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I've come to appreciate Aldi; my wife's nose for bargains has helped me see that they hit a sweet spot of lowest price/sufficient quality for many items. Howev
by jasperry 3y ago
I've come to appreciate Aldi; my wife's nose for bargains has helped me see that they hit a sweet spot of lowest price/sufficient quality for many items.
However, their days of being genuinely cheaper than other options may be numbered, as the market balances out. I see the new stores in my part of the US trying to emit a more upscale vibe, and I've seen instances of individual items being sold at much higher prices than you can get them at in bulk at Costco.
- pintxo 3y agoIt might be the mid term effect of the original founders having left the show (they died) and the next Generation being less stringent in their business strategies.
- this_user 3y agoThey have been doing the same in Germany over time. Their stores used to be a lot more cramped and dingy, but other discounters like Lidl eventually started upping their game in an attempt to poach some of Aldi's market share. This led to several rounds of ugprades over the last 15-20 years. The result are stores that look much more upscale, and they are selling more brand-name and generally higher quality items than before while still offering the same cheap staples. But they seem to have compensated by increasing their operational efficiency. For instance, nowadays all of their staff are wearing headsets for radio communication, which was not the case a decade ago or so. So I wouldn't want to bet against their ability to keep prices low. They are essentially to brick and mortar retail what Amazon is to e-commerce in terms of optimising their operations to the last detail.