Aldi Inc., a 32-year-old discount grocery store chain, is expanding into New England and plans to open five stores in Rhode Island.

The Germany-based company promotes its stores as no-frills markets in which customers will usually find only one brand — the chain’s own private label.

It carries only about 1,300 products, compared with a typical grocery store that sells about 30,000, which Aldi says helps keep down its costs.

The stores are doing business as ALDI Food Market.

The company has begun construction or sought permits for four store locations: 539 Smith St. in Providence; 1138 Pontiac Ave. in Cranston; 444 Quaker Lane in Warwick; and 70 Newport Ave. in East Providence. It said it also plans to open a market in West Warwick, but as of yet has not had any discussions with the town, according to Robert Malavich, the West Warwick town planner.

The Providence store will occupy a long-vacant building where a Valueland grocery store was located until it closed in 1998. In Cranston, Aldi will build a new 16,600-square-foot store on about 2.2 acres, according to an application Aldi filed with the city’s Planning Department. In East Providence, the ALDI market will occupy part of the space where Ocean State Job Lot used to be.

Company officials at Aldi’s South Windsor, Conn., office did not return phone calls for comment.

Aldi conducted employment interviews at the Radisson Hotel in Warwick on Monday and Tuesday for its Cranston and Warwick stores, according to a newspaper advertisement. It was looking to hire shift managers at $14.50 an hour, and cashiers at $11 an hour, according to the ad.

The chain, which targets low- and middle-income households, is coming to Rhode Island at a time when food prices are rising at an unusually fast pace.

Historically, food prices have increased an average of 2.5 percent over the past 15 to 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But last year, overall food prices rose by 4 percent, the highest rate of increase since 1990, the department said. The increases were blamed on rising commodity prices, especially corn, and increasing fuel and energy costs. The USDA is predicting food inflation to be about 3 percent to 4 percent this year.

Aldi was founded in 1948 by two German brothers, Karl and Theo Albrecht. Their business model was to hold down prices by keeping operations as simple and lean as possible. The name ALDI was formed from the first two letters of “Albrecht” and “discount.”

The company opened its first U.S. store in Iowa in 1976. Since then, it has expanded to about 850 stores in 27 states, mostly in the Midwest. Its U.S. headquarters are in Batavia, Ill. In 2007, Supermarket News ranked Aldi as the 24th-largest U.S. grocery chain, in terms of gross sales, Aldi said.

Aldi is privately held and does not release its sales figures.

There are about 3,000 ALDI stores in Europe, Australia and the United States, the company said.

Last year, it announced plans to enter the New England market, building a distribution center in South Windsor and opening four stores in Connecticut. The company’s other New England store is in Vermont, according to the company’s Web site.

The parent company, based in Essen, also owns Trader Joe’s, a discount chain that sells groceries and gourmet-style foods, such as imported cheeses, organic produce and hand-tossed pizza from Italy.

Aldi claims that customers can save up to 50 percent over traditional grocery stores because of its no-frills strategy. Its stores don’t have bakeries or meat counters, they don’t have baggers and bags cost extra. They also don’t take checks or credit cards because those forms of payments are costly to the company, it says on its Web site. It accepts cash, food stamps or debit cards.

The chain also says the 1,300 items it carries are the ones most frequently purchased. They include fresh meat and produce, frozen foods, dairy, bakery, canned goods and paper products. Aldi says that customers can probably do 90 percent of their grocery shopping at its stores.

Since the chain carries mainly its own private label products rather than national brands, coupons won’t do much good. Customer loyalty cards are not used.

And if you want a shopping cart, you’ll need a quarter to unlock one. When you return the cart, you get your money back. ALDI Markets

World Hdqts: Essen, Germany

U.S. Hdqts: Batavia, Ill.

Stores: Worldwide 3,000

U.S.: 850

N.E.: 5

Planned: Cranston, East Providence, Providence, Warwick, West Warwick

tbarmann@projo.com