151–160 of 653 posts
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…
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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…
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> -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…
Every time someone talks about how grocery stores are these highly-optimized retail juggernauts that know everything about what they're selling, how much to order, where to place it on the shelf, and so on, I just wish I could take them on a tour of my local stores and ask them to explain various seemingly-nonsensical practices. IMHO, there is a lot of room for efficiency improvements in the retail grocery business.
Ah, the Americans have not forced Aldi on their knees and have them change the checkouts. Finland used to have a oligopoly of pretty expensive grocery chains and no price competition. Until Lidl (another German chain very similar to the Aldis) entered some 16 years ago and started real price competition. Of course with their efficient checkouts. The first years Lidl didn't do so well. Then they changed the checkouts…
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…
On a historical note (I am old enough to have shopped before bar codes existed):
Generally stores had little price tags attached to every single item. Which was labour intensive twice: First someone has to attach the tag to each item and at the checkout it needs to be found somewhere on the product, read and the price to be entered into the cash register.
With only 1000 products (back then, IIRC) and no weekly offers at all it took only 2-3 days for a new cashier to learn all prices by heart and easy for the store to skip the stickers altogether and just mark the price at the shelf. Typing prices without having to search for a tiny little sticker somewhere on the product was super fast and efficient compared to the competitors. Cashiers just dropped the product into the cart with one hand and typed with the other.
Aldi introduced bar code scanners several years after the "full assortment" competition. At some point probably the better inventory book-keeping started to outweigh the costs.
(Edit: clarified that Aldi had no price stickers at all)
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…
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 a…
I will however still occasionally run in because although they run out quick almost every day, when they have grass-fed meat and some organic veggies, they are about twice as cheap as any other retailer around here has them for.
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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.
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…
Hmm, more like 25% cheaper, imo. But I guess it depends what you need to buy and if you go after sales/specials and what not. Aldi does have great prices, for sure.
I still love HEB though. Their bakery section is amazing (especially the fresh warm tortillas), their produce and meat is excellent, and the prices are still pretty good. HEB also has prices online with specific aisle locations for many products (was helpful when looking for frozen yuca/cassava a bit ago).
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.
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> a quarter to get a cart, 4-6 isles, no in car delivery, you have to bag your stuff yourself. Europe.
In europe, it's 1 or 2 euro. (both work) You get it back when you return the trolley though.