On most Mondays, Brisania Ortiz pushes a cart into an Aldi grocery store near her home in Frisco, Texas, and begins shopping for the week.

She picks up organic fruits and vegetables, then sustainably raised eggs and grassfed ground beef. She adds milk, boxes of cereal and bags of chips — all made without artificial dyes — for her three children. She’s in and out of the store in about 20 minutes and able to feed her family of five for $100.

“The prices. I can’t comprehend how low the prices are for the quality, organic foods that they sell,” Ortiz said. “It feels like I’m at a bougie store, but I’m not paying bougie prices.”

In the current grocery store battle, where chains are going head to head for a piece of consumers’ shrinking wallets, Aldi, known as a discount supermarket, is coming out swinging.

Aldi, which originated in Europe, is rapidly expanding its footprint in the United States. This year, it plans to open 200 stores across the country, more than any other grocer, and expects to have around 2,600 locations by the end of the year, making it the third-largest supermarket chain by number of stores.

Kroger has 2,700 under various names, and Walmart has 5,206 locations. Aldi expects to have more than 3,200 stores in the United States by the end of 2028.

Customers are flocking to Aldi. Overall, visits to grocery stores in the first half of this year were up about 1.8% from last year, but customer trips to Aldi stores surged more than 7%, according to Placer. ai, which tracks foot traffic at retailers and restaurants.

Aldi’s growth is being attributed to the fact that it has tapped into two trends driving American shoppers: discount prices and healthy products.

About 90% of what Aldi sells are its own, private-label brands. Therefore, its spaghetti sauce, cereals and frozen pizzas are less expensive than big-name brands, a draw for consumers increasingly careful about how they spend their dollars.

Aldi has also leaned into consumers’ healthy eating preferences, offering organic fruits and vegetables, as well as its own versions of snack bars, pancakes and foods with added protein. Its private-label cereals and chips are made without artificial dyes.

“We’re growing because we’re offering customers food that is good for them and doesn’t have unnecessary additives and food dyes,” said Dave Rinaldo, the chief operating officer of Aldi U.S., noting that the chain stopped using artificial colors in 2015.

And while food prices continue to rise, privately held Aldi recently cut prices on 400 of the roughly 2,000 items it sells in its stores, Rinaldo said.

In an effort to retain price-sensitive customers, traditional grocery store chains have increased their own offerings of private-label brands. In June, sales of Kroger’s private-label foods outpaced national brands for the seventh consecutive quarter, the supermarket’s CEO said on an earnings call. He said Kroger planned to introduce 80 new products containing protein to its lineup to meet changing consumer preferences.

But the traditional stores can’t quite duplicate the passionate fan club that discounters like Trader Joe’s and Aldi have on social media.

On Facebook, the group Aldi Aisle of Shame Community, named for the store’s middle aisle that features odd weekly finds like pool lounges, academic planners and rice cookers, has 3.6 million members. There, members share their grocery hauls, ask which Aldi butter is best (many votes for the Irish) and trade recipes or meal hacks (Aldi sour cherry fruit spread on a grilled cheese sandwich?).

Aldi has reduced its store footprint as well as the number of items it offers. “Now, instead of 100 bottles of olive oil, you have maybe four choices, including one that’s organic and one that’s imported from Italy,” Lempert said. “That’s a better shopping experience for a lot of consumers.”