NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIA, GERMANY - Aldi is reportedly moving further into its U.S. expansion, having celebrated two stores opening in Richmond, Virginia, earlier this week and another on the way.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Germany-based retail store is moving into a city with a well-stocked grocery market. Vendors including Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Market grocery-only format (also Richmond’s first) which just opened last month, Food Lion, Kroger, and Martin’s Food Markets are among those already in the area.

“We respond to customer demand,” Jeffrey C. Baehr, Vice President of the Aldi’s Frederick, Md., Division, said in the Richmond Times-Dispatch report, commenting that while the company carries fewer items than competing stores in the area at only 1,300 items, “These are the 1,300 best-selling grocery items.”

Aldi carries with it a small-format as far as products with a few key indicators of its German roots, such as encouraging consumers to bring reusable bags when shopping, charging six cents each for its own paper bags (no plastic), as well as storing carts on a rack that requires a 25 cent deposit, which is returned when shoppers bring the cart back.

As for the store merchandise, Richmond reports that 95 percent of what is sold is Aldi’s own brand, carrying a “double guarantee” of replacing food products and refunding consumers if they are not satisfied.

This is reportedly just the beginning. The company also has five other locations in Richmond leased, with plans for each location already submitted. And, as we previously reported, with intentions to have its nearly 1,400 U.S. locations grow to 2,000 in the next three years, the retailer doesn’t appear to be slowing.