Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
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Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#2IMO, what Aldi succeeds in is doing more with less. Aldi's aisles, stores, and product ranges are smaller compared to big grocery stores. However, Aldi leverages a 'curated assortment' of products to offer good quality items at a lower price than other grocery stores. There's also 1 "Aldi Finds" aisle in the stores which seems like it's to beta test potential items or offer short-term deals on limited items (? - just my guess).
The German discount grocery chains are really taking off in the US with Aldi and Lidl. I would like Rewe to come to the US next.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#3My sister has worked in Aldi in the UK for 15 years. She loves it.
She started as a normal member of staff - they expect people to pitch in - you're on the checkout, moving boxes, helping deliveries, etc. Nobody is immune from having to do work.
She's now an Area Manager and still pitches in when visiting a store - she doesn't walk around with a clipboard, she helps the staff to do their job.
The wages are so much better than other supermarkets in the UK, but they expect you to work for them. Our local Aldi has been closed for 5 months while they rebuild it. I miss it so much. The Tesco nearby is far more expensive and has staff just chatting. The Lidl is more austere but is more efficient and cheaper. As soon as it opens again i'll be doing 90% of my shop there.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#4Most of the stuff they're doing seems to be entirely commonplace for the supermarket chains we have here in Norway.
The coins for the carts.
Stacking crates instead of individual items.
Training every employee for everything (it's not uncommon to see a store manager operating the cash register).
Expecting customers to fill their own bags and charging for those bags.
Smaller selection.
The only unique part seems to be the tendency to promote the shop's own brand over name brands.
On a related note: Lidl tried and failed to get a foothold here in Norway with similar tactics. It didn't work. Perhaps because our mainstream store chains are already so similar to Lidl, except our domestic chains offer actual name brand products and the Lidl stores didn't, and I think that's why they failed. Also, people who are really desperate to save money can just go to Sweden to shop. It's not a very long drive.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#5Most of the stuff they're doing seems to be entirely commonplace for the supermarket chains we have here in Norway. The coins for the carts. Stacking crates instead of individual items. Training every employee for everything (it's not uncommon to see a store manager operating the cash register). Expecting customers to fill their own bags and charging for those bags. Smaller selection. The only unique part seems to be…
It helps if you just imagine that every large brick and mortar chain in the Nordic countries operates kind of like IKEA. Lots of self service, spartan shop interior, and also, since labour is expensive here and you can't fuck your employees over with low wages like you can elsewhere, store owners tend to want to cut down on the number of staff.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#6IMO, what Aldi succeeds in is doing more with less. Aldi's aisles, stores, and product ranges are smaller compared to big grocery stores. However, Aldi leverages a 'curated assortment' of products to offer good quality items at a lower price than other grocery stores. There's also 1 "Aldi Finds" aisle in the stores which seems like it's to beta test potential items or offer short-term deals on limited items (? - just…
The 'curated assortment' bit is interesting.
If I go into my local Tesco, which isn't a huge ones, they've got about 15 types of coleslaw. The Lidl has 2. But they're nice ones. The cheapest is not awful, like the cheap Tesco one. The most expensive isn't ridiculously priced, but it is superb.
Baked beans - one type at Lidl, their own brand, but it's nicer than Heinz these days. The dishwasher tablets are half the price of the branded ones but better in my dishwasher.
I honestly love both Aldi and Lidl. They do have their gaps (you need to do ~10% of your shop in Tesco for these) but for the rest...
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#7It's such a dump and yet, their wines and beers are pretty damn good. And they have cheap organic produce. Just got to eat that day.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#8It appears that the dupe filter missed this one. Can we merge with https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19939376 ?
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#9Wow i didn't know that Aldi was in the US. Aldi and lidl keep opening stores like crazy in Europe, there must be like 15 of them in my city in France.
They are great on price, and the high end product are actually nice. But the rest is just average, and the cheese is really low quality (for french standard i mean) . The most annoying thing is that i can never find all the things i need. I just shop there for the basics : milk, egg, water, fruits and occasionally the tools they sell.
The really good thing with aldi (more than lidl) is that they purchase local food, and you can sometimes have really nice surprises.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#10It's quite impressive how things have turned. Not long ago Walmart was about to disrupt the German supermarket landscape. They even tried to cut prices to below market cost to conquer Aldi, Lidl, and the other big discount supermarket chains. After a couple of years they gave up and left. Now Aldi appears to be "fighting back" successfully in the US.
The history of Aldi's efficiency [0] is pretty impressive. It actually started with two brothers nearly going broke with their small grocery store. Then they realized that if they'd reduce the diversity of goods they offer and instead sell only the most common goods in bulk, they could undercut the competition's prices. This concept was so successful that it led to a multi billion dollar business which is still dictating the prices of common groceries in Germany.
Still there are other supermarket chains that have adapted to the Aldi strategy and are actually causing growth issues for Aldi. Their concept is to offer basic goods at the same price as Aldi does, then upsell more special and higher price items while offering a better shopping experience. I guess that's what's going to happen in the US as well eventually.