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Americans stressed by high grocery bills have one bright spot to look forward to in 2026. Value-minded grocery chain Aldi is coming to more cities around the country, with 180 new stores set to open in the U.S. this year. Aldi is a compelling option for grocery shoppers on a budget. Founded in Germany, the company envisioned itself as a discount grocery store from day one. Aldis aggressive U.S. expansion will meet the needs of more shoppers seeking a no-frills grocery experience without compromising on quality a niche shared by Aldi competitors like Costco and Trader Joes. The budget grocery chain currently operates in 39 states across more than 2,600 stores in the U.S. By the end of 2026, it plans to add 180 new stores, with some states getting their first Aldi, including a new location in Portland, Maine. The grocer is expanding aggressively in the West in particular, with 50 stores planned for Denver and Colorado Springs alone over the next five years. Phoenix will get 10 new Aldi locations in 2026, with 40 planned by the end of 2030 and four new Las Vegas area stores are on the way in the next few years as well. These strategic investments are all about making sure customers can continue to count on us for the quality, affordable groceries and enjoyable shopping experience they love, Aldi CEO Atty McGrath said in a press release. As we look ahead to our next 50 years in the U.S., well continue to earn shopper loyalty by staying true to whats made ALDI successful: keeping things simple and delivering real value. Beyond the West, Aldi is pushing deeper into the Southeast U.S. through its 2024 acquisition of Southeastern Grocers, the parent company of grocery chain Winn-Dixie. The company will continue converting many of those locations into Aldi stores, with 200 set to be finished by the end of next year. Aldi builds its brand As Americas fastest-growing grocer, Aldi is focused on entering new markets, but the company is also refining aspects of its brand in the process. Late last year, Aldi began putting its own brand on its in-house products, communicating more clearly with customers that they can only buy many of the things they enjoy at Aldi. Private label is the core of what we do, Scott Patton, Aldis chief commercial officer, told Fast Company. Im not going to say we invented it; I would say weve perfected it. More than 90% of the grocers offerings are private label, but that fact isnt always apparent to shoppers a problem the company plans to solve. The overall sentiment was, on average, customers didnt know that was an Aldi brand, Kristy Reitz, Aldis director of brand and design, told Fast Company. Now if they shop us a little less frequently, they think they can find that brand elsewhere, and in fact its a private-label brand to Aldi. The K-shaped economy and Aldi Aldis booming business isnt a coincidence. Its stores command a loyal following by combining high quality with affordability, but its the latter thats really weighing on the minds of U.S. shoppers right now. According to a poll by the Associated Press last year, an overwhelming majority of American households are worried about the high cost of groceries. Around half of people polled said that the high cost of groceries was a major stressor, with only 14% reporting that they werent worried about how much they pay to stock the fridge. No matter what you call it, rich Americans are getting richer while much of the rest of the country is struggling to make ends meet. That K-shaped economy is taking shape in a number of ways, but the crux of it is that lower and middle income consumers are wrestling with a higher cost of living taking a bigger bite out of their earnings while the wealthiest Americans, buoyed by stock market highs, just keep spending. Because the cost of basic needs like food and housing has soared in recent years and American wages havent kept up, many people in the U.S. feel left in the lurch. That leaves a lot of potential Aldi shoppers hunting for deals on the essentials. Other stripped down discount shopping options are also booming. Costcos share price has more than doubled since the current inflationary streak began, with shoppers flocking en masse into its warehouses to stock up on high quality, low markup goods and groceries. Its no surprise that refreshingly non-predatory brands are inspiring small armies of devoted followers who evangelize about the good deals they find. People stressed about their grocery bills have found a safe haven with stores like Aldi and Costco and for anyone who isnt, theres always Erewhon.
Category:
E-Commerce
Facebook owner Meta has named Dina Powell McCormick, a former Trump administration adviser and longtime finance executive, as president and vice chairman of the tech giant. Powell McCormick previously served on Meta’s board of directors where, the company notes, she was deeply engaged in accelerating its artificial intelligence push across platforms. In her new management role, Meta says Powell McCormick will help guide its overall strategy, including the execution of multi-billion-dollar investments. The news, announced Monday, quickly gained the applause of U.S. President Donald Trump. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, the Republican president said the move was a great choice by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and noted that Powell McCormick had served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction. Zuckerberg said in a statement that Powell McCormicks experience in global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, made her uniquely suited to help Meta in its future growth. Powell McCormick is a veteran of two presidential administrations and the Republican National Committee. She worked as a national security adviser at the start of Trump’s first term, and also held roles in the White House and the Secretary of State’s office under President George W. Bush. She is married to U.S. Sen. David McCormick, who served in high-level positions in the Commerce and Treasury departments under Bush before he joined hedge fund Bridgewater Associates and rose to become CEO. And Powell McCormick has a long background in finance. She spent 16 years in senior leadership at Goldman Sachs, but was most recently vice chair, president and head of global client services at merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners. She’s also held a handful of other corporate board positions including at oil giant Exxon Mobil. According to a securities filing, Powell McCormick had previously resigned from Meta’s board in December, eight months after joining as a director. The addition of Powell McCormick to Meta’s management team arrived amid wider efforts from California-based Meta to boost its ties with Trump, who was once banned from Facebook. Like other powerful tech CEOs, Zuckerberg has dined with the president at the White House and doubled down on U.S. investment promises worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Last year, the company also appointed Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White to its board, another familiar figure in Trump’s orbit. Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP business writer AP Reporter Marc Levy contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Iran hasn’t changed its flag, but the emoji for it has changed on X, the social network previously known as Twitter. Iran’s tricolor flag features green, white, and red horizontal stripes, with the country’s national emblem displayed in its center white stripe. But some opposition groups use a historical flag that instead shows a golden lion holding a sword in front of a sun. Since ongoing anti-government demonstrations erupted in Iran in December, that lion-and-sun version of the flag has been used as a symbol of protest around the world, including in demonstrations over the weekend in Los Angeles and London, where one protester held the flag at the Iranian embassy after taking down the national flag. Now it’s also on X. [Images: x.com/Twemoji] After an X user asked the site’s head of product, Nikita Bier, to update the flag last Thursday, Bier responded, “Give me a few hours.” The updated emoji appeared first on the web browser version of the site before rolling out to iOS devices. Other emoji vendors like Google and Facebook still use the standard emoji of Iran’s national flag, so the lion-and-sun flag isn’t available on most platforms, and it’s also not available for X on Android devices. The change on X, though, meant that accounts tied to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs suddenly found their bios displaying an emoji that could be construed as anti-regime. Iran’s foreign ministry has since removed the emoji from its bio. X previously used default Apple emoji on iOS, but since 2023, it has used its own native emoji, according to Emojipedia. X last redesigned an emoji in 2024, when it changed its pistol emoji from a green water pistol back to an actual pistol. Protests in Iran began on December 28 over deteriorating economic conditions. They have reached every province in the country. At least 572 people have died, and more than 10,600 people have been detained, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization. X users in the country haven’t had much of a chance to use or sound off about the new emoji, as Iran shut down internet access and telephone lines last Thursday.
Category:
E-Commerce
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