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

edition.cnn.com

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

#81

Post by velcrovan »

itronitron wrote: post #66
velcrovan wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unlocking a cart is a foreign concept in the US. Not sure if the parent is in the US but any grocery store that has locked carts there is doomed to fail.

I'm in the US. People catch on pretty quick if it will save them money. Which it does. Our Aldi is pretty much always busy.

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

#82

Post by yardie »

wvh wrote: post #68
B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a quarter to get a cart, 4-6 isles, no in car delivery, you have to bag your stuff yourself. Europe.

I think I just started to understand why the US has such a low unemployment rate but so many are paid minimal wage...

The US is the epitome of bullshit, bureaucratic jobs. Medical billing, for example, is someone taking the list of procedures a medical office performs and plugs that into a computer so that the "codes" the office uses can match the "codes" the healthcare provider uses.

I know what you're thinking, that describes a LUT (lookup table). Yes, you would be correct, a LUT is an actual profession in the USA.

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

#83

Post by nyolfen »

msla wrote: post #53
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.

i keep a quarter in my car specifically for aldi

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

#84

Post by wvh »

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…

I wonder how Lidl's doing in Finland, which traditionally has had just 2 major chains really and not a whole lot of price pressure. No Aldi though.

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

#85

Post by itronitron »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #75
itronitron wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlocking a cart is a foreign concept in the US. Not sure if the parent is in the US but any grocery store that has locked carts there is doomed to fail.

The entire article is about how Aldi is growing like crazy in the US, and explains why they have locked carts. A far cry from "doomed to fail".

Props to Aldi then, they are definitely disrupting supermarkets.

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

#86

Post by Barrin92 »

kemayo wrote: post #40
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 article does cover all these points about well-off people shopping there, too. In fact, it points out that "Aldi’s core shopper tends to make more money and have a slightly higher education level than the overall grocery shopper".

Yes, I don't know if that's a German thing somehow exported with it, but here in Germany ALDI was always one of the places that was somehow classless, where you could meet anyone from the chancellor to bank executives to someone scraping by, everybody likes cheap and quick shopping I guess.

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

#87

Post by asveikau »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #45
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…

> a quarter to get a cart, 4-6 isles, no in car delivery, you have to bag your stuff yourself. Europe.

It is funny how a person's geography can shape what the view of a normal life is. I read that thinking, "In-car delivery? What the hell?" But the comment indicates matter of factly that rich people will find the lack of this to be like shopping at Salvation Army.

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

#89

Post by b3orn »

sokoloff wrote: post #65
briandear wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except in France it’s a Euro to get a cart and you can definitely get car delivery. Most of the Carrefour/Super U type stores do that. And many of their stores are at least as big as a US store. Seems like both cultures are converging.

I could have sworn I remembered the Euro thing was just a deposit , returned when the cart was cart was returned. Is that not the case?

It is the case.
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