In Uptown a tremendous amount of people don’t own cars either through choice or because of cost. You literally see people waiting for buses on either side of Broadway with their groceries. My guess is many of those people live in Edgewater, Rogers Park or even points south.

In any case it is better than the old Aldi and does serve a legitimate need.

Yeah, a second street-side entrance would have been nice, and if they couldn’t manage that, a wider sidewalk allowing passage to Broadway.

But this is still much better than any new grocery store design I’ve seen in the city recently. These things tend to be solid red shoeboxes behind a moat of parking.

The reality, even in Uptown, is that the car is king when it comes to groceries. The percentage of pedestrian shoppers is probably higher here than in much of the city, but my guess is that the car still rules the day, and that’s what Aldi designed for.

in terms of the parking the new Aldi is street friendly. In terms of creating a pedestrian friendly street it ain’t. Notice how the entrance is actually in the back of the store. The original renderings show the entrance in the front. Here is a link to the rendering.

This is a problem because many, possibly most, of the people who will shop there will be pedestrians. The sidewalk leading to the “entrance” is relatively narrow and anything more than two carts going in opposite directions is going to cause a problem.

Overall, the Aldi is an improvement over the old building, but not what was promised. Inside it is much nicer.