Aldi lists job openings at multiple warehouses and nearly 30 stores in Northern California

[c95xrk]

There are job postings for a number of positions at Aldi now available on Careerbuilder, including several warehouses and almost 30 stores spread from the Sacramento region to the Central Valley and all across the Bay Area. Whether the listings are totally accurate may be up for debate, but it seems like Aldi is ready to make a big push into the Northern California market.

From what i've seen, there are listings for stores/warehouses in:

Bay Area:
Antioch
Bay Point
Belmont
Benicia
Campbell
Clayton
Concord
Cupertino
Livermore
Los Gatos
Hollister
Oakdale
Oakland
Pacifica
Pleasanton
San Carlos
San Francisco
San Lorenzo
San Ramon
Santa Clara
South San Francisco
Union City

Central Valley:
Galt
Los Banos
Manteca
Modesto
Stockton

Sacramento:
Arden-Arcade
Folsom
North Highlands
Rancho Cordova
Vineyard
Woodland

Something to keep an eye on, for sure.

[bryceleinan]

It would be interesting to see if this is true, but nothing posted on the ALDI jobs site for NorCal… yet. However, it wouldn’t be shocking to see them coming with a division up here.

[storewanderer]

I wonder if they are bidding on 99 Only real estate.

[c95xrk]

I wonder if they are bidding on 99 Only real estate.

That was my first thought! Plenty of space that would be perfect in terms of size and location for them.

[storewanderer]

I wonder if they are bidding on 99 Only real estate.

That was my first thought! Plenty of space that would be perfect in terms of size and location for them.

Pricing is so terrible in Northern California, Aldi probably thinks they can make a lot of money...

We will see how it goes.

Based on the locations they are showing on that list this looks particularly bad news for Food Maxx/Save Mart.

Wondering where the Aldi in San Francisco will be...

[ClownLoach]

I wonder if they are bidding on 99 Only real estate.

That was my first thought! Plenty of space that would be perfect in terms of size and location for them.

Pricing is so terrible in Northern California, Aldi probably thinks they can make a lot of money...

We will see how it goes.

Based on the locations they are showing on that list this looks particularly bad news for Food Maxx/Save Mart.

Wondering where the Aldi in San Francisco will be...

I would not be surprised to see an Aldi expansion there, nor would I be surprised to see them go after a large block of 99 leases. And I wouldn't be surprised if 99 had already made a deal before bankruptcy to sell this large block of stores, maybe it is one of the reasons for the wind down. Aldi has deep pockets and is hungry to grow as they have a nearly religious belief that their concept is superior to the traditional American supermarket even though they only do a fraction of typical sales volume in their (highly profitable) stores.

But there is an incredible red flag in the fact that none of this is on the actual Aldi job site. All the modern HRIS systems at these companies basically "plug into" the job sites like Careerbuilder, Indeed and others. The HRIS system actually makes the posting and removes it. Thus it is nearly impossible for an ad to go up without the actual job originating in the system. It is also a red flag that such a deal wouldn't be in the bankruptcy, however as I've discussed prior there are errors or other oddities in this filing such as the alleged large debt not being listed and the real estate actually being owned and not leased back. Finally from a time line perspective it is even more suspect when compared to the deal to take over Winn-Dixie, they don't even know what stores they're converting, keeping for now or closing yet. Converting these older 99 stores with major deferred repairs and poor conditions would probably mean a early to mid 2025 rollout. Nobody would be hiring for 2025 jobs which means the job posting is very suspicious even if someone had insider knowledge of a deal and leaked it.

Unfortunately there have been a lot of fake job listings in the last couple of years. I am aware of many people clicking on postings and then getting emails alleging to be from the HR department at one of my previous companies that invite them to apply for open positions at very competitive wages. The emails look totally legit and have the name of the head of HR. One slight issue... The links don't go to the actual company website... and the HR person listed was the head of the department over a decade ago but they are deceased. These job posting and related emails link to fake job applications that are used to steal your identity. They ask for SSN, Drivers License information, and of course to expedite "hiring" they include a direct deposit setup. You get a notice with a bogus date and time you'll be called for your phone interview. Well before that date your bank account is emptied and credit applications are being opened all over the country with your information. And of course when you check with a real physical store you find that you've been defrauded.

Knowing how widespread the problem is, I am noticing as I look for a new job that many companies are pulling away from the job websites and are very carefully including language that legitimate job opportunities will never request any PII including SSN until the end of the hiring process.

Has anyone done any comparisons of the list to existing 99 real estate to vet the quality of the list?

[Retailuser]

I wonder if they are bidding on 99 Only real estate.

Or Closed or closing Rite aid locations.

[ClownLoach]

I wonder if they are bidding on 99 Only real estate.

Or Closed or closing Rite aid locations.

Most Rite Aid locations would be too small, aside from older larger Payless maybe. With limited land space that is common in California Aldi would not be able to expand and meet parking requirements etc., and could be worse off as they couldn't take advantage of grandfathered building codes. I think Aldi has successfully converted a Rite Aid or two in the past as I remember seeing one somewhere traveling, but their current prototype they're opening in California is a bit larger as they adapted to the market. Also realize that no mass group of stores has sold or will be sold based on the BK process that is winding down. If Aldi went after Rite Aid sites they would be doing it the exact same way as any other retailer in having their broker call each separate landlord one store at a time. Separate negotiations for each individual store. That would take a year or more and wouldn't even be able to begin until the Rite Aid bankruptcy ends and the court officially finalizes the last of the lease terminations that haven't already occurred.

Aldi has in fact been leasing many larger box stores like Office Depot, original era PetSmart, furniture stores and more then walling off extra space to match their perfect prototypical design. They are big believers in having consistent matching facilities especially what you don't see, the back of house, for the maximum humanly possible labor efficiency. It is not easy, or sometimes even physically possible, to add sealed docks and dock wells especially with the dumb design the big drug chains have been using in recent years with simple double doors in the back corner for dragging in pallets.

The 99 locations are consistently a bit larger and the majority I've seen have proper dock wells and sealed dock doors, so they must have been requiring those at least on newer stores.

There is a discussion on another thread about the problems of chains with bad logistics facilities and what kind of chaos that provides. Trader Joe's was called out for the problems posed by trying to run a grocery store with the same dock setup most modern drugstores have, a flat pad and using trucks with lifts for pallets. It is chaos and results in piles of food sitting in an alley or sidewalk. Aldi is not capable of handling that kind of operation at all because of their ultra low payroll model and must have sealed docks. They have palletized and sorted loads with driver unload trucks I am told. These trucks are rapidly stocked within a couple hours by a small skeleton crew. Remember that they are so consistent that generally with exceptions of liquor and the first bays of aisle one by the entrance, the majority of their stores have identical layouts so they know that pasta is aisle 4 in every store in the chain. Their culture is wild in that generally everyone in their operation from distribution center warehouse to cashier should know what is an "Aisle 1 business," an "Aisle 3 business" and so on. It's not exactly a plano gram as they expect the manager to know what is selling, what isn't, and make adjustments such as making more room for the best sellers and sometimes adjusting to move slower sellers to eye level. You see a similar culture at Trader Joe's of manager initiated merchandising decisions.

So based on the specific size and logistics requirements of Aldi, the lack of bulk availability of RA space, and the seemingly expedited closure of the non SoCal 99 stores, it seems very much possible that they could have had a prenegotiated deal that will emerge to purchase a large block of 99 stores.

[Alpha8472]

There are several 99 Cent Only stores in Northern California with vacant spaces next to them. Several closed Rite Aid stores are next to vacant stores. Aldi could expand these stores to reach a perfect Aldi size. The Rite Aid in San Ramon could expand into the former Big 5 next door. Big 5 never reopened after the roof caved in from the rain. Rite Aid reopened but closed later.

[storewanderer]

The freestanding west coast RIte Aids are around 18,000 square feet. That should be sufficient size for an Aldi but as ClownLoach points out you have the issues with the loading dock and other issues since those are not legitimate "grocery" buildings.

Aldi continues to lease larger sites in CA.

The 99 sites seem to often be too large for Aldi.

Aldi is probably a pretty good replacement for 99 Only. Also if you have a 35k square foot 99 Only you can take and split off 25k square feet for Aldi and throw 10k square feet to Dollar General/Dollar Tree and basically have the exact same type of program going that 99 Only had...