PROGRESS: Long-awaited ALDI grocery store opens in Sioux City

The German-based chain opened a 22,152-square-foot store near the corner of Floyd Boulevard and Outer Drive.

The shopping experience at ALDI, which is known for its German efficiency, is rather different from most American grocery stores. Few brand names are available, with the majority of the merchandise being in-house brands. Grocery bags aren't provided free -- a paper grocery sack costs seven cents, and customers are encouraged to bring their own. To use a shopping cart, you deposit a quarter. To retrieve the quarter, you return the cart. 

ALDI is one of the few retailers that allows its cashiers to sit on chairs or stools, rather than stand the entire time. The store carries some items that are hard to find, or more expensive, in other stores -- natural and organic items, some imported foods, fair-trade coffee. 

Snow and wind gusts on the store's opening day didn't deter scores of shoppers like Tavani Page. A traveling nurse stationed in Sioux City, Page said when she arrives in a new city for her job, ALDI is one of the places she seeks out. She's especially fond of the fresh produce. 

"It's convenient, the prices are reasonable, there's plenty of options to choose from, and the staff are always respectful," said Page, who is originally from Texas. 

David Zirpel, who visited the Sioux City store with his wife, Pam, on opening day, remembers the year he became an ALDI customer -- 1987, when he lived in St. Louis. A Sioux City residents of 19 years, he'd been waiting for this day. 

"When we heard that ALDI was coming, we were excited about it," Zirpel said. 

"We're impressed with the prices, and the basics like milk, cheese, and vegetables are always a lot cheaper per pound here," he added. 

There was an air of novelty inside the store on opening day -- one man couldn't find a shopping cart that wasn't chained to other carts (the carts are always chained together, and can be unlocked from the chains by depositing a quarter.)

Many others were ALDI devotees who've previously shopped at nearby locations in Sioux Falls and Omaha, and were well-acquainted with the cart procedure.

"We always try to pay it forward too, if somebody doesn't have a quarter, we just pass on our quarter, or we leave it there for somebody else to take it," said Rebeca Quezada, of South Sioux City. 

"I love ALDI, my family and I usually go up to Sioux Falls to shop at the ALDI store, but it's hard to get up there when you have work, and obviously the weather like this," she said. "So we were really excited, we were looking forward to coming down here to get some veggie burgers -- my favorite!"