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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

#361

Post by ekovarski »

zepearl wrote: post #56
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…

Costco has similar rules now re deliveries; They are tightly controlled by HO.

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

#362

Post by toomanybeersies »

opportune wrote: post #354
foota wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying your software engineers make below 75k?

No, I live in the US. But from what I've heard about software engineer salaries in the UK, even at most large multinationals (except only Google?), it seems someone with 5 yoe as a store manager at Aldis in the UK makes (afaik) more than basically every software engineer with 5 yoe in the UK

I don't see why an area manager for Aldi stores shouldn't be getting paid a lot of money. It's not exactly an unskilled job, it just doesn't require extensive qualifications. You're managing large numbers of employees over several different stores.

Some days I feel bad about how much money I make as a software engineer. It's an easy job. All I do is sit at a computer and write some code for a few hours a day. I don't have to manage employees or stock or anything like that, I just listen to music and hammer away at a keyboard.

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

#363

Post by ekovarski »

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…

I believe they also source their own branded items from multiple vendors to avoid lock in. If one fails to deliver, they have another source. Keeps everyone one their toes at all times.

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

#364

Post by selectodude »

mamon wrote: post #320
wahern wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the automatic checkout counters even look like they have a scale I won't waste my time. Not once have I made it out without the machine requiring an override, no matter how carefully I place and scan items. Thankfully it seems the scales are becoming less common.

I refuse to use self-checkout on principle: I am not doing any unpaid labor for some corporation, I already have a job.

They seem be taking them out of a lot of stores, the shrink is more expensive than just paying somebody the $12/hr.

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

#365

Post by macintux »

maxerickson wrote: post #349
rayiner wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never encountered an example of a real “bullshit job” (but have encountered a lot of ignorance about what different jobs entail.) Dealing with medical billing codes is not just a table lookup. It’s actually quite fuzzy and some judgment is required because the codes don’t match 1:1. (Not does the procedure the doctor actually did match perfectly to any code.) (And you can be criminally prosecuted for not doing i…

How do you evaluate the quality of the bagging if you don't know how to do a good job? Are they just faster?

In my experience they’re faster, pack the bags with less wasted space (but not heavily, just good at fitting things appropriately), and importantly they’re not distracted by dealing with the cashier for payment or coupons or whatever other questions may arise.

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

#366

Post by sailfast »

barbecue_sauce wrote: post #335
thaumasiotes wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Nabisco is a DSD vendor. It's own sales associates and merchandisers are responsible for ordering and stocking the shelves. These people are on site (in-store) at most once per day (depending on the unit volume of the store and delivery schedules). Data gets funneled to the sales associate to make their own judgement calls about ordering (though they may be on auto-ordering depending on how close of a relationship th…

Comments like this are the reason I am on this website. Thank you for taking the time to lay this out and sharing your experience with us.

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

#367

Post by ip26 »

antnisp wrote: post #103
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…

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

A lot of clever efficiency improvements & innovations look obvious in retrospect. I have come to believe that "obvious in retrospect" is actually a clue suggesting it could make a good patent.

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

#368

Post by bunderbunder »

osrec wrote: post #317
bunderbunder wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I'm genuinely curious, why the downvotes? Did I accidentally invoke some sensitive imagery?

Not sure, but perhaps because it's not actually a pun?! At least I still don't get it.

Free as in beer vs free as in speech.

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

#369

Post by ip26 »

pnathan wrote: post #223
llamataboot wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to shop at Aldi because of the almost brutal aesthetic. No signage, no colors, no nice lighting, just industrial meta shelves on an industrial floor with bare fluorescent lights overhead and everything jammed together. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. I will however still occasionally run in because although they run out quick almost every day, when they have grass-fed meat and some organ…

I've found that groceries run for and by immigrants have a similar approach. The "experience" Americans crave is revealed to be so vacuous.

There's a middle ground between a fancy luxury market and flickering green-tinged fluorescent bulbs that always make you feel slightly ill. Signage & organization also serves a function aside from "experience".

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

#370

Post by kostko »

Scoundreller wrote: post #264
kostko wrote: post #230

Wait untill you get Aldi mobile provider. In my country i pay 10eur a month for unlimited calls+sms and 20gb of data. For 15eur you get same but 50gb data. Simplest cell provider, no hiden costs, and everything is resolved online. They do not have offices where you register. You just but a sim card. And then they can either charge your bank account or you buy vouchers at Aldi registers - printed on the receipt paper.…

What is your country?

Slovenia. Hot.si
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