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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

#141

Post by GreyTheory »

Shivetya wrote: post #51
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…

I've bought two pairs of boots from Aldi - one pair about a decade ago and are still my favourite pair, and another steel-toecapped safety shoe that I wear whenever I need to go to one of our manufacturing sites. Super comfy. And I think they were about £20 a piece.

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

#142

Post by kingkawn »

orthoxerox wrote: post #128
froindt wrote: post #96

I'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?

To find out something about the store; hours, events, product availability, etc

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

#143

Post by maxxxxx »

It would be nice if the US Aldi stores were similar to the current stores in Germany and Scotland I have seen. The ones I have been to in the LA area feel like how Aldi was 30 years ago in Germany. Super cheap but crappy products. Not like the European stores where you can find cheap high quality stuff.

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

#144

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

notahacker wrote: post #129
antnisp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's so weird is that all those sound rudimentary rather than innovative to my european ears.

Yep. The most notable thing about Aldi (and similar competitor Lidl) from a UK perspective is that they pay above average for comparable supermarket jobs and reduce staffing accordingly. But I remember putting coins into slots for a trolley (and reclaiming them!) when I was young enough to be sitting in the child seat nearly 30 years ago, long before Aldi was a factor in the UK market. Is this really an innovative co…

I've never seen it anywhere. I have heard of it, but in the two regions I've lived (Northeast and Midwest), never seen it.

I wonder why it hasn't taken off. My son used to work at Walmart after school making around $15/hour to do little more than round up carts in the parking lot and bring them back into the building. Considering how cost conscious Walmart is, I'm surprised.

However, Aldi is putting up a building across the street from my local Walmart, so we'll see what happens :-)

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

#145

Post by groby_b »

notahacker wrote: post #129
antnisp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's so weird is that all those sound rudimentary rather than innovative to my european ears.

Yep. The most notable thing about Aldi (and similar competitor Lidl) from a UK perspective is that they pay above average for comparable supermarket jobs and reduce staffing accordingly. But I remember putting coins into slots for a trolley (and reclaiming them!) when I was young enough to be sitting in the child seat nearly 30 years ago, long before Aldi was a factor in the UK market. Is this really an innovative co…

You'd be surprised at what all counts as an "innovative" concept in the US. Coming over here from Europe as well, the country is 30-40 years backwards in many areas.

(We do have wheel clamps, though ;)

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

#146

Post by task_queue »

madengr wrote: post #90

Expensive cars in the Aldi’s parking most likely means a fat car loan, not an indication of wealth.

Getting a fat car loan is much easier if your credit is good, you aren't in debt, and your income is relatively high. It's an indicator of relative wealth.

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

#147

Post by osrec »

Cyph0n wrote: post #140
osrec wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well they aren't really for sale or rent either. Not sure what your point is?

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

#148

Post by thinkling »

Another thing: I'm guessing they don't have paid staff to bag groceries for customers like many US stores, but what they may have that's common in Europe but unknown in the US: the boat-tiller-like divider in the conveyor belt space past the cashier.

Customer A's things get rung up and continue to side A. When done with customer A, the cashier shoves the divider across so the belt now takes customer B's stuff to side B while customer A continues to put their stuff in their bag or their cart.

My DuckDuck-Fu is failing me to find a picture of this.

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

#149

Post by Gwypaas »

itronitron wrote: post #60
amelius wrote: post #16

Earlier 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,…

Here in Sweden stores have started to switch to self scan without scales. Cheaper to buy, uses less space and no nuisance for the customers.

Or even better the stores that do self scan with a hand held scanner, just walk around continously bagging in your cart, put the barcode scanner in the holder when you exit and pay with NFC.

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

#150

Post by Grumbledour »

notahacker wrote: post #129
antnisp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's so weird is that all those sound rudimentary rather than innovative to my european ears.

Yep. The most notable thing about Aldi (and similar competitor Lidl) from a UK perspective is that they pay above average for comparable supermarket jobs and reduce staffing accordingly. But I remember putting coins into slots for a trolley (and reclaiming them!) when I was young enough to be sitting in the child seat nearly 30 years ago, long before Aldi was a factor in the UK market. Is this really an innovative co…

The main reason I have always heard mentioned why they have a deposit is that shopping carts are really expensive and they don't want people to take them home, have teens do silly things with them etc.

Maybe that's not so much a problem in the US, where I imagine supermarkets may not be in the city center but mostly reachable by car and thus less foot traffic to take the carts?

But maybe the deposit here in Europe is just silly? I do know many supermarkets lock their carts up for 1st of May for example and anyway, one euro or one of those plastic discs is not hard to come by, so it is not much of a detriment.

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