Business update: Aldi Opening, Walmart Bribes

      More pressure is coming to the already crowded grocery store business in Montgomery.

     The Aldi chain is preparing for an opening next to Best Buy on the Eastern Boulevard after opening a store in Prattville in December.

      Aldi is a German discount chain.  One of the trademark ways they keep prices down is to rent grocery carts. Put a quarter in to get a cart, get a quarter back when you replace the cart.
 Aldi has 10,000 stores in 20 countries.

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     Aldi will compete with WalMart in Montgomery---which has some 11,000 stores worldwide---and other discount food sellers.
     And speaking of WalMart, that company has settled bribery allegations with a fine of $282-Million. 

"Federal regulators said Walmart looked the other way as subsidiaries on three continents paid millions of dollars to middlemen who helped the company obtain permits and other government approvals from July 2000 to April 2011."

                                                                                         The New York Times story.

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      Montgomery officials have been trying to lure a grocery store to downtown to serve the growing but still small loft population for years without success.

     Till 2016 there was even an incentive program. 

Downtown Grocer

The Program is for a Grocery/Market making at least 75% of revenue from packaged groceries.The store must be a minimum of 5,000 square feet in size.The store must be part of a multi-user/use project and not in a single, standalone building.The store/project must comply with all SmartCode zoning. Single-story projects are eligible for three years of rebate. Multi-story projects are eligible for six years of rebate." 

UPDATE: A city official says the incentives could still be on the table: "I’m confident we could get the City Council to approve an incentive package."







Birmingham went through a similar recruiting period, eventually convincing Publix to open.