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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

#51

Post by Shivetya »

post_break wrote: post #31

I guess I'm a weirdo who likes shopping there. Compared to Kroger or HEB I usually walk out of Aldi with a bill 50% cheaper than the other stores. We have our own bags and a picnic like basket thing we keep in the truck for Aldi stops. Yes it's "generic" but my uncle worked for a big food company that made big brand food and "generic" is often just a label change over the brand name. I can see why the rich people wou…

the crazy part about Aldi isn't just their food prices but the odd things that just show up dirt cheap. An example, a full 10x10 Gazebo that you assemble. Not with cheap like poles for full on L corners and netting. It was under $150 and just blows away stuff twice or more.

The order of pricing in my area is Aldi So usually for us its Aldi when we are near for the basics, Wal Mart for some name brands, and old retail for BOGOs. Yet for many it is the luxury of time which gives you opportunity to shop around

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

#52

Post by ljf »

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #3

My 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 be…

I was running a table at a graduate fair for my company and stood opposite the Aldi grad scheme guys. The grad salary ofter 5 years (if you are accepted on the programme) was great (£75k) and they expected you to be managing multiple stores in an area. They had quite a queue of students.

https://www.aldirecruitment.co.uk/area-manager-programme/our...

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

#53

Post by msla »

post_break wrote: post #31

I guess I'm a weirdo who likes shopping there. Compared to Kroger or HEB I usually walk out of Aldi with a bill 50% cheaper than the other stores. We have our own bags and a picnic like basket thing we keep in the truck for Aldi stops. Yes it's "generic" but my uncle worked for a big food company that made big brand food and "generic" is often just a label change over the brand name. I can see why the rich people wou…

I remember Aldi from Missouri, twenty-odd years ago now, and I don't have any negative memories of it. It's Poor Person Costco: They spend nothing on looks and it shows, but they don't have the bulk or the high-end products.

The only reason I wouldn't shop there now is that I don't usually carry any pocket change these days. Maybe I would if I could walk to one where I live.

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

#54

Post by [deleted] »

mthwl wrote: post #47

Just a quick alternative viewpoint: as a parent, I’ve been turned off by Aldi in the past. Often with a toddler and/or car seat in hand, unlocking a cart (for example) is not just an inconvenience, it’s a dealbreaker. I’m into the pursuit of efficiency and low prices, but there are some real world benefits of “full service” grocery stores. One being an nicer experience for the disabled (in my case, due to being a par…

[deleted]

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

#55

Post by HillaryBriss »

tssva wrote: post #42

In the last year in my neighborhood Aldi and Lidl have opened up stores across the street from each other. Lidl announced they were building a store and the following week Aldi announced they were opening their store across from them in a space which used to be another grocery store. Aldi should have been able to open long before Lidl but the renovation of the space took forever. Whenever I drove by the were ever at…

> Lidl announced they were building a store and the following week Aldi announced they were opening their store across from them

long ago, that was supposedly Burger King's strategy too: wait for McDonalds to spend the time and effort to research where to put one of their restaurants, then open a Burger King across the street.

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

#56

Post by zepearl »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #19

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…

A friend of mine worked for a logistic company and he told me many times that dealing with Aldi was a nightmare for them because they were extremely demanding:

very thin profit margin, tough quality checks (when delivering the items to the warehouses the checks were done on many more samples and in a much more detailed way than what other supermarket chains did) and if the truck arrived at the warehouse anytime after the agreed delivery time you were basically screwed (ranging from at least having to provide a discount to the whole delivery being rejected therefore having to find another chain willing to buy it or just throw it away).

All this might as well explain (additionally to your "shelf life") the good & cheap onions.

I'm an onion lover - Go onions! :)

(ps: this is just a neutral comment - so far I mostly ignored Aldi, excluding the exercise bike I bought from them which is still working perfectly ~3 years later)

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

#57

Post by lotsofpulp »

amelius wrote: post #16
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.

The lower prices are not.

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

#58

Post by velcrovan »

mthwl wrote: post #47

Just a quick alternative viewpoint: as a parent, I’ve been turned off by Aldi in the past. Often with a toddler and/or car seat in hand, unlocking a cart (for example) is not just an inconvenience, it’s a dealbreaker. I’m into the pursuit of efficiency and low prices, but there are some real world benefits of “full service” grocery stores. One being an nicer experience for the disabled (in my case, due to being a par…

My kids are 3 and 5 and we've shopped at Aldi continuously since they were born. I'm not sure what you're talking about. Unlocking a cart takes almost no extra effort beyond what you'd expend to get one at any other store.

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

#59

Post by Xylakant »

mthwl wrote: post #47

Just a quick alternative viewpoint: as a parent, I’ve been turned off by Aldi in the past. Often with a toddler and/or car seat in hand, unlocking a cart (for example) is not just an inconvenience, it’s a dealbreaker. I’m into the pursuit of efficiency and low prices, but there are some real world benefits of “full service” grocery stores. One being an nicer experience for the disabled (in my case, due to being a par…

> Often with a toddler and/or car seat in hand, unlocking a cart (for example) is not just an inconvenience, it’s a dealbreaker

Interesting issue. I’ve never had that problem as a parent and have never heard anyone else raise that as an issue - having carts locked is absolutely standard in germany since at least a couple of decades. Maybe people are just used to it. There are specialized carts nowadays for wheelchair users that are not usually locked, but the normal ones are. It’s so standard that there are even plastic coins to unlock which sort of defeats the purpose.

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

#60

Post by itronitron »

amelius wrote: post #16
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.

Based on my experience that's pretty standard for european grocery stores. No cashier in Europe is ever going to bag your groceries.

Despite bagging your own groceries being a universal experience I haven't yet seen a local properly use a self-serve checkout kiosk. Instead of scanning an item and putting it in a bag on the weighing platform they instead scan the items and put them on the weighing platform, then pay, then put the items in the cart, move the cart towards the store exit and then bag their groceries.

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