Ku-ring-gai Council will meet on Tuesday December 8th to vote on whether the proposed new ALDI store in Turramurra will go ahead.
The proposed development is for a freestanding ALDI supermarket (1,585 sqm GLA – Gross Lettable Area) two specialty shops (370 sqm GLA) and associated roof top car parking for 83 cars.
The site is on the corner of Eastern Road and Tennyson Avenue where there is currently a garage and garden nursery. However, to proceed, ALDI must have the zoning for the site change from R1 (residential) to B1 Neighbourhood Centre zone. Further, they want the gross floor area provisions for shops to be amended under the B1 provisions.
Many residents are opposed to the new store and a local action group called the ERP (Eastern Road Precinct) has been formed with a website and Facebook page.
The nine key points of opposition by the ERP are:
- Totally inappropriate location for a large international supermarket
- Contravenes council planning rules introduced in April 2015 in the KLEP
- Currently zoned R2 Low Density Residential
- Eastern Road Shops are designted as a Neighbourhood centre
- ALDI belongs in a Local centre or Town centre
- Current infrastructure completely inadequate
- Increase in traffic will be dangerous for nearby kindergarten, swim school and school children.
- Serious risk to the viability of Eastern Rd shops
- Completely out of character with the community feel of the area
They also have tacit support from Alister Henskens State Member for Ku-Ring-Gai
“I addressed a public meeting at the weekend attended by hundreds of people concerned by ALDI’s proposal to establish a supermarket on Eastern Road at Turramurra. I reiterated that I am not at all opposed to ALDI’s presence in Ku-ring-gai, just the planned location”
ALDI Stores have managed to capture more than 11.6% of the $60bn grocery market in Australia since their introduction to our shores in 2001 and about 35% of the grocery buyers in the country buy something at ALDI at least once per month.
ALDI’s submission to Ku-ring-gai Council has been paid out in detail: http://www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/Current_projects_priorities/Key_priorities/Planning_Proposal_to_rezone_land_in_Turramurra_lodged_by_ALDI
In June 2015, the national consumer group, ‘Choice’, published the results of a price comparison of 31 grocery items sold by Coles, Woolworths and ALDI across 93 supermarkets in Australia. The sample of supermarkets was spread across 17 cities and clustered to ensure there was local competition between stores. The published results showed that ALDI’s basket of groceries was:
- 23% cheaper than Coles’ and 26% cheaper than Woolworths’ on comparable home brand or private label products; and
- 46% cheaper than Coles’ and 50% cheaper than Woolworths’ on comparable national or leading brand products.
According to ALDI, the ALDI model can be readily distinguished from traditional supermarkets on offer in Australia. For example, each ALDI store has a product range of approximately 1,500 separate stock keeping units (SKUs) compared with the 20,000-30,000 SKUs on offer at national full-line supermarket chains such as Woolworths or Coles.
