Opening date for Aldi’s Bluffton location delayed until next year. Here’s what we know
Construction is underway on an Aldi grocery store in Bluffton, but the opening date won’t be this year as earlier announced.
“Our new store in Bluffton, South Carolina, is on track to open in 2023,” wrote Shaun O’Keefe, Aldi’s Jefferson division vice president, in an emailed statement. A specific date was not available.
When the store was announced in February, O’Keefe said the plan was for it to open by the end of the year.
He said that once the Bluffton store is open, it will employ between 15-20 people.
Three available job listings were posted on the retailer’s website as of Thursday:
Full-time assistant store manager starting at $22.50 per hour.
Full-time store associate working 32-40 hours per week and starting at $15.50 per hour.
Part-time store associate working fewer than 30 hours a week and starting at $15.50 per hour.
Aldi taking shape
Bright blue signs with the Aldi logo and “Coming Soon” are posted at the site currently undergoing renovation in the shopping center at U.S. 278 and Burnt Church Road.
The area is fenced off, but work is transforming the space first designed to be a Fresh Market into an Aldi supermarket. The entrance has been moved from the center to the right side of the facade, which now features a tower typical of Aldi locations.
When the shopping center was first conceived in 2016, developer David Oliver and his company Jaz Management LLC announced that Fresh Market would be an anchor along with Hobby Lobby and PGA Superstore, and Fresh Market’s signature green-and-white striped awnings were installed outside the 21,000-square-foot space.
Then, in 2018, Aldi and developer David Oliver appealed to the Beaufort County Design Review Board for permission to make changes to the exterior of the building. The Design Review Board approved facade changes on June 7 of that year but the approval expired when Aldi did not act within a year.
During that time, Aldi opened a store in Pooler and in Savannah. Finally, the previously approved drawings were resubmitted to county staff on Aug. 31, 2021, and were approved the following week, according to previous reporting in The Island Packet.
Aldi, a Batavia, Ill.-based discount grocer which bills its stores as “no-frills,” also is planning a store in the new Beaufort Station development at the southwest corner of Robert Smalls Parkway and Parris Island Gateway in Beaufort.
The retailer’s website lists 47 stores in South Carolina, not including either store announced in Beaufort County.
