ALDI seeks Vineland approval for second store at former Rite Aid site

ALDI is seeking permission to redevelop the former Rite Aid site at Landis Avenue and Delsea Drive into a new grocery store, a proposal that would put another discount chain at one of Vineland’s busiest retail crossroads and give the city a second ALDI location. The Vineland Planning Board is scheduled to hear the application at its May 13 meeting.

The plan would reuse an already developed parcel in the heart of the Landis Avenue and Delsea Drive corridor, rather than opening a new site on the edge of town. That matters in a section of Vineland long defined by heavy retail traffic, where drivers already pass Walmart, ShopRite, Lidl, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Dollar Tree, Wawa, Taco Bell, CVS and Compare Foods on trips in and out of Route 55 Exit 32A. Commercial brokers describe the intersection as a high-visibility main-and-main location, and one listing for the Vineland Shopping Center puts 169,477 residents within a 20-minute radius.

The proposed store would also deepen ALDI’s footprint in Cumberland County. Its current Vineland location is at 3880 South Delsea Drive in Cumberland Mall, near the Route 55 interchange and the south end of the city. A second store on Landis Avenue would give the chain two anchors in the market, a sign that ALDI sees room for more grocery business in a county where price-sensitive shoppers often compare chains by weekly specials, store-brand staples and fuel savings on shorter trips.

The project calls for expanding the existing building from about 18,716 square feet to about 21,421 square feet, an increase of 2,705 square feet. The application reportedly needs variances and waivers tied mainly to buffers and parking layout, even though grocery use is permitted in the zoning district. Those details suggest the issue before planners is less about whether a supermarket belongs there and more about how the site fits into an already crowded corridor.

The proposal comes as the Landis Avenue and Delsea Drive intersection continues to change through reuse rather than new construction. The former Sears building there has recently been repurposed for church and community use, and Vineland planners have also approved another former Rite Aid conversion elsewhere in the city into a Flagship-brand carwash. For Vineland shoppers, the ALDI plan is not just another store proposal. It is a test of whether one of Cumberland County’s most active commercial corners can absorb another grocer, bring a long-empty site back into circulation and push competition closer to households that watch grocery prices every week.