the timetable was delayed.

“Our new store in Bluffton, South Carolina, is on track to open in 2023,” wrote Shaun O’Keefe, Aldi’s Jefferson division vice president, in an emailed statement last month.

The Bluffton store is expected to employ between 15-20 people.

Bright blue signs with the Aldi logo and “Coming Soon” are posted at the Aldi site in the shopping center at U.S. 278 and Burnt Church Road.

The shopping center that includes Hobby Lobby and PGA Superstore was expected to have a Fresh Market when it was developed in 2016. When those plans fell through, the anchor space sat vacant for years.

Aldi, a Batavia, Illinois-based discount grocer which bills its stores as “no-frills,” also is planning a store in the new Beaufort Station development at the southwest corner of Robert Smalls Parkway and Parris Island Gateway in Beaufort.