13 ms·

The All American Aldi

39 points by briandear 9y ago

smhg 9y ago
As a European it sounds like the article mixes up Aldi Sud and Nord. Aldi Sud is a wonderful place compared to the (old) Aldi Nord. I have no idea where/how they source their products, but in-store Aldi Sud feels quite high quality. With many dietary options and many common brands. The only real difference to other stores being (almost) one brand per product. Which makes shopping so easy!
- paulmd 9y ago
  Oddly, it's the other way around in the US. Trader Joe's (Aldi Sud) is upscale and Aldi (Aldi Nord) is the downscale one (not that it's bad or anything).
  - vermontdevil 9y ago
    No. Aldi Nord owns TJ. Aldi Sud owns Aldi USA. It’s even in the article.
  - pasbesoin 9y ago
    As I understand it, from a second-hand but reliable recounting, in the foreign market (outside Germany), the two Aldi's have mostly divided the markets on a country basis. (One or the other will be present in a country, but not both.) The large and rich U.S. is the exception, where the Aldi name is used by one of the two (from other comments here, Aldi Nord, I guess -- oops, another comment says Sued), while the other (Aldi Sued, then -- or Nord, it seems) is present through its Trader Joe's mark and model. By me, the nearest Aldi is a dingy looking affair with a pretty small and limited selection. I don't mean of brands, but simply of products and produce. This may be just this particular location, which is kind of out of the way. Trader Joe's has been very slowly expanding its store base, and those I find much more useful, though they are still small and don't have the range of coverage that a supermarket has. I've seen the same employees at those stores for years -- and years. And gotten to know some of them, to varying degrees. Their staff stick.
- mc32 9y ago
  As an aside, it's interesting in that at least as stated, the brother split the biz over whether to deal in vice or not. They could not come to a compromise so split up the biz into north and south.
- Matthias247 9y ago
  Exactly. Aldi Süd also doesn't leave things in big cardboard boxes but puts them properly on display.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
A few years ago there was some Aldi anniversary, with accompanying editorial articles in the newspaper and stuff. What surprised me was how many poor people expressed their gratitude to Aldi in the comment sections, saying that few companies did so much to enable them to life a dignified live by offering cheap but decent quality groceries.
- Roritharr 9y ago
  Aldi is the main reason my (widowed & working) mother was able to budget our expenses to not let us know how little money we had, that in itself gives me the same feeling of gratitude. I've come to realize this later on in life when managing my own finances how much of an impact shopping at Aldi must have made to my mother. We had good homecooked food whenever possible, 90% bought from Aldi. I still feel like a failure sometimes when I check my bank statement and see how much I spend on food bought elsewhere.
  - froindt 9y ago
    >I still feel like a failure sometimes when I check my bank statement and see how much I spend on food bought elsewhere. Out of curiosity, why don't you shop there now?
    - Roritharr 9y ago
      I do, but not as often as I should. Convenience and falling prey to marketing gets me to part with my hard earned cash too easily.
linkmotif 9y ago
There’s a lot wrong with this piece, starting from the subhead: > unfriendly German efficiency. Aldis are some of the friendliest grocery stores I know. Their employees always seems happier than employees other places. And my guess is because they treat them well. The stores close at a reasonable hours, are always closed on holidays. My guess is they pay employees reasonably too, because the job postings always list decent seeming wages. > In New York City, the company’s only location (for now) is on 117th on the banks of the East River. Unless Queens is no longer in New York City, there has been and Aldi in Rego Park for years now. It’s a pretty good one too, right by Q train and Queens Mall. > If you are at Aldi, it’s because you needed groceries and you went out to get them, not because you were tempted in by a cute box of chocolates, Nonsense! What a bunch of BS this line. They sell awesome seasonal assortments of cookies and chocolates of all varieties, imported from Germany or USA local. > The fact that Aldi is only starting to make concessions to US norms What norms? Like giving all your money back to the man as soon as you get it? And on and on and on this article. The Awl... :( everything they touch is classist. Here they survey the poors who shop for food and their sad grocery store. Gross.
- chrismeller 9y ago
  > The no-frills grocery chain is a perfect example of spare, unfriendly German efficiency. “Spare” was the first indication for me that there was a lot wrong with this article.
  - jrs95 9y ago
    The author probably shops exclusively at Whole Foods.
- tptacek 9y ago
  "The poors"? Grocery stores in black and (particularly) latino neighborhoods in Chicago --- ie, the poorest neighborhoods --- are nothing like this description of Aldi, or any Aldi or TJ's I've ever been in. Most have better produce than Whole Foods, a giant meat counter, and minimal, off-brand packaged foods. You cannot buy a $3 bottle of richly floral dark extra virgin olive oil at Del Rancho Market, and the greens are not shrinkwrapped in plastic. I'm sure the demographics of Aldi customers is sharply lower-income than that of Whole Foods, but I dispute the idea that Aldi gets to play the standard-bearer of the working class.
chrismeller 9y ago
> Since it first opened its doors in Iowa in 1976, it has established 1,600 locations across the nation. Over the next five years, it announced in June, that number will jump to 2,500, putting its reach alongside that of Walmart and Krogers. Ehh, it is currently in the same realm as Safeway (1300 stores). In 5 years, if all goes according to plan, it hopes to be closer to Kroger (2800 stores). It is not, nor will it even come close in the next 5 years, to being a Walmart, who already has 4700 stores. Particularlu given the love of the US for membership-based big box stores like Costco I also doubt a budget chain (that, last I checked, still charged you 25 cents for a shopping card), will become quite the “staple” Walmart or any other normal supermarket chain is.
- lotsofpulp 9y ago
  They don't charge you for using a shopping cart, it's a refunded deposit to get people to return their carts to the cart storage areas.
revelation 9y ago
There are no concessions, they are updating the stores in Europe all the same. Pictures from very early 2016: http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/aldi-mit-neuem-ladendesign-so-sieht-der-edel-aldi-aus/12807568.html#image http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/aldi-mit-neuem-ladende...
- thesumofall 9y ago
  Indeed - that bothered me about that article as well. Aldi in Germany has since a while recognized that customer expectations are evolving and that other supermarkets offer superior “feel” at similarly low prices. Hence the upgrade. Guess a bit of a similar story as McDonalds’s push for higher (perceived?) quality
- this_user 9y ago
  They didn't really do that of their own accord, though. Their main competitor Lidl had started to chip away at their market share by upgrading their stores and offering a nice shopping experience. Furthermore, as the economy started to improve after the financial crisis, people became more demanding. We have actually seen a bit of an uptick in market share for the traditional grocery chains over recent years.
rndmize 9y ago
> Aldi makes absolutely no effort to tempt through sensual delight. It’s a perfect example of spare, unfriendly German efficiency. All the goods are displayed on metal racks in their original cardboard shipping containers—no labor wasted on display; there are maybe two options for each type of product—no shelf space wasted on a tenth variety of cracker that is purchased by that one guy every month; employees can be found, more or less exclusively, at checkout, where they will ring you up but not provide you with bags or, god forbid, bag your groceries for you. Efficiency also applies to production, in that almost all the goods are house brands. Nothing extraneous comes between product and customer—hence the high quality of Aldi goods with incredibly low prices (show me another store with a dark, fragrant extra virgin olive oil for three dollars and change). So... Costco? It feels like there's a lot of other options as far as places to buy food that the author doesn't seem to know much about.
- TillE 9y ago
  Costcos are enormous warehouses located miles out in the suburbs. Aldi is a tiny store that you can probably walk to.
desireco42 9y ago
I find that author tried to make some point but it is completely lost on me. My Aldi experience or American Supermarket experience differ from what he describes. Aldi has quality items and you are supposed to do the work of pick them up and package them. Prices are lower then other places. Checkout is example of efficiency, I know their checkout people are paid much better then other places and it is clear why, they scan those things like a lightning.
- froindt 9y ago
  >...I know their checkout people are paid much better then other places and it is clear why, they scan those things like a lightning. I'm an industrial engineer. I love efficiency. I primarily shop at Aldi because the prices beat anywhere else and I love finding the little things they do to be efficient. Only a couple employees at a time working, sharing all jobs as needed. Conveyor belts long enough to hold approximately 1 cart of groceries. This lets everything get queued up for the checker. Leaving the boxes with the product. One waste stream is manged by reuse then recycling by customers while also avoiding the cost of bags. No local phone number publicly listed. Cuts calls out. Barcode on most sites of product so they don't need to be in a specific orientation. their POS is setup for speed. They can scan an item and type a quantity quickly. At other grocery stores I haven't seen this happen (probably partially because of the large number of similar but not identical items). almost all produce is pre-weighed and price labeled, or by quantity. By having only one of most products, they reduce waste from low-running products going bad. *They don't stock every single thing you need. It's a bit annoying to not have Worcestershire sauce when you need it, but in my experience Aldi is nearby other shopping venues. Also their pricing for spices cannot be beat. It's only about 18 basic spices carried, but I've never seen a cheaper price per unit.
tinbad 9y ago
I haven’t been to an Aldi in the US but the ones I’ve been in Europe have all been very barebones and the atmosphere reminded somewhat of communist grocery stores from when I lived in USSR. Funny notice when I first came to US and visited Trader Joe’s I immediately wondered if it was owned by Aldi (it is). The concept is very similar (one product of each, no choice of brands) but executed very differently. Whereas Aldi is trying to be as cheap as possible, TJ seems to cater to urban hipsters. And yes, personnel is much friendlier too! Also, in the Netherlands Aldi had the reputation of “Walmart” of employers. Many stories of poor working conditions like timed bathroom breaks, etc.
- pgeorgi 9y ago
  Aldi Netherlands is different (belongs to Aldi North) from Aldi USA (belongs to Aldi South). In Germany the "Walmart" reputation belongs to Walmart (who withdrew from the German market because they couldn't exploit employees the way they could elsewhere), with Lidl being a close second. With family having worked in HR in retail, I heard that they sometimes had staffing issues because Aldi outcompeted them all (incl. high-end clothing stores) on wages.
holydude 9y ago
Article full of stereotypes. So nowdays costsavings are presented as german efficiency my fucking ass.
freeflight 9y ago
As a German, this article kinda reads like a misconception about what Aldi is actually supposed to be and what it's doing right now: It's a discounter, always has been a discounter and now it's trying to be a "discounter with class". You don't go to Aldi to get the biggest selection and all the big brands, you go to Aldi to pay less for your food because Aldi doesn't spend as much money on making "everything look nice and have the widest selection" compared to their competition, at least here in Germany, so they can undercut the competition with prices. Recently Aldi Süd has started to change this, even in Germany. Stores are being renovated and made to look "fancier", with some added selection in wares, getting closer to other non-discounter supermarkets like Edeka and Rewe. At this point, Aldi exists on kind of a middle ground between the pure discounters like Netto and the "brand supermarkets" like Edeka.
k__ 9y ago
Aldi is a prime example why Walmart failed in Germany.
southphillyman 9y ago
I recently got into an online argument with a woman because she claimed that eating healthy was more expensive than eating fast food or from chinese take outs . I countered that I feed two adults on $40 a week by shopping on the perimeter of the market and/or shopping at Aldi's. Cutting my diet down to basically fresh fruits/vegetables and poultry has really saved me a lot of money. My local Aldi's has a dozen eggs for less than $1 and I can get 6 chicken wings for $3! Aldi's has really hit the market and improved on the affordable market concept that places like Save-A-Lot mostly failed on.
- froindt 9y ago
  >My local Aldi's has a dozen eggs for less than $1 and I can get 6 chicken wings for $3! Maybe I have a local anomaly in egg prices, but I was picking those up for 37 cents/dozen all summer, then moved to a larger town (also in Iowa) and they moved up to about 60 cents/dozen.
  - psy-q 9y ago
    Wow, U.S. egg pricing seems crazy to me. It's US$ 9.90/dozen in Switzerland at a normal nationwide store vs. US$ 5.90 at Aldi Suisse (both selling free-range Swiss eggs). This can't be explained just by purchase power differences. Considering the conditions even for Swiss free-range chickens aren't good, are they particularly terrible for chickens laying 5 cent eggs? I couldn't find any information (not even pricing) on the Aldi US site.
    - froindt 9y ago
      I come from Iowa, which is by a large margin the largest egg producer in the country. It could be partially a locality thing (very little transportation). Also of note, this last summer was very very rough for chicken production. Prices were very low compared to input costs, and chicken farmers were losing their shirts. Chicken renderers (mass killing of chickens when the price drops too much) were backed up for many weeks. http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-overview http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-overview
marze 9y ago
A few months ago I was shopping at Trader Joe’s, and having only recently learned of the Aldi connection, I asked my checker how it was working for a German grocer. He had no idea. He’d been working there three years.
fencepost 9y ago
Perhaps Aldi stores in expensive parts of NYC ("It's not Amazon, it's the rent" in the last few days....) are dim and cramped like my midwestern mental image of a NYC bodega, but out here in the great wide open every Aldi I've been to is brightly lit, with wide aisles and shelving that's not stacked up to over my head. In a word, bright and roomy. Aldi isn't a gourmet shop with dozens of varieties of truffle oil, but it doesn't pretend to be. Instead they have nice, bright, roomy stores that frankly I'd recommend as a first place to stop for anyone mobility impaired because everything is reachable (caveat: BYOScooter). It's entirely possible that some items they sell aren't up to the quality level of top-tier branded versions of the same thing, but they're decent quality at frequently excellent prices.
- froindt 9y ago
  Regarding accessibility, I was surprised to learn the aisle in my nearby (recently renovated) Aldi is wide enough for 3 carts. It was particularly busy on one of my recent visits.
- maxsilver 9y ago
  I think it depends on the age. I'm also in the Midwest, and the two older Aldi stores here that were built in the 90's are dim and cramped (they're both still open, and still that way today). They tend to look like this -> http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNeZx43jXsM/TyoFKEU_9hI/AAAAAAAAKg0/f1pPAjF40Go/s1600/aldi.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNeZx43jXsM/TyoFKEU_9hI/AAAAAAAAKg... and http://cdn.arn.com.au/media/7139552/aldi-old-man.jpg http://cdn.arn.com.au/media/7139552/aldi-old-man.jpg But the newer Aldi remodeled stores are bright and roomy and nice. They tend to look like this -> https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/Media_Pages/Store_Images/Full/ALDI_Store_Interior.jpg https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/Media_Pages/Store...
  - fencepost 9y ago
    What I was saying about aisle widths and shelf heights even applies to the older ones I've been in, and I've never been in one that I'd consider dim.
em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
I find fascinating how Aldi split akin to how the Roman Empire split, "The separate Aldi companies came about 50 years ago: the brothers disagreed about some business practices and decided to split the company along geographic lines across Germany." https://consumerist.com/2016/08/15/the-family-that-owns-trader-joes-is-having-a-frugality-war/ https://consumerist.com/2016/08/15/the-family-that-owns-trad...

39 points by briandear 9y ago

smhg 9y ago

As a European it sounds like the article mixes up Aldi Sud and Nord. Aldi Sud is a wonderful place compared to the (old) Aldi Nord. I have no idea where/how they source their products, but in-store Aldi Sud feels quite high quality. With many dietary options and many common brands. The only real difference to other stores being (almost) one brand per product. Which makes shopping so easy!

paulmd 9y ago
Oddly, it's the other way around in the US. Trader Joe's (Aldi Sud) is upscale and Aldi (Aldi Nord) is the downscale one (not that it's bad or anything).
- vermontdevil 9y ago
  No. Aldi Nord owns TJ. Aldi Sud owns Aldi USA. It’s even in the article.
- pasbesoin 9y ago
  As I understand it, from a second-hand but reliable recounting, in the foreign market (outside Germany), the two Aldi's have mostly divided the markets on a country basis. (One or the other will be present in a country, but not both.) The large and rich U.S. is the exception, where the Aldi name is used by one of the two (from other comments here, Aldi Nord, I guess -- oops, another comment says Sued), while the other (Aldi Sued, then -- or Nord, it seems) is present through its Trader Joe's mark and model. By me, the nearest Aldi is a dingy looking affair with a pretty small and limited selection. I don't mean of brands, but simply of products and produce. This may be just this particular location, which is kind of out of the way. Trader Joe's has been very slowly expanding its store base, and those I find much more useful, though they are still small and don't have the range of coverage that a supermarket has. I've seen the same employees at those stores for years -- and years. And gotten to know some of them, to varying degrees. Their staff stick.
mc32 9y ago
As an aside, it's interesting in that at least as stated, the brother split the biz over whether to deal in vice or not. They could not come to a compromise so split up the biz into north and south.
Matthias247 9y ago
Exactly. Aldi Süd also doesn't leave things in big cardboard boxes but puts them properly on display.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

MrBuddyCasino 9y ago

A few years ago there was some Aldi anniversary, with accompanying editorial articles in the newspaper and stuff. What surprised me was how many poor people expressed their gratitude to Aldi in the comment sections, saying that few companies did so much to enable them to life a dignified live by offering cheap but decent quality groceries.

Roritharr 9y ago
Aldi is the main reason my (widowed & working) mother was able to budget our expenses to not let us know how little money we had, that in itself gives me the same feeling of gratitude. I've come to realize this later on in life when managing my own finances how much of an impact shopping at Aldi must have made to my mother. We had good homecooked food whenever possible, 90% bought from Aldi. I still feel like a failure sometimes when I check my bank statement and see how much I spend on food bought elsewhere.
- froindt 9y ago
  >I still feel like a failure sometimes when I check my bank statement and see how much I spend on food bought elsewhere. Out of curiosity, why don't you shop there now?
  - Roritharr 9y ago
    I do, but not as often as I should. Convenience and falling prey to marketing gets me to part with my hard earned cash too easily.

linkmotif 9y ago

There’s a lot wrong with this piece, starting from the subhead: > unfriendly German efficiency. Aldis are some of the friendliest grocery stores I know. Their employees always seems happier than employees other places. And my guess is because they treat them well. The stores close at a reasonable hours, are always closed on holidays. My guess is they pay employees reasonably too, because the job postings always list decent seeming wages. > In New York City, the company’s only location (for now) is on 117th on the banks of the East River. Unless Queens is no longer in New York City, there has been and Aldi in Rego Park for years now. It’s a pretty good one too, right by Q train and Queens Mall. > If you are at Aldi, it’s because you needed groceries and you went out to get them, not because you were tempted in by a cute box of chocolates, Nonsense! What a bunch of BS this line. They sell awesome seasonal assortments of cookies and chocolates of all varieties, imported from Germany or USA local. > The fact that Aldi is only starting to make concessions to US norms What norms? Like giving all your money back to the man as soon as you get it? And on and on and on this article. The Awl... :( everything they touch is classist. Here they survey the poors who shop for food and their sad grocery store. Gross.

chrismeller 9y ago
> The no-frills grocery chain is a perfect example of spare, unfriendly German efficiency. “Spare” was the first indication for me that there was a lot wrong with this article.
- jrs95 9y ago
  The author probably shops exclusively at Whole Foods.
tptacek 9y ago
"The poors"? Grocery stores in black and (particularly) latino neighborhoods in Chicago --- ie, the poorest neighborhoods --- are nothing like this description of Aldi, or any Aldi or TJ's I've ever been in. Most have better produce than Whole Foods, a giant meat counter, and minimal, off-brand packaged foods. You cannot buy a $3 bottle of richly floral dark extra virgin olive oil at Del Rancho Market, and the greens are not shrinkwrapped in plastic. I'm sure the demographics of Aldi customers is sharply lower-income than that of Whole Foods, but I dispute the idea that Aldi gets to play the standard-bearer of the working class.

chrismeller 9y ago

> Since it first opened its doors in Iowa in 1976, it has established 1,600 locations across the nation. Over the next five years, it announced in June, that number will jump to 2,500, putting its reach alongside that of Walmart and Krogers. Ehh, it is currently in the same realm as Safeway (1300 stores). In 5 years, if all goes according to plan, it hopes to be closer to Kroger (2800 stores). It is not, nor will it even come close in the next 5 years, to being a Walmart, who already has 4700 stores. Particularlu given the love of the US for membership-based big box stores like Costco I also doubt a budget chain (that, last I checked, still charged you 25 cents for a shopping card), will become quite the “staple” Walmart or any other normal supermarket chain is.

lotsofpulp 9y ago
They don't charge you for using a shopping cart, it's a refunded deposit to get people to return their carts to the cart storage areas.

revelation 9y ago

There are no concessions, they are updating the stores in Europe all the same. Pictures from very early 2016: http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/aldi-mit-neuem-ladendesign-so-sieht-der-edel-aldi-aus/12807568.html#image http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/aldi-mit-neuem-ladende...

thesumofall 9y ago
Indeed - that bothered me about that article as well. Aldi in Germany has since a while recognized that customer expectations are evolving and that other supermarkets offer superior “feel” at similarly low prices. Hence the upgrade. Guess a bit of a similar story as McDonalds’s push for higher (perceived?) quality
this_user 9y ago
They didn't really do that of their own accord, though. Their main competitor Lidl had started to chip away at their market share by upgrading their stores and offering a nice shopping experience. Furthermore, as the economy started to improve after the financial crisis, people became more demanding. We have actually seen a bit of an uptick in market share for the traditional grocery chains over recent years.

rndmize 9y ago

> Aldi makes absolutely no effort to tempt through sensual delight. It’s a perfect example of spare, unfriendly German efficiency. All the goods are displayed on metal racks in their original cardboard shipping containers—no labor wasted on display; there are maybe two options for each type of product—no shelf space wasted on a tenth variety of cracker that is purchased by that one guy every month; employees can be found, more or less exclusively, at checkout, where they will ring you up but not provide you with bags or, god forbid, bag your groceries for you. Efficiency also applies to production, in that almost all the goods are house brands. Nothing extraneous comes between product and customer—hence the high quality of Aldi goods with incredibly low prices (show me another store with a dark, fragrant extra virgin olive oil for three dollars and change). So... Costco? It feels like there's a lot of other options as far as places to buy food that the author doesn't seem to know much about.

TillE 9y ago
Costcos are enormous warehouses located miles out in the suburbs. Aldi is a tiny store that you can probably walk to.

desireco42 9y ago

I find that author tried to make some point but it is completely lost on me. My Aldi experience or American Supermarket experience differ from what he describes. Aldi has quality items and you are supposed to do the work of pick them up and package them. Prices are lower then other places. Checkout is example of efficiency, I know their checkout people are paid much better then other places and it is clear why, they scan those things like a lightning.

froindt 9y ago
>...I know their checkout people are paid much better then other places and it is clear why, they scan those things like a lightning. I'm an industrial engineer. I love efficiency. I primarily shop at Aldi because the prices beat anywhere else and I love finding the little things they do to be efficient. Only a couple employees at a time working, sharing all jobs as needed. Conveyor belts long enough to hold approximately 1 cart of groceries. This lets everything get queued up for the checker. Leaving the boxes with the product. One waste stream is manged by reuse then recycling by customers while also avoiding the cost of bags. No local phone number publicly listed. Cuts calls out. Barcode on most sites of product so they don't need to be in a specific orientation. their POS is setup for speed. They can scan an item and type a quantity quickly. At other grocery stores I haven't seen this happen (probably partially because of the large number of similar but not identical items). almost all produce is pre-weighed and price labeled, or by quantity. By having only one of most products, they reduce waste from low-running products going bad. *They don't stock every single thing you need. It's a bit annoying to not have Worcestershire sauce when you need it, but in my experience Aldi is nearby other shopping venues. Also their pricing for spices cannot be beat. It's only about 18 basic spices carried, but I've never seen a cheaper price per unit.

tinbad 9y ago

I haven’t been to an Aldi in the US but the ones I’ve been in Europe have all been very barebones and the atmosphere reminded somewhat of communist grocery stores from when I lived in USSR. Funny notice when I first came to US and visited Trader Joe’s I immediately wondered if it was owned by Aldi (it is). The concept is very similar (one product of each, no choice of brands) but executed very differently. Whereas Aldi is trying to be as cheap as possible, TJ seems to cater to urban hipsters. And yes, personnel is much friendlier too! Also, in the Netherlands Aldi had the reputation of “Walmart” of employers. Many stories of poor working conditions like timed bathroom breaks, etc.

pgeorgi 9y ago
Aldi Netherlands is different (belongs to Aldi North) from Aldi USA (belongs to Aldi South). In Germany the "Walmart" reputation belongs to Walmart (who withdrew from the German market because they couldn't exploit employees the way they could elsewhere), with Lidl being a close second. With family having worked in HR in retail, I heard that they sometimes had staffing issues because Aldi outcompeted them all (incl. high-end clothing stores) on wages.

holydude 9y ago

Article full of stereotypes. So nowdays costsavings are presented as german efficiency my fucking ass.

freeflight 9y ago

As a German, this article kinda reads like a misconception about what Aldi is actually supposed to be and what it's doing right now: It's a discounter, always has been a discounter and now it's trying to be a "discounter with class". You don't go to Aldi to get the biggest selection and all the big brands, you go to Aldi to pay less for your food because Aldi doesn't spend as much money on making "everything look nice and have the widest selection" compared to their competition, at least here in Germany, so they can undercut the competition with prices. Recently Aldi Süd has started to change this, even in Germany. Stores are being renovated and made to look "fancier", with some added selection in wares, getting closer to other non-discounter supermarkets like Edeka and Rewe. At this point, Aldi exists on kind of a middle ground between the pure discounters like Netto and the "brand supermarkets" like Edeka.

k__ 9y ago

Aldi is a prime example why Walmart failed in Germany.

southphillyman 9y ago

I recently got into an online argument with a woman because she claimed that eating healthy was more expensive than eating fast food or from chinese take outs . I countered that I feed two adults on $40 a week by shopping on the perimeter of the market and/or shopping at Aldi's. Cutting my diet down to basically fresh fruits/vegetables and poultry has really saved me a lot of money. My local Aldi's has a dozen eggs for less than $1 and I can get 6 chicken wings for $3! Aldi's has really hit the market and improved on the affordable market concept that places like Save-A-Lot mostly failed on.

froindt 9y ago
>My local Aldi's has a dozen eggs for less than $1 and I can get 6 chicken wings for $3! Maybe I have a local anomaly in egg prices, but I was picking those up for 37 cents/dozen all summer, then moved to a larger town (also in Iowa) and they moved up to about 60 cents/dozen.
- psy-q 9y ago
  Wow, U.S. egg pricing seems crazy to me. It's US$ 9.90/dozen in Switzerland at a normal nationwide store vs. US$ 5.90 at Aldi Suisse (both selling free-range Swiss eggs). This can't be explained just by purchase power differences. Considering the conditions even for Swiss free-range chickens aren't good, are they particularly terrible for chickens laying 5 cent eggs? I couldn't find any information (not even pricing) on the Aldi US site.
  - froindt 9y ago
    I come from Iowa, which is by a large margin the largest egg producer in the country. It could be partially a locality thing (very little transportation). Also of note, this last summer was very very rough for chicken production. Prices were very low compared to input costs, and chicken farmers were losing their shirts. Chicken renderers (mass killing of chickens when the price drops too much) were backed up for many weeks. http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-overview http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-overview

marze 9y ago

A few months ago I was shopping at Trader Joe’s, and having only recently learned of the Aldi connection, I asked my checker how it was working for a German grocer. He had no idea. He’d been working there three years.

fencepost 9y ago

Perhaps Aldi stores in expensive parts of NYC ("It's not Amazon, it's the rent" in the last few days....) are dim and cramped like my midwestern mental image of a NYC bodega, but out here in the great wide open every Aldi I've been to is brightly lit, with wide aisles and shelving that's not stacked up to over my head. In a word, bright and roomy. Aldi isn't a gourmet shop with dozens of varieties of truffle oil, but it doesn't pretend to be. Instead they have nice, bright, roomy stores that frankly I'd recommend as a first place to stop for anyone mobility impaired because everything is reachable (caveat: BYOScooter). It's entirely possible that some items they sell aren't up to the quality level of top-tier branded versions of the same thing, but they're decent quality at frequently excellent prices.

froindt 9y ago
Regarding accessibility, I was surprised to learn the aisle in my nearby (recently renovated) Aldi is wide enough for 3 carts. It was particularly busy on one of my recent visits.
maxsilver 9y ago
I think it depends on the age. I'm also in the Midwest, and the two older Aldi stores here that were built in the 90's are dim and cramped (they're both still open, and still that way today). They tend to look like this -> http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNeZx43jXsM/TyoFKEU_9hI/AAAAAAAAKg0/f1pPAjF40Go/s1600/aldi.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNeZx43jXsM/TyoFKEU_9hI/AAAAAAAAKg... and http://cdn.arn.com.au/media/7139552/aldi-old-man.jpg http://cdn.arn.com.au/media/7139552/aldi-old-man.jpg But the newer Aldi remodeled stores are bright and roomy and nice. They tend to look like this -> https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/Media_Pages/Store_Images/Full/ALDI_Store_Interior.jpg https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/Media_Pages/Store...
- fencepost 9y ago
  What I was saying about aisle widths and shelf heights even applies to the older ones I've been in, and I've never been in one that I'd consider dim.

em3rgent0rdr 9y ago

I find fascinating how Aldi split akin to how the Roman Empire split, "The separate Aldi companies came about 50 years ago: the brothers disagreed about some business practices and decided to split the company along geographic lines across Germany." https://consumerist.com/2016/08/15/the-family-that-owns-trader-joes-is-having-a-frugality-war/ https://consumerist.com/2016/08/15/the-family-that-owns-trad...