Easter weekend is here. Every Aldi in England and Wales is open until 9pm today, shut completely on Sunday, then back from 8am on Monday. The same pattern of adjusted hours runs through every bank holiday for the rest of 2026, right through to Christmas, and there is one change from last year that evening shoppers need to know about before heading out this weekend.
Every date below is drawn from Aldi’s own confirmed announcements, the GOV.UK official bank holidays list, and the Sunday Trading Act 1994.
Table of Contents
2026 Aldi Closing Dates: The Full Schedule
| Date | Day | England and Wales |
|---|---|---|
| 3 April | Good Friday | Open 8am to 9pm |
| 4 April | Easter Saturday | Open 8am to 9pm |
| 5 April | Easter Sunday | CLOSED ALL DAY |
| 6 April | Easter Monday | Open 8am to 8pm |
| 4 May | Early May Bank Holiday | Open 8am to 8pm |
| 25 May | Spring Bank Holiday | Open 8am to 8pm |
| 31 August | Summer Bank Holiday | Open 8am to 8pm |
| 25 December | Christmas Day | CLOSED ALL DAY |
| 26 December | Boxing Day | CLOSED ALL DAY |
| 1 January 2027 | New Year’s Day | CLOSED ALL DAY |
Scotland operates under different retail laws. Full breakdown further down. New Year’s Day 2027 is included as it falls directly after the Boxing Day closure window.
Aldi Easter 2026 Opening Times
Easter Sunday is the one date where every Aldi store in England and Wales shuts for the full day. No reduced window, no limited access. Completely closed on 5 April.
Aldi confirmed the full Easter weekend schedule ahead of the bank holiday:
Good Friday, 3 April: 8am to 9pm.
Easter Saturday, 4 April: 8am to 9pm.
Easter Sunday, 5 April: Closed all day.
Easter Monday, 6 April: 8am to 8pm.
One change from Easter 2025 worth flagging: Last year Aldi traded until 10pm on both Good Friday and Easter Saturday. This year both days close at 9pm. That is an hour less than you might expect if a late-evening shop is part of your routine over the long weekend.
Rachel Geary, Communications Director at Aldi UK, told national media the retailer had “made it easy for shoppers to pick up everything they need” at good value, so families could focus on spending time together over the bank holiday.
Shopping centre and retail park stores: Aldi branches inside shopping centres or large retail parks often run on the venue’s own trading hours rather than the standard national schedule. Those times can differ significantly from the figures above, so if your nearest store sits inside a shopping centre, check its specific page before making the trip.
Hours can also vary between standalone branches. The Aldi store finder carries live, accurate times for every branch across the UK.
Why Is Aldi Closed on Easter Sunday?
This catches people out every year. The closure is not a company preference. It is the law.
The Sunday Trading Act 1994 bars any large shop with an internal sales area above 280 square metres from trading on Easter Sunday. Every Aldi in the UK sits well above that threshold. No supermarket in England and Wales can open on that day.
Christmas Day closures work under a separate piece of legislation. The Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 requires all large shops to close on 25 December regardless of which day of the week it falls on. That is why Aldi’s Christmas closure is a legal certainty even when Christmas Day lands on a weekday.
Boxing Day is different. The 26 December closure is not a legal requirement in the same way. Aldi applies it as its own company decision every year, giving store colleagues extra time off over the festive period.
When Is the Best Time to Shop at Aldi?
Worth working out before the Easter weekend schedule kicks in.
For quiet aisles and stocked shelves: Shop between 8am and 9am. Deliveries arrive most mornings, shelves are replenished early, and the checkouts are at their calmest first thing.
For price reductions: Head to your nearest store at opening time on a product’s best before or use-by date. Aldi marks items down to 50% of the regular price before the store opens on that day. A second wave of reductions follows in the evening, with some items cut by up to 75% between 7pm and 10pm as stores close out for the night.
For Specialbuys: New stock lands every Thursday and Sunday. If there is something in the middle aisle you want, go early on those days. Once it sells, it does not come back.
Scotland: An Entirely Different Set of Rules
Scotland sits outside the Sunday Trading Act 1994. Retail law north of the border operates under separate Scottish legislation, which produces a very different picture for shoppers.
The key points for Scottish Aldi stores in 2026:
- Easter Sunday, 5 April: Scottish stores stay open. No legal requirement to close. Normal Sunday hours apply.
- Bank holiday Mondays: Scottish stores close at 10pm as usual. The two-hour earlier cut that applies in England and Wales does not apply in Scotland.
- Easter Monday, 6 April: Easter Monday is not a Scottish bank holiday. Scottish stores trade normal hours that day rather than the reduced 8am to 8pm window in force elsewhere.
Beyond Easter, a few Scotland-specific dates are worth keeping in the diary. Scotland’s summer bank holiday falls on Monday 3 August 2026, a full four weeks ahead of the England and Wales date of 31 August. The 2 January bank holiday is Scotland-only. Aldi stores north of the border were closed on that date in 2026. St Andrew’s Day on Monday 30 November 2026 is also a Scotland-only bank holiday, with reduced Aldi hours expected, though specific times have not yet been published.
For anyone searching from Northern Ireland, Aldi has no stores there. Its UK estate covers England, Scotland and Wales only, currently running at approximately 1,086 stores.
Bank Holiday Monday Hours Across the Rest of 2026
Outside the full closures listed above, Aldi stays open on every bank holiday this year. The pattern in England and Wales is consistent: stores open at the normal time of 8am but close at 8pm rather than the usual 10pm.
| Bank Holiday Monday | England and Wales | Scotland |
|---|---|---|
| Early May, Monday 4 May | 8am to 8pm | 8am to 10pm |
| Spring Bank Holiday, Monday 25 May | 8am to 8pm | 8am to 10pm |
| Summer Bank Holiday, Monday 31 August | 8am to 8pm | Not applicable (Scotland’s is 3 August) |
The Saturdays and Sundays going into each of these weekends are unaffected. Normal hours run across the full weekend. Only the Monday itself carries the earlier close.
This pattern has held across every bank holiday in 2023, 2024 and 2025 without exception. The opening time stays at 8am. It is only the closing time that shifts.
Aldi Christmas 2026: What Is Confirmed and What to Expect
Aldi has not published its full Christmas 2026 schedule yet. Those details typically arrive in October or November. What is already known, based on legislation and the retailer’s consistent record:
- Christmas Day, Friday 25 December 2026: Closed nationwide. Legally required.
- Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December 2026: Closed. Aldi’s own annual decision, applied every year.
- Substitute Boxing Day bank holiday, Monday 28 December 2026: Expected to follow the standard bank holiday Monday pattern, 8am to 8pm in England and Wales. The date is confirmed on the GOV.UK bank holidays page.
- New Year’s Day, Thursday 1 January 2027: Closed nationwide.
The practical point worth noting now: Boxing Day falls on a Saturday in 2026, pushing the substitute bank holiday to Monday 28 December. In previous years Aldi has closed at 6pm on Christmas Eve. If the same applies in 2026, the gap between the last possible Christmas Eve shop and Aldi reopening runs from around 6pm on Thursday 24 December through to the morning of Saturday 27 December. That is a longer stretch than most years, and stocking up a few days before Christmas is worth doing rather than leaving it to Christmas Eve.
Full Christmas 2026 hours will be published on Aldi’s holiday opening hours page once confirmed.
Standard Aldi Opening Hours
For reference outside the bank holiday and closure dates listed above:
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday to Saturday | 8am to 10pm |
| Sunday | 10am to 4pm |
Sunday hours are shorter because the Sunday Trading Act limits large shops to a maximum of six consecutive hours between 10am and 6pm. That is the same piece of legislation behind the Easter Sunday closure, and it is why 10am to 4pm is the standard Sunday window rather than the full weekday schedule. Hours vary by location, so the store finder carries live, accurate times for every branch.
Aldi’s UK Footprint in 2026
Aldi’s first UK store opened on 5 April 1990 in Stechford, Birmingham, selling around 600 basic grocery lines with prices written by hand on yellow cards. Barcode scanners did not arrive at checkouts until 2001.
Today the retailer employs more than 45,000 people and operates approximately 1,086 stores across England, Scotland and Wales. Kantar data from August 2025 puts its grocery market share at 10.8%. Annual sales for the year to December 2024 reached £18.1 billion, up from £17.9 billion the previous year, as published by the Aldi Press Centre. Consumer group Which? named it the UK’s cheapest supermarket for five consecutive years, winning the title in ten out of twelve months during 2025.
The current expansion programme puts £370m into new store openings in 2026 and a further £300m into upgrading and extending existing locations, as part of a broader £1.6 billion two-year investment. With Easter Sunday now two days away, Good Friday is still the last opportunity for a full-length evening shop before Sunday’s shutdown. Stores close at 9pm tonight, an hour earlier than last year.
For live hours at your local branch, use Aldi’s store finder. Holiday-specific times are updated on Aldi’s holiday opening hours page as each date is confirmed.
