Here's how Aldi's explosive growth transformed it from a corner store in Germany to one of the biggest supermarket chains in the world

Michael Stravato/AP Images for ALDI

• Aldi has thousands of stores around the world. It's known for its no-frills store design and extremely low prices.
• Aldi started as a family-owned grocery store in Germany in the early 1900s.
• Now, Aldi has over 1,600 stores in the United States and thousands more globally. It's on track to become the third-largest grocery chain in the US by store count by 2022. 
• Here's how it became such a massive chain.

Aldi, the grocery giant known for its super-discounted prices, didn't always have the massive following it does now. 

Aldi — short for Albrecht Discount — was first opened in Essen, Germany, by Anna Albrecht in 1913, before being taken over and expanded by her sons Theo and Karl in 1948. Since then, the chain has grown to include thousands of locations around the world, including more than 1,600 in the United States. 

Aldi is spending $1.9 billion to remodel existing stores and another $3.4 billion to build 800 new ones over the next four years, Business Insider's Hayley Peterson reported on Wednesday. The company announced this week that it's rolling out a massive store overhaul that will emphasize fresh, organic, vegetarian, and vegan items in its US stores. By the time it completes the refresh in early 2019, about 20% of Aldi's grocery items will be new, the company said. 

And with the continuing store growth, Aldi is on track to become the third-largest grocer in the US by store count, behind Walmart and Kroger, by 2022. 

Aldi is known for its low prices and no-frills store design. One reason its prices are so low is that a majority of the groceries it carries are private-label. It also limits store sizes and hours, enforces a cart-rental system, and focuses on efficiency to lower labor costs. 

See how Aldi came to be the grocery giant it is today: 

In 1913, a small grocery was opened in Essen, Germany, by Anna Albrecht.

Source: Aldi

In 1948, Albrecht's sons Karl and Theo took over the business and expanded it to four stores throughout Germany. The stores were called "Albrecht Discount."

The name "Albrecht Discount" was eventually shortened to Aldi in 1962.

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