I recently worked on a dataset of all ALDI store locations in Germany and visualized them on a map — one thing that really stood out is how clearly the country is split between **ALDI Nord and ALDI Süd**.
As of June 2026:
* ALDI Nord: 2,235 stores
* ALDI Süd: 2,024 stores
* Total: 4,259 locations
What’s interesting is how clean the geographic divide still is. You can almost draw a line through Germany and see where one ends and the other begins.
I plotted all locations with:
* Blue = ALDI Nord
* Orange = ALDI Süd
And the distribution is surprisingly structured — especially when you zoom into regional density differences.
It also made me realize how useful this kind of data is for:
* retail analysis
* location strategy
* mapping projects
* even just understanding supermarket accessibility
If anyone here works with geospatial data or retail analysis, I’d be curious:
👉 have you seen other chains with such a clear regional split?
Happy to share more details or insights if people are interested.
Posted by Material-Soggy
25 Comments
Der Aldi-Aquator
Cool map, but it’s ai slop so who knows if this is the actual boundary
Thank you for your sacrifice
What and where is the shortest distance between an Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd?
Why it’s not just Aldi but Aldi-Nord and Aldi-Süd. Like is there any difference or any reason?
For those living on the border: do you prefer North or south?
Brandenburg
Look Mom, Autism
fun fact: most countries only have one type of Aldi. the US has both, but Aldi Nord operates as Trader Joe’s instead
For all the international crowd, yes, there is a active warzone between them
I live in Bavaria and lived in Schleswig Holstein. Aldi Süd is just much better.
Are they completely separate companies or are they linked in some way as a group or partnership?
What’s the difference? We only have Nord I guess in the Netherlands and it’s a cheap discount store that isn’t all that great to be honest. Just really cheap.
The split is old, but how was it decided that all of old DDR should go to Aldi-Nord? Thüringen and Sachsen could have been Aldi-Süd.
Wait they don’t even go along state lines? What the hell is Hesse doing?
Hofer clear
Fuck Aldi Nord!
My favourite part of this is that there is one Aldi Süd in southern Thuringia. I would like to learn why.
Yet, I have to visit an Aldi Süd.
Why do they even exist as separate? Especially north-south at some random point.
More expected would be east-west whereby separate aldi would be created for the east after unification.
Thuringia has a single ALDI süd store.
My favorite topic!
Who is in for a meeting at the Northern most Aldi Süd or vice versa?
Are people near the “equator” going to Aldi Süd for some groceries and to Aldi Nord for others?
In Finland we have a similar one. The convenience store chain of the market leading co-operative grocery company S Group is called Sale in the most of the country, but Alepa in the Helsinki region. Alepa was formerly an independent local chain that was bought out by the S Group, but they decided to keep the brand in their “HOK-Elanto” region due to its popularity.
There is one exception though. The city of Kauniainen is an odd place already due to it being a “rich peoples’ enclave” that is completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, but in addition they also have a Sale store in the middle of the Alepa region. This is due to Kauniainen being a part of the historically Swedish-speaking “Varuboden-Osla” co-operative region instead of the “HOK-Elanto” region surrounding it.
Als AldiNord-Kunde weiss ich jedenfalls, wie sich die Nordkoreaner fühlen müssen.