A Winn-Dixie in Metairie is closing and will become an Aldi after the German grocery chain bought all of Southeastern Grocers’ stores earlier this year.
The Winn-Dixie at 5901 Airline Drive will close in the coming weeks, Southeastern Grocers confirmed, but did not provide a timeline.
“As we work through this transition period, conversion plans are still being finalized and we will share more information as it becomes available,” Meredith Hurley, Southeastern Grocers’ senior director for communications & community, said in a statement.
A Facebook post noting the store’s closing received 400 comments in a Metairie Facebook group, and the poster expressed concern for the current employees.
Hurley said all store associates received advanced noticed of the closing and were provided “with choices throughout the process.”
This will be Aldi’s 16th store in Louisiana after opening its first location in the state in 2022. A new distribution center opened in Loxley, Alabama, in January 2023 helped the brand rapidly expand across the Gulf Coast, Hurley told The Times-Picayune in December. Aldi announced in March it planned to open 800 stores across the U.S. by 2028.
In the New Orleans area, there are already Aldi locations near Kenner, Marrero, Slidell and LaPlace. The Veterans Boulevard location near Kenner is 3.5 miles away from where the new Airline Drive store will be.
Southeastern Grocers owned nearly 400 Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s Supermarket locations across Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Aldi has said many of those will be converted into Aldi stores, but the company would not provide a list of locations.
Aldi’s are known for low prices and store-brand products. Shoppers are asked to bring their own bags or buy reusable bags, and deposit a quarter to rent a shopping cart so that carts are returned and the quarter is refunded.
But Hurley said the Louisiana stores do offer local craft beers and beloved local brands like Luzianne Sweet Tea, Blue Plate Mayonnaise, Crystal Hot Sauce, Blue Bell Ice Cream and Zatarain’s.