The bigger, the better—or is it?
Here’s Why Aldi’s Aisles Are So Wide
Published on Jun. 30, 2025
Let’s face it, Aldi puts the fun in grocery shopping. Because not only can you get everything you need to make dinner, but you can also indulge in their Aisle of Shame with all its low-priced goodness. But the fact that you can find clothes, toys, home goods and sometimes even a pilates reformer in the middle of the store isn’t the only thing that sets it apart from other grocers—Aldi’s aisles are so wide. No worries about feeling claustrophobic here, there’s space to move.
But why are Aldi’s aisles so wide? Is it to give us more space to admire everything in the aforementioned Aisle of Shame? Maybe it’s room for us to think about the bad habits Aldi customers should stop doing. Either way, those aisles are big, and there has to be a reason behind it. And I, for one, want answers. Read on to find out what I learned.
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How much wider are Aldi’s aisles compared with a regular grocery store?
“Typical supermarket aisles are usually 4- to 6-feet wide, but at Aldi, they’re often several feet wider,” says Marty Bauer, a commerce expert. “In some stores, it’s even getting close to warehouse-style spacing.”
The reasoning behind that 4- to 6-feet spacing of aisles at most local groceries is that it provides just enough space for two shopping carts to be in the same spot, side-by-side, in the aisle.
“While the wider aisles aren’t a brand-new approach, they have become more standard in Aldi’s newer stores and remodels,” Bauer says. “As Aldi expands in the U.S., the store design continues to support their staffing and supply chain model. What began as a practical decision has become a core part of their ‘efficient minimalism’ branding.”
Why are Aldi’s aisles so wide?
When you’re looking at Aldi and its quirks, you have to consider that everything they do is part of an effort to save you money, including those wider aisles. Here are the specific ways wider aisles help Aldi save money:
To accommodate shipping pallets
This store is all about keeping prices low, that is why people love Aldi. One of the ways it does so is by keeping inventory in boxes, and stacking those boxes as the display. It saves employees time because they aren’t placing each individual product on shelves, which saves Aldi from having to staff more employees for each shift. This decreases overhead costs, which in turned is passed on to customers in the form of lower prices.
“Wider aisles make restocking faster and easier,” Bauer says. “It’s one reason Aldi can run its stores with far fewer staff than other grocery chains, and that cost-cutting is passed on to customers.”
More space for flow of traffic
If you’ve ever noticed how fast Aldi’s checkout cashiers scan items, then you know the store means business in terms of getting shoppers in and out the door. This efficiency also plays a role in why Aldi’s aisles are so wide. While traditional grocery stores offer enough room for just two carts to pass each other at once, Aldi’s wider aisles allow more customers to reach products and go about their shopping trip speedily, enhancing the customer experience.
How do Aldi shoppers feel about these mega aisles?
The wider Aldi’s aisles get, the more Aldi shoppers seem to complain. There are Reddit threads dedicated to commiserating over the grocery chain’s layout, with many saying the aisles keep getting wider and longer with every change their store makes. Apparently the wide aisles are also getting longer in certain stores, with no breaks in between to hop over to another aisle, creating disorganization among the products and making it difficult to shop.
“Every time I go, it’s a total mess now,” says a Redditor. “You got lounge pants next to the Trader Joe’s knockoff chili onion crunch oil and gardening supplies next to some Chomps beef sticks and then some bespoke summer grilling seasonings with diapers next to it.”
Another disgruntled shopper says these mega aisles actually force them to stay in the store longer than they’d like.
“I hate that the Aldis around us have an odd number of long aisles,” they wrote on a separate Reddit thread. “It means that one aisle has to be backtracked to get to the registers.”
Do Aldi’s aisles pose any unique challenges?
When Aldi stores have a traditionally small footprint, having wider aisles generally speaking means having fewer aisles in the store. This can pose a challenge in terms of grouping products that make “sense” together, especially since displays are often sitting in shipping cartons or wood pallets.
It may sound counterintuitive, but in order to best navigate the store, consider heading straight to the last aisle first to avoid any bottlenecks by the entrance, where the produce and bread typically reside. This will give you an opportunity to get a lay of the land on your way to the last aisle, and then try to methodically go through your shopping list for that trip.
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About the expert
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Sources:
- Marty Bauer, commerce expert and director of sales and partnerships at Omnisend
- Reddit: “I hate Aldi’s new layout”
- Reddit: “My new store layout is so awful!”
