ASHEVILLE — Two new grocery stores should unveil big changes in the coming months.

East Asheville Aldi gets bigger

Asheville's Aldi store #74, at 470 Swannanoa River Road, is getting closer to completion and is slated to open Nov. 15.

Plans show the new store at about 22,000 square feet, including storage, sidewalk and office space, with a proposed 110 parking spaces, making it larger than the recently renovated Patton Avenue Aldi store.

"A typical store is 12,000 square feet of retail space, much easier to navigate than a big-box store," said ALDI Jefferson Division Vice President Shaun O’Keefe in an email.

Once the East Asheville store is open, it will replace the aging Aldi already on the property.

►Read more: ALDI expands Asheville area stores

Aldi operates nearly 1,800 stores in 35 states, and plans even more growth. Aldi recently announced a $3.4 billion investment to increase store count to 2,500 locations and create 25,000 jobs by 2022.

Some older stores are getting revamps to increase sales floor space in response to customer demand, with the store's fresh food category growing by 40 percent.

New Aldi stores will have more room for produce, dairy and bakery sections and expanded organics, gluten-free foods and premium baby items.

The new stores will also boast a more-modern design, open ceilings, natural lighting and environmentally-friendly building materials, such as recycled materials, energy-saving refrigeration and LED lighting.

Trader Joe's gets more elbow room

City permits reveal work underway at Trader Joe's at 120 Merrimon Ave., which opened in 2013.

The tiny Asheville store will soon see its existing sales area floor space increased. Where can the store go but up?

City permits say the store is slicing into some of its stock area space by removing and relocating an existing beverage cooler and installing new employee restrooms in the existing stock room.

All of the renovations are internal, permits say. The footprint of the store will not change.

Requests for more information about store changes, or possible interruption to service, went unanswered by the company.