Krista Emerson, right, fills grocery bags while her children Lane, 2, left, and Anna wait on opening day of the new Aldi Food Market on South Southwest Loop 223 in Tyler. Andrew D. Brosig/Tyler Morning Telegraph via AP

Shoppers packed the first Aldi Grocery Store opened in Tyler on Thursday, and a company official revealed the German-based grocery chain plans to open more stores here.

After a grand opening ceremony, crowds jammed aisles of Aldi, 200 SSW Loop 323. Aldi features more than 1,300 most commonly purchased grocery items, primarily under its exclusive brands, at prices the company claims can save customers 50 percent or more.

“We’ve been wanting something like this …. a supermarket with quality products and low prices,” Barbara Caoili, of Lindale, said, her grocery buggy stacked with groceries. “By the turnout today, you can tell it’s going to be pretty popular.”

The opening was “fantastic,” said Karla Waddleton, vice president of Aldi’s Rosenberg Division that covers portions of East Texas as well Houston and some of central Texas.

“We are so thrilled to finally be in Tyler and really grateful to the Tyler community for welcoming us here and being excited about having excellent quality products at the lowest possible prices,” she said. “The store has been busy all day long.”

Aldi plans additional stores throughout East Texas, including from three to five more in Tyler, she said.

“We are looking (at Tyler) as one of our growth markets,” Waddleton said.

Once the company finds sites for new stores, it usually takes from 12 to 18 months for a new store to open, Waddleton said. Locations for the additional Tyler stores have not been determined.

Damiah Frater, a shopper at the just-opened Aldi in Tyler, said, “the prices are wonderful, very reasonable. There’s a lot of fresh products. I think that’s pretty cool.”

Another shopper, Francis Rhone, said she’d waited with anticipation for the store to open.

“We’ve been waiting for Aldi to come,” she said. “Dallas had it, and we were so excited it came to Tyler. We had to come for the grand opening. It’s just like I imagined. It’s nice, clean and the prices are good.”

Her husband, Rickey Rhone, said the Tyler Aldi “has the same quality that you get in the Dallas metroplex area and brings the same type savings here in Tyler. It gives you a better way to shop and save money.”

As Christina Ruiz pushed her grocery buggy, she paused and observed there are a lot of varieties and said prices are lower than prices she’s seen at other markets.

Ina Williams, accompanied by her daughter and grandchildren, said they wanted “to come and see what this store is all about. We like it, lots of good prices.” The signs and prices are posted where customers can easily read them, she observed.

The Tyler Aldi will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. Shopping at Aldi has some differences from other grocery stores. The store has a shopping cart rental system. A customer puts in a quarter, then shops and gets the quarter back upon returning the cart. “This helps to keep prices low because we don’t spend time retrieving carts,” the chain’s website states.

Also, Aldi encourages customers to bring their own shopping bags or to purchase a reusable, long-lasting Aldi bag.

Aldi operates nearly 1,400 U.S. stores in 32 states, primarily from Kansas to the East Coast, and serves more than 30 million customers each month, according to its website.

According to a news release, Aldi expects to operate nearly 2,000 stores by the end of 2018 and serve 45 million customers monthly.

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