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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

#471

Post by mattlondon »

DenisM wrote: post #376
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 wonder if one can pin a camera on the ceiling looking down at the conveyor belt, scanning all barcodes at once? Better than doing them manually one by one. If every box has barcodes on every side it should be possible for the software, knowing the size of the box, to get an idea if everything was scanned correctly or if an item had the barcode obscured. Maybe 2-3 cameras under different angles. Cameras are cheap, a…

There is a European sports store called decathlon that uses RFID. Put a tennis racket, running shoes, football, horse bridle, socks, ski goggles, bike tyre etc (they sell everything you can think of) in your basket, go to the till, place the basket in a blue outline at the till and it reads everything in your basket immediately. No scanning!

I was really impressed. I did some prototyping with RFID a few years back and reading multiple cards in unpredictable positions (e.g. overlapping, side-on) was quite challenging but looks like decathlon have worked it out.

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

#472

Post by MaysonL »

user5994461 wrote: post #290
war1025 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of an interesting comment because growing up the comment I always heard from people was "Avoid fresh produce at Aldi" because it had a reputation for being bad.

If I have learned one thing in a lifetime, it's that freshness depends on each shop. There is no consistency even for a chain of supermarkets in the same city. It's like each one has its own supply chain.

I suspect it's as much varying demand patterns and quality of store management as supply chain.

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

#473

Post by blotter_paper »

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…

>depositing a quarter for a cart eliminates the need to pay people to collect carts

Years ago when I read the bit in Freakonomics about the daycare that instituted an additional charge for picking kids up late to discourage the practice but found that the rate of late pickups increased instead because parents felt like they were paying for the service of extra daycare thus alleviating the guilt, I immediately thought of Aldi carts. Do Aldi carts get stolen more per use than Price Cutter carts because people have to pay a quarter for them? I know that's both not what the quarter is for and not what it is attempting to discourage, and I'm not claiming it necessarily does have this effect... I just wonder if people can somehow rationalise taking carts easier when they have to pay something for it.

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

#474

Post by Griffinsauce »

tw04 wrote: post #437
lugg wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably caused by decouling between buy price and realised sell price. You might also find the white is partly a byproduct that needs to be made no matter what. And this brings me to what also is truly good at, they own the full chain and leverage it. There are certain products I notice that only come in stock some years and it seems like they're made out of excess produce. I.e. a cereal I like is made entirely out…

>You might also find the white is partly a byproduct that needs to be made no matter what. White is literally the color of the cheese. The "yellow" has food coloring and "flavor" added. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheese

The "cheese" part is also questionable...

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

#475

Post by Maxion »

blotter_paper wrote: post #473
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…

>depositing a quarter for a cart eliminates the need to pay people to collect carts Years ago when I read the bit in Freakonomics about the daycare that instituted an additional charge for picking kids up late to discourage the practice but found that the rate of late pickups increased instead because parents felt like they were paying for the service of extra daycare thus alleviating the guilt, I immediately thought…

Virtually all grocery stores in Finland works with this principle. Coin for a cart. It works remarkably well, people want their coins back.

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

#476

Post by skocznymroczny »

freehunter wrote: post #221
Skunkleton wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should stop that.

Or at least bring last trip's plastic bags into the store with you.

Well, the problem with plastic bags is that when I need them, I usually don't have the last trip ones. If I prepare for my shopping, I don't take the plastic bags because I prefer my cloth bag.

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

#477

Post by bubblewrap »

FabHK wrote: post #232
bubblewrap wrote: post #196

"brutally efficient" - I'm surprised cnn.com is still permitted on Hacker News, with manipulative headlines like that.

Eh? What's manipulative about it? I'd call it descriptive and evocative, even.

It suggests that Aldi is winning by unfair measures, exploiting workers and what not.

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

#478

Post by hannob »

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 feel quite a few of those things are pretty standard in Europe, so I wonder if ALDI is just exporting european practices to the US. "Coin for a cart" e.g. is almost normal. I noticed that barcodes on all sides of a product is becoming more common, particularly in stores that allow self-scan (ALDI doesn't, but it obviously makes things easier also for customers that self-scan).

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

#479

Post by bubblewrap »

elPorkchapo wrote: post #394
bubblewrap wrote: post #196

"brutally efficient" - I'm surprised cnn.com is still permitted on Hacker News, with manipulative headlines like that.

bru·tal direct and lacking any attempt to disguise unpleasantness.

So what is unpleasant about it? Isn't it manipulative to suggest Aldi's way of conducting business is unpleasant?

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

#480

Post by seszett »

Maxion wrote: post #475
blotter_paper wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>depositing a quarter for a cart eliminates the need to pay people to collect carts Years ago when I read the bit in Freakonomics about the daycare that instituted an additional charge for picking kids up late to discourage the practice but found that the rate of late pickups increased instead because parents felt like they were paying for the service of extra daycare thus alleviating the guilt, I immediately thought…

Virtually all grocery stores in Finland works with this principle. Coin for a cart. It works remarkably well, people want their coins back.

It's a whole euro though, so maybe it's high enough that it has more effect than a quarter dollar.

Though not all stores have a deposit for carts, Colruyt in Belgium doesn't for example, and I don't see carts lying around.

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