How USians see Aldi..
https://youtu.be/mXHJN1nsJ1Y
Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
131–140 of 653 posts
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#132I'm an industrial engineer and geek out about Aldi frequently. Here are a few things I've noticed (and researched) which differentiate them from others. -they have barcode on 5 or 6 sides of their products, and they're typically huge! They nearly never need to orient a product to scan it. Their scan speed is far faster than any other supermarket I've been at. -if two products are very similar, they'll change the pack…
> -they combine varieties (like flavors of granola bars) of product in the same box. This greatly reduces the shelf space required. This is the only thing that fails about Aldi. Let's say you want their Chicken Tikka sauce. The mixed boxes mean good chance you won't see it as Tikka always goes first. You go through the whole 6 boxes of inventory, and yep, all sold - the three spaces in every box. Same for pizza - one…
This looks related to something that's mystified me for years about Safeway.
Background:
- Safeway rotates every product through "sale" and "full price" periods. It's a strictly calendar-based thing; every sale price is going to recur if you wait, and every product will spend a lot of time at "full price" and a lot of other time at two or three different "sale" prices.
- Triscuits come in a variety of special flavors.
All triscuit varieties go on sale together. If triscuits aren't on sale that week, you can get whatever flavor you want. But if a sale has happened, the Parmesan Garlic flavor is probably sold out. This happens, reliably, every time triscuits go on sale, and affects only the Parmesan Garlic flavor. To get that flavor at a sale price, you need to be in the store near the beginning of the sale period.
To me, the diagnosis is obvious: Parmesan Garlic is more popular than every other flavor, and Safeway should stock more of that flavor than they do of other flavors. But though I've observed this for years, they don't. All flavors get the same shelf space, Parmesan Garlic always sells out quickly, and Safeway appears to be happy to forgo the lost sales of Parmesan Garlic triscuits that they could have made if they'd just had them in stock.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#133I'm an industrial engineer and geek out about Aldi frequently. Here are a few things I've noticed (and researched) which differentiate them from others. -they have barcode on 5 or 6 sides of their products, and they're typically huge! They nearly never need to orient a product to scan it. Their scan speed is far faster than any other supermarket I've been at. -if two products are very similar, they'll change the pack…
As an admitted traditionalist concerned more about consumer comfort than company, some of these are the reason I don't and wont shop at Aldi. It's funny because depending on who you talk to, some of the same things that are seen as inconveniences to some are seen as beneficial to others. It's also funny to watch some of the same people laud inconveniences in one company and bemoan some of the same inconveniences in another.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> -they combine varieties (like flavors of granola bars) of product in the same box. This greatly reduces the shelf space required. This is the only thing that fails about Aldi. Let's say you want their Chicken Tikka sauce. The mixed boxes mean good chance you won't see it as Tikka always goes first. You go through the whole 6 boxes of inventory, and yep, all sold - the three spaces in every box. Same for pizza - one…
I wonder does that lead to a lot of waste? Eg. the 30% of the box thats the flavour that no-one (at this shop) buys, goes off and is dumped, for every box. Maybe the ratios are determined by their global sales, who knows. You would think that it would be advantageous for each shop to tweak its own ratios.
They would just reduce the price until it does sell.
Also, packaged food like this typically last at least several months, if not a year or two.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#135I'm an industrial engineer and geek out about Aldi frequently. Here are a few things I've noticed (and researched) which differentiate them from others. -they have barcode on 5 or 6 sides of their products, and they're typically huge! They nearly never need to orient a product to scan it. Their scan speed is far faster than any other supermarket I've been at. -if two products are very similar, they'll change the pack…
TIL you can call American stores. Why do people do that?
For example to check inventory/stock before going there.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
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,…
I tried to, but it's impossible to resist temptation to rearrange stuff in the bags on weighing platform. The machine then seizes with complaint about unexpected stuff in bagging area. So I gave up on that.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#137Most 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…
yes, reading this article as European (that never visited the US) was a weirding experience. I lived in 4 different countries in Europe, and that's exactly how every supermarket work. And to be fair, I thought that every supermarket in the world worked like that... Can you imagine when the Americans will find automatic counters instead of cashiers? :)
I think they do have them. They know phrases like "Unexpected item in bagging area".
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#138I'm an industrial engineer and geek out about Aldi frequently. Here are a few things I've noticed (and researched) which differentiate them from others. -they have barcode on 5 or 6 sides of their products, and they're typically huge! They nearly never need to orient a product to scan it. Their scan speed is far faster than any other supermarket I've been at. -if two products are very similar, they'll change the pack…
TIL you can call American stores. Why do people do that?
For other stores, generally to ask if a product is in stock. For a grocery store, all I can think of would be to ask if it's open.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Yes; it just a psychological trick to stop people abandoning their carts in random locations or perhaps even in the middle of the parking lot.
Also in the rare case that a cart is abandoned someone will quickly bring it back or use it themselves. The person abandoning the cart basically pays the finder
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the United States carts are free. You collect a cart at the entrance to the store, and return the cart to a cart corral in the parking lot next to your car. Then a worker from the store periodically goes out to the corral to collect the carts and return them to the store entrance.
Carts are free at Aldi too. You just put a coin in to release a cart, and when you return your cart, you get your coin back.
They aren’t free if you don’t have a quarter on hand.