I’m currently visiting Europe over the spring and thus also shopping at a lot of local grocery chains. From what I can tell, most grocery stores in Scandinavia

I’m currently visiting Europe over the spring and thus also shopping at a lot of local grocery chains. From what I can tell, most grocery stores in Scandinavia are pretty close to an American Aldi, but that’s just how they are. Corner store grocery’s are much more popular in cities and the limited space in legacy buildings makes it a requirement to be efficient. To be honest, I don’t really miss the likes of Target, Walmart, Kroger etc for anything except some product selection. I don’t need 50 types of ketchup to choose from. Store brands are fine. If I want a special thing, I can order it online or go to a specialty store that focuses solely on a specific item or occasion. I’m also really enjoying how cheap fresh foods are relative to processed food. Instead of chips and candy, I’m buying grapes to snack on in my hotel room. Meat is a bit pricier but not bad when compared to buying a similar amount at a local restaurant. No joke, in Oslo, my wife and I spent $100/day on food eating at counter serve joints and convenience stores. Eating out is insanely expensive in some of these places. All that to say, I’ll be shopping at Aldi way more when I get back to the states because now I see the appeal in the context of where it was developed. It’s not a perfect system yet but I’m confident they will get there in the next decade.