10 ms·

> -they combine varieties (like flavors of granola bars) of product in the same box. This greatly reduces the shelf space required. This is the only thing that

> -they combine varieties (like flavors of granola bars) of product in the same box. This greatly reduces the shelf space required. This is the only thing that fails about Aldi. Let's say you want their Chicken Tikka sauce. The mixed boxes mean good chance you won't see it as Tikka always goes first. You go through the whole 6 boxes of inventory, and yep, all sold - the three spaces in every box. Same for pizza - one always goes first. They don't restock until there's space for another combined box.

everyone 7y ago
I wonder does that lead to a lot of waste? Eg. the 30% of the box thats the flavour that no-one (at this shop) buys, goes off and is dumped, for every box. Maybe the ratios are determined by their global sales, who knows. You would think that it would be advantageous for each shop to tweak its own ratios.
- Symbiote 7y ago
  They would just reduce the price until it does sell. Also, packaged food like this typically last at least several months, if not a year or two.
- FabHK 7y ago
  It doesn't get dumped, some customers just buy their second preference.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >Eg. the 30% of the box thats the flavour that no-one (at this shop) buys, goes off and is dumped, for every box. They aren't stupid, if a product flavor regularly doesn't sell 30% of its inventory, they drop it and add more packets with the other flavors...
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  Good question - mostly I guess no as they sometimes seem intent not to refill until other levels drop too. Mostly this averages well enough. Yet for a few things - like tikka where ratios seem consistently wrong. As Britain's favourite curry, you'd expect a few extra jars of that in every box. Or Cumberland sausages up here in former Cumberland - just forget about whatever the other things in the box are. :) Probably means going the other way that when they drop something there's a chance 1 of the 2 or 3 actually sold well.
- pjc50 7y ago
  They basically don't do this for perishables. And they don't seem to restock if there's still some on the shelf. I'm pretty sure they can't afford to waste 30% of a product!
thaumasiotes 7y ago
This looks related to something that's mystified me for years about Safeway. Background: - Safeway rotates every product through "sale" and "full price" periods. It's a strictly calendar-based thing; every sale price is going to recur if you wait, and every product will spend a lot of time at "full price" and a lot of other time at two or three different "sale" prices. - Triscuits come in a variety of special flavors. All triscuit varieties go on sale together. If triscuits aren't on sale that week, you can get whatever flavor you want. But if a sale has happened, the Parmesan Garlic flavor is probably sold out. This happens, reliably, every time triscuits go on sale, and affects only the Parmesan Garlic flavor. To get that flavor at a sale price, you need to be in the store near the beginning of the sale period. To me, the diagnosis is obvious: Parmesan Garlic is more popular than every other flavor, and Safeway should stock more of that flavor than they do of other flavors. But though I've observed this for years, they don't. All flavors get the same shelf space, Parmesan Garlic always sells out quickly, and Safeway appears to be happy to forgo the lost sales of Parmesan Garlic triscuits that they could have made if they'd just had them in stock.
- CamperBob2 7y ago
  Same thing happens here, except there is always a loyalty card special on some items. If you want, say, a 12-pack of Vanilla Coke Zero, well, you have to buy three of them at once to avoid being reamed at the register. But you had better get there right after it's restocked, because it's always "Buy 2, get 1 free" or worse, "Buy 2, get 2 free," and they never stock more than three or four cartons at a time. Every time someone talks about how grocery stores are these highly-optimized retail juggernauts that know everything about what they're selling, how much to order, where to place it on the shelf, and so on, I just wish I could take them on a tour of my local stores and ask them to explain various seemingly-nonsensical practices. IMHO, there is a lot of room for efficiency improvements in the retail grocery business.
  - cameronbrown 7y ago
    This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. It seems to be an impossible task to build a startup in this area as most supermarkets are far too large and have their own (seemingly sloppy) teams to do this stuff. Experience has taught me that there's probably a reason for things being the way they are.
HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
On that note, they finally moved their cheese away from that model- their new cheese packaging isn't as great for what we use it for, but it does make getting slices out easier, and it's almost always there, which I care about more.
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Surely that sort of thing is relatively easy to identify and use the data to adjust the relative quantities per pack?? All this flavour sells first, lets put more of that flavour in each box for people to select their purchase from? Maybe, people return to get the Tikka, resulting in more sales??
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
PascLeRasc 7y ago
Aldi's where I get 90-100% of my groceries most months and I've had this experience with stuff like the teriyaki sauce and some of their granola bars, but I've learned to live with it. It's still so much a better experience and cheaper than any other grocery store in Pittsburgh. Aldi "gets" how I want to shop for groceries so much - no bullshit with multiple brands, membership cards, self-checkouts, having to buy in bulk to get a discount, etc. There are a lot of local businesses that I love but have one gripe with, like a great restaurant with an awkward wait procedure (Gaucho if anyone's familiar), or my favorite barbershop that's only open late one night a week, but I've accepted that they know more than me about how to run, and maybe it just has to be like this to be great overall.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  No self checkout would be a show stopper for me, some of us actually prefer it to going to a manned register. Not that we have Aldi where I live, but we do have Trader Joe’s, and I simply choose Safeway or QFC because I really really like self checkout.
  - eredengrin 7y ago
    Maybe if you went to an Aldi you would change your mind. I generally prefer self checkout as well for a few reasons, all of which are not relevant for Aldi: 1) It's faster for self checkout because the line moves faster (one line for multiple checkout stations) and because I can scan my items faster than they can. However, Aldi checkout lines move ridiculously fast, so this ends up not mattering much. 2) I get to pack my own stuff, most cashier employees don't pack things to my liking (eg cold items should all go in the same bag so they help keep each other cold, but they don't always do this). At Aldi, you pack your own bags anyway, so this is not an issue. 3) Talkative cashiers. I don't care to talk to a random person I'm never going to see again, but at Aldi you don't have to because you'll be so busy trying to load your items on the conveyor belt trying to keep up with the cashier that they won't have time to talk to you (see #1, and no I'm not joking, it can be hard to load up the belt fast enough to keep up with them if you don't have a significant head start).
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Just consolidate their boxes for them? Is it against the rules or just not practical?

everyone 7y ago

I wonder does that lead to a lot of waste? Eg. the 30% of the box thats the flavour that no-one (at this shop) buys, goes off and is dumped, for every box. Maybe the ratios are determined by their global sales, who knows. You would think that it would be advantageous for each shop to tweak its own ratios.

Symbiote 7y ago
They would just reduce the price until it does sell. Also, packaged food like this typically last at least several months, if not a year or two.
FabHK 7y ago
It doesn't get dumped, some customers just buy their second preference.
coldtea 7y ago
>Eg. the 30% of the box thats the flavour that no-one (at this shop) buys, goes off and is dumped, for every box. They aren't stupid, if a product flavor regularly doesn't sell 30% of its inventory, they drop it and add more packets with the other flavors...
NeedMoreTea 7y ago
Good question - mostly I guess no as they sometimes seem intent not to refill until other levels drop too. Mostly this averages well enough. Yet for a few things - like tikka where ratios seem consistently wrong. As Britain's favourite curry, you'd expect a few extra jars of that in every box. Or Cumberland sausages up here in former Cumberland - just forget about whatever the other things in the box are. :) Probably means going the other way that when they drop something there's a chance 1 of the 2 or 3 actually sold well.
pjc50 7y ago
They basically don't do this for perishables. And they don't seem to restock if there's still some on the shelf. I'm pretty sure they can't afford to waste 30% of a product!

thaumasiotes 7y ago

This looks related to something that's mystified me for years about Safeway. Background: - Safeway rotates every product through "sale" and "full price" periods. It's a strictly calendar-based thing; every sale price is going to recur if you wait, and every product will spend a lot of time at "full price" and a lot of other time at two or three different "sale" prices. - Triscuits come in a variety of special flavors. All triscuit varieties go on sale together. If triscuits aren't on sale that week, you can get whatever flavor you want. But if a sale has happened, the Parmesan Garlic flavor is probably sold out. This happens, reliably, every time triscuits go on sale, and affects only the Parmesan Garlic flavor. To get that flavor at a sale price, you need to be in the store near the beginning of the sale period. To me, the diagnosis is obvious: Parmesan Garlic is more popular than every other flavor, and Safeway should stock more of that flavor than they do of other flavors. But though I've observed this for years, they don't. All flavors get the same shelf space, Parmesan Garlic always sells out quickly, and Safeway appears to be happy to forgo the lost sales of Parmesan Garlic triscuits that they could have made if they'd just had them in stock.

CamperBob2 7y ago
Same thing happens here, except there is always a loyalty card special on some items. If you want, say, a 12-pack of Vanilla Coke Zero, well, you have to buy three of them at once to avoid being reamed at the register. But you had better get there right after it's restocked, because it's always "Buy 2, get 1 free" or worse, "Buy 2, get 2 free," and they never stock more than three or four cartons at a time. Every time someone talks about how grocery stores are these highly-optimized retail juggernauts that know everything about what they're selling, how much to order, where to place it on the shelf, and so on, I just wish I could take them on a tour of my local stores and ask them to explain various seemingly-nonsensical practices. IMHO, there is a lot of room for efficiency improvements in the retail grocery business.
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. It seems to be an impossible task to build a startup in this area as most supermarkets are far too large and have their own (seemingly sloppy) teams to do this stuff. Experience has taught me that there's probably a reason for things being the way they are.

HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago

On that note, they finally moved their cheese away from that model- their new cheese packaging isn't as great for what we use it for, but it does make getting slices out easier, and it's almost always there, which I care about more.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

Surely that sort of thing is relatively easy to identify and use the data to adjust the relative quantities per pack?? All this flavour sells first, lets put more of that flavour in each box for people to select their purchase from? Maybe, people return to get the Tikka, resulting in more sales??

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

PascLeRasc 7y ago

Aldi's where I get 90-100% of my groceries most months and I've had this experience with stuff like the teriyaki sauce and some of their granola bars, but I've learned to live with it. It's still so much a better experience and cheaper than any other grocery store in Pittsburgh. Aldi "gets" how I want to shop for groceries so much - no bullshit with multiple brands, membership cards, self-checkouts, having to buy in bulk to get a discount, etc. There are a lot of local businesses that I love but have one gripe with, like a great restaurant with an awkward wait procedure (Gaucho if anyone's familiar), or my favorite barbershop that's only open late one night a week, but I've accepted that they know more than me about how to run, and maybe it just has to be like this to be great overall.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
No self checkout would be a show stopper for me, some of us actually prefer it to going to a manned register. Not that we have Aldi where I live, but we do have Trader Joe’s, and I simply choose Safeway or QFC because I really really like self checkout.
- eredengrin 7y ago
  Maybe if you went to an Aldi you would change your mind. I generally prefer self checkout as well for a few reasons, all of which are not relevant for Aldi: 1) It's faster for self checkout because the line moves faster (one line for multiple checkout stations) and because I can scan my items faster than they can. However, Aldi checkout lines move ridiculously fast, so this ends up not mattering much. 2) I get to pack my own stuff, most cashier employees don't pack things to my liking (eg cold items should all go in the same bag so they help keep each other cold, but they don't always do this). At Aldi, you pack your own bags anyway, so this is not an issue. 3) Talkative cashiers. I don't care to talk to a random person I'm never going to see again, but at Aldi you don't have to because you'll be so busy trying to load your items on the conveyor belt trying to keep up with the cashier that they won't have time to talk to you (see #1, and no I'm not joking, it can be hard to load up the belt fast enough to keep up with them if you don't have a significant head start).

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

Just consolidate their boxes for them? Is it against the rules or just not practical?