It’s 7:30 a.m. and Barney Robinson of Bath Beach, Brooklyn, has been sitting on a foldable stool outside the brand-new Aldi store in Staten Island’s New Dorp neighborhood for more than three hours. He got here at 4 a.m., he tells Yahoo, which allowed him to snag the very first spot in line for the June 26 grand opening of the discount grocer’s latest location.
“I thought there’d be a huge crowd, and I love Aldi,” Robinson says. He’s armed with a plaid reusable tote and wearing a striped Aldi bucket hat (there’s more branded clothing at home, he notes) that complements his orange Sex Pistols shirt.
“My usual location is Green Acres Mall out on Long Island, simply because I don’t have to pay a toll to go there and it’s quite close to me,” says Robinson. The grand opening was worth the toll charge across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, however. “I want to see a brand-new store.”…