Aldi Offering Tours, Samples in Arnold until 4 p.m. on Monday

Aldi grocery store is providing tours of the new Arnold store, near at 2150 Michigan Ave., until 4 p.m. Monday.

The grocery is also offering food samples.

Visitors will also receive a grocery bag filled with food items for visiting the store.

Arnold residents may set an Aldi’s grocery store record by by an end of Monday.

The store, at its new location near Kohls at 2150 Michigan Ave., will open for business at 9 a.m. Tuesday, company officials said. On Monday, they wanted to offer tours and food samples to customers.

It is possible for more than 1,300 Arnold residents to tour the store, Director of Operations Bob Jefferies said.

“This is the largest crowd I’ve seen,” Jefferies said about the event.

Company regional and district managers planned to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the store at 11 a.m., but the long line of people along the parking lot caused a change of plans.

Customers started streaming into the 16,000-square-foot building at 10:45 a.m. to tour the building; sample bakery items, coffee, juice, sausage, egg rolls and many other items; and receive a grocery bag filled with a few free food items.

“I’m impressed. I haven’t been to an Aldi’s in 20 years, and I’ll come back to get my groceries,” said Misty Cushman of House Springs, who tried a few samples at the Arnold location.

Many other people in line said they are glad that they no longer need to drive to the Fenton Aldi location.

Fenton store manager Shima Barnes, who offered food samples at the Arnold store on Monday, said she was excited about the new store. It could ease the immense demand for affordable groceries at her Fenton store.

Arnold and Jefferson County’s population growth were contributing factors to Aldi opening a new store, said after touring the store.

Arnold’s location near the St. Louis area also helped, Bish said. “They couldn’t expand any further west, so expanding south was logical,” he said.

Aldi will have a soft opening, where there are no formal announcements about the store, at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

The grocery’s formal opening will be on Wednesday, store officials said.

The Arnold store hours will be from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sundays, store hours will be from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.