Aldi is opening more new supermarkets than any other grocery chain in the Twin Cities.

By the end of the year, it will have at least 70 Minnesota locations, closing in on Cub's 77 stores in Minnesota.

Next month the no-frills discount supermarket chain will open a store in Minneapolis near Uptown at W. 26th St. and S. Lyndale Avenue, and one in Richfield in the former Babies 'R' Us location at 900 W. 78th St.

The Richfield store opens Aug. 14, with grand-opening activities on Aug. 15. The Minneapolis store opens Aug. 21 with a grand opening on Aug. 22. On grand-opening days the store offers prizes such as gift cards and free produce for a year.

In October, new Aldi stores will debut in Chanhassen and St. Louis Park. November will bring stores to Blaine on Ulysses Street, and one St. Paul location on Sibley and another in Phalen Village. A store is also under construction on Larpenteur Avenue in Roseville.

Aldi, based in Germany, has spent more than $34 million in the past two years to open stores and remodel older, existing locations. Nearly 20 stores have been remodeled.

Its Little Canada store will close for remodeling next week and reopen in September. Thirteen more Minnesota stores are on deck to be remodeled.

The Uptown store is part of a mixed-use building called Rex26 with more than 80 apartments in five stories. It will be another in a growing list of mixed-use developments with a supermarket. The most recent is Cub's foray into the concept at Hiawatha and 46th in Minneapolis.

Lunds & Byerlys, Fresh Thyme and Trader Joe's have multiple mixed-use locations. Aldi has also built stores in apartment complexes in the Minneapolis Lake Street location and Chanhassen.

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633