ALDI Opens Store Ending Year-Long Food Desert in Immokalee

The discount supermarket chain ALDI opened a new full-service grocery store at 1602 Lake Trafford Road in Immokalee, Florida, on September 24, 2026. The opening followed a soft launch on Wednesday and featured a ribbon-cutting ceremony and gift bags for the first 200 customers. The store operates daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and uses a private-label model to maintain lower prices.

The opening ends a nearly year-long period where the community functioned as a food desert. This gap began in October 2025 when a Winn-Dixie store at the same site closed. During the interim, residents were forced to drive 45 to 50 minutes to Naples, Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres, or Ave Maria for affordable food, or purchase items at inflated prices from small local shops. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers operated a cooperative to provide basic necessities to the community during this time.

While the new store is approximately half the size of the previous Winn-Dixie, residents celebrated the return of local access. However, some community members expressed concerns that the store might not provide enough culturally specific specialty foods or accept certain health-plan grocery benefits.