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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

#11

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

I think the point that this article drove home to me is that a lot of Aldi's "bare bones" mentality actually leads to a better experience for most shoppers, even separate from the lower prices. For example, the comment from a customer about the store layout making it easier to get in and out with kids in tow. The Aldi store brands have a reputation for good quality without the "50 kinds of salsa" paralysis of choice. The register lines move faster because there is no bagging. Store employees are more helpful because they are cross-trained, etc.

I think this contrasts with a place like WalMart where employees are often less-than-helpful, so much of the products are low quality, etc.

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#12

Post by Glawen »

ThJ wrote: post #5
ThJ wrote: post #4

Most 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.

My god, aldi/lidl and ikea are the worst shops in europe. I can't imagine a country filled with the same awful shops

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#13

Post by oflannabhra »

So, "Aldi" actually means lots of different things. Two German brothers (Karl and Theo Albrecht) formed ALDI in 1946. In the 60s, they split the company in two, resulting in Aldi Nord (Theo) and Aldi Süd (Karl). In the '90s, the brothers retired as CEOs and transferred ownership to family trusts.

The companies operate in different geographical areas. Originally, the brothers split across the Rhine, but now Aldi Süd includes North America, Australia, and half of Europe. Aldi Nord operates in the other half of Europe.

The same trust that owns Aldi Nord also owns Trader Joe's (acquired in 1979), and they use similar operational values: (minimal advertising, limited selection, private label goods, work ethic, etc)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#14

Post by petra »

Most of those things are easy to do and easy to copy.

But how do you find private label suppliers for 1000+ products, how do you know how to define great products, how do you verify that, and do you still manage prices low ?

That's a key skill aldi acquired over decades, and it's really hard to copy.

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#15

Post by cs02rm0 »

oflannabhra wrote: post #13

So, "Aldi" actually means lots of different things. Two German brothers (Karl and Theo Albrecht) formed ALDI in 1946. In the 60s, they split the company in two, resulting in Aldi Nord (Theo) and Aldi Süd (Karl). In the '90s, the brothers retired as CEOs and transferred ownership to family trusts. The companies operate in different geographical areas. Originally, the brothers split across the Rhine, but now Aldi Süd i…

I'd associated that story with Aldi vs. Lidl. Seems the two are unrelated, other than Lidl being in the style of Aldi.

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#16

Post by amelius »

ThJ wrote: post #4

Most 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…

Seems like most of the points you listed are a deterioration from the customer's perspective.

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#17

Post by learntofly »

I used to work for the UK's largest Supermarket Chain. In 2012 when an ALDI was due to open close to a store I managed, head office sent in a delegate from the small "Continental Discounter" (ALDI/LIDL) team who explain that the ALDI brand was a cleverly worked phallacy, it wasn't cheaper, the products weren't better and customers didn't like it as much as people made out.

Six years later, the impact of ALDI and LIDL have effected fundamental change in the giant, Supermarket Chain, the whole corporate strategy seems to emulate what ALDI does well and there is a pilot where some of the smaller stores are rebranded under a different name and basically modelled on a German discounter.

ALDI and LIDL have changed the UK supermarket landscape in a fundamental way and customers seem to love it.

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#18

Post by geff82 »

I live in Aldi's motherland and even if I could easily afford to buy groceries in other stores from major brands I usually go to Aldi first, buying the 10% they do not sell later somewhere else. Why? Because I blindly trust them. What they sell is usually good quality with a good taste (I even do not look at the prices). The juices they sell: perfect. The fruits they sell: mostly sweet (there is a fruit quality problem in Germany, as the country usually only gets second grade fruits because of the low prices eveywhere). Milk, joghurt, cheese: best quality. And I can actually remember where stuff is! So shopping is fast. This is in stark contrast to most other retailers who try to trick you into buying more by hiding stuff in unexpected places. Many years ago, someone told me something from behind the scene at Aldi. She was working for a producer of toilet paper and similar. She said: in contrast to other clients, we are not allowed to produce one lot without some people from Aldi being present. Before they produced for them, they had to call Aldi so they could have engineers at the factory to oversee everything that was done. She said no other customer did this. This really reinforced my trust in their Quality.

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#19

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

In addition to being the cheapest, I'm often impressed by the quality of some of Aldi's pantry staples. Specifically, I'm blown away by their onions. I buy a bag of onions every 1-3 weeks. Since I can't individually inspect every onion in the bag, I'm resigned to the fact that anywhere from 10-30% of the onions will be unusable when I start to cut into them and find the rot. This is true of pretty much every grocer I've ever shopped at, with some faring worse than others (I remember almost half of the onions I'd get from an average bag at Target were unusable). Not so at Aldi's. I can buy a bag and every onion in the bag will have a nice, firm skin that feels fresh and tight when peeled, rather than old and slimy.

I suspect it's probably shelf life more than anything else--if they keep just enough stock of them that they're constantly being bought and restocked, they don't have time to sit on the shelf and wilt.

Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets

#20

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

geff82 wrote: post #18

I live in Aldi's motherland and even if I could easily afford to buy groceries in other stores from major brands I usually go to Aldi first, buying the 10% they do not sell later somewhere else. Why? Because I blindly trust them. What they sell is usually good quality with a good taste (I even do not look at the prices). The juices they sell: perfect. The fruits they sell: mostly sweet (there is a fruit quality probl…

YMMV, but TP is one of the few things I don't buy from Aldi. We tried a pack and the wipes felt like they were rice-paper thin.
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