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I'm quite thrilled to see low price groceries like Aldi come in and take business away from these bloated supermarket chains. After making the switch it's hard

I'm quite thrilled to see low price groceries like Aldi come in and take business away from these bloated supermarket chains. After making the switch it's hard to shop at a typical grocery store. Everything is ridiculously marked up and the floor plan is ridiculously sprawling.

auggierose 4y ago
How times are changing. Over 20 years ago I would go with my Italian friend to a Safeway in San Francisco at midnight, just for fun. So different from boring German supermarkets. And now you are cheering for Aldi to come in ...
- lupire 4y ago
  Safeway is a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.
idiotsecant 4y ago
There is a legitimate use case for these types of stores, though- some people prefer a wider selection and value it over lower prices with a narrower selection. Aldi is fine but it's not a replacement for literally everything else.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Yeah. There's an Aldi's very close-by in basically the parking lot of a Walmart. Have peeked in a couple of times but basically nothing to interest me. Seemed like going back to a grocery store of a couple decades ago (with probably lower prices).
  - deeblering4 4y ago
    I’d encourage you to try it again with trader joe’s in mind. It’s essentially a low cost version with very similar, albeit spartan, layout.
    - dougmwne 4y ago
      And there is a reason for that as TJ’s and Aldi are owned by brother German companies, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud, and both operate on the German grocery model.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        But the target markets are pretty different.
downvotetruth 4y ago
Aldi's is an outstanding example of the inefficiencies of micro management / JIT. Coin for grocery cart wastes time messing around to get a quarter & lock driving away customer volume that more than pays for an employee to push carts back. Leaving the items in the container wastes shelf space & time by disallowing spring loaded or gravity dispensers & senselessly manually drags the boxes into the store as almost all of the boxes then are taken back out once noticed by an employee. Also, in contrast to the individual empowerment theme, but with the anti-customer view lacks self service kiosks & usually have 1 lane open that blocks with large volume customers & no dedicated x items or fewer lanes. The floor plan sprawls proportional to economies of scale & is divided appropriately by interest in contrast to Aldi that has random furniture between grocery.
- eropple 4y ago
  > Coin for grocery cart wastes time messing around to get a quarter & lock driving away customer volume that more than pays for a young adult to push carts back. This is a claim. Is there evidence? Especially at a reasonable wage for a human being (which is not federal minimum)? > Leaving the items in the container wastes shelf space & time by disallowing spring loaded or gravity dispensers Shelf space: Aldi seems to do a pretty good job of keeping everything they want to put out fronted. As for spring or gravity dispensers, I can go look around a different supermarket and the only place I see gravity dispensers is in some (not all) drink coolers and some (not all) spices. If they showed efficiency bonuses, I'd suspect that we'd see them more. > lacks self service kiosks & usually have 1 lane open No self-service? Sure. One lane open? Not where I am. There's usually multiple open and even when there are, with three carts in line, they call another cashier.
  - downvotetruth 4y ago
    evidence? have fun messing with lock this winter
    - raydiatian 4y ago
      GP is right imo. You can literally just walk straight into Aldi and ask for a quarter if you forgot one. They’ll give you one. Takes 2 seconds. Alternatively, as illustration not an accusation, If you’re walking around grocery store fuming about the time you lost thumbing a quarter into a shopping cart, that’s a personal problem.

auggierose 4y ago

How times are changing. Over 20 years ago I would go with my Italian friend to a Safeway in San Francisco at midnight, just for fun. So different from boring German supermarkets. And now you are cheering for Aldi to come in ...

lupire 4y ago
Safeway is a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.

idiotsecant 4y ago

There is a legitimate use case for these types of stores, though- some people prefer a wider selection and value it over lower prices with a narrower selection. Aldi is fine but it's not a replacement for literally everything else.

ghaff 4y ago
Yeah. There's an Aldi's very close-by in basically the parking lot of a Walmart. Have peeked in a couple of times but basically nothing to interest me. Seemed like going back to a grocery store of a couple decades ago (with probably lower prices).
- deeblering4 4y ago
  I’d encourage you to try it again with trader joe’s in mind. It’s essentially a low cost version with very similar, albeit spartan, layout.
  - dougmwne 4y ago
    And there is a reason for that as TJ’s and Aldi are owned by brother German companies, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud, and both operate on the German grocery model.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      But the target markets are pretty different.

downvotetruth 4y ago

Aldi's is an outstanding example of the inefficiencies of micro management / JIT. Coin for grocery cart wastes time messing around to get a quarter & lock driving away customer volume that more than pays for an employee to push carts back. Leaving the items in the container wastes shelf space & time by disallowing spring loaded or gravity dispensers & senselessly manually drags the boxes into the store as almost all of the boxes then are taken back out once noticed by an employee. Also, in contrast to the individual empowerment theme, but with the anti-customer view lacks self service kiosks & usually have 1 lane open that blocks with large volume customers & no dedicated x items or fewer lanes. The floor plan sprawls proportional to economies of scale & is divided appropriately by interest in contrast to Aldi that has random furniture between grocery.

eropple 4y ago
> Coin for grocery cart wastes time messing around to get a quarter & lock driving away customer volume that more than pays for a young adult to push carts back. This is a claim. Is there evidence? Especially at a reasonable wage for a human being (which is not federal minimum)? > Leaving the items in the container wastes shelf space & time by disallowing spring loaded or gravity dispensers Shelf space: Aldi seems to do a pretty good job of keeping everything they want to put out fronted. As for spring or gravity dispensers, I can go look around a different supermarket and the only place I see gravity dispensers is in some (not all) drink coolers and some (not all) spices. If they showed efficiency bonuses, I'd suspect that we'd see them more. > lacks self service kiosks & usually have 1 lane open No self-service? Sure. One lane open? Not where I am. There's usually multiple open and even when there are, with three carts in line, they call another cashier.
- downvotetruth 4y ago
  evidence? have fun messing with lock this winter
  - raydiatian 4y ago
    GP is right imo. You can literally just walk straight into Aldi and ask for a quarter if you forgot one. They’ll give you one. Takes 2 seconds. Alternatively, as illustration not an accusation, If you’re walking around grocery store fuming about the time you lost thumbing a quarter into a shopping cart, that’s a personal problem.