German grocer Aldi purchased about 2.5 acres of land to build a new store in a Johnston County town, deed records show.

The company purchased the property near the intersection of U.S. Highway 70 and Rose Street in Clayton in late April. Aldi bought the property from Ozark Investment Co., LLC for $2.15 million, Triangle Business Journal first reported.

The News & Observer reached out to Aldi on Monday morning to ask for more information about the grocer’s plans, but the company had not responded as of publication Monday afternoon.

This will be Aldi’s second grocery store in Johnston County. The company opened a store in an unincorporated part of Johnston County at 5142 NC Hwy 42 near Garner in January 2021.

Aldi is known for its low prices and specialty home goods and foods. The store offers limited checkouts, self-bagging and grocery carts that can be “rented” for 25 cents, a policy meant to encourage customers to return carts to the corral.

Details on the Clayton store

In a preliminary site layout presented to the Town of Clayton last year, Aldi outlines a 19,054-square-foot building with 99 parking spaces on the property, which has a zoning classification of Highway-Business.

Before Aldi bought the land, Clayton’s board of adjustment approved the grocer’s application to reduce the rear setback requirement from 30 feet to 20 feet. Aldi requested the variance because the North Carolina Department of Transportation is widening Rose Street, which becomes N.C. 42 after crossing U.S. 70. The result of the road project is that the Aldi property loses about 35 feet in depth along Rose Street.

With the new rear setback, Aldi’s site plan allows for “adequate parking and traffic circulations” and enables large trucks to get through the parking lot to make deliveries, according to a document stating the board of adjustment’s decision on Aldi’s request.

Aldi did not immediately respond to The N&O’s request for information about the store’s construction.

Aldi locations in the Triangle

There are 2,373 Aldi stores in the United States, with 93 in North Carolina. Several locations are scattered across the Triangle, but none are in Clayton.

The newest store to come to the Triangle opened in March in Hillsborough — the first for the city and the second for Orange County. Grand opening events planned for the store had been delayed for several weeks, The News & Observer previously reported, as shelves had not been stocked.

In addition to the Hillsborough location, Aldi has stores in the following Triangle towns:

• Apex

• Cary

• Chapel Hill

• Durham

• Fuquay-Varina

• Garner

• Holly Springs

• Raleigh

• Wake Forest

Other grocers in Clayton

Shoppers in the Johnston County town have a few options for grocery stores. Within just a few miles of the property Aldi purchased, there is a Walmart, Lowes Foods, Food Lion, Compare Foods and La Bonita.

Recent grocery store openings and closings

Over the past year, the Triangle has seen a few changes in grocery retailers.

▪ Locally owned chain Charlie C’s IGA, which has about 30 stores across the Carolinas, told The News & Observer in April that its Garner location would close. That announcement came just a few months after the store on College Street in Clinton shut down. However, Malia Allen, the marketing director for Charlie C’s, said the store closures aren’t part of a larger pattern, and the grocer has opened eight stores in the past three years.

▪ Late last year, Indian grocery store Bombay Central opened in Raleigh, The N&O previously reported. Established by Divyesh and Mona Patel in an old Walgreens building at 1910 Falls Valley Drive, the store has a larger kitchen and more cafe seating than the original location, in Morrisville.

▪ In July 2023, Lidl shuttered its store in Cary’s High House Crossing shopping center. Lidl told The N&O that the store was “an underperforming location, and we made the strategic decision to close this location so we can focus on the locations that are closer and more convenient to more of our customers and where we are seeing significant growth.”

Tammy Grubb and Kimberly Cataudella Tutuska contributed to this story.

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