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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

#481

Post by Galaxeblaffer »

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…

You don't pay for the cart, when you put the card back you get your quarter back.

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

#482

Post by jaabe »

hannob wrote: post #478
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).

That was my thought as well. I live in Denmark, I think ALDI is one of our least efficient supermarket chains which is why they’ve had to fill the niche of low-quality-low-price.

I never knew American supermarkets were so terrible. I mean, you read about the Amazon grocery stores and get the picture of Europe being far behind.

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

#483

Post by RandomTisk »

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…

Owning a shopping cart at the house would be the epitome of low class in my opinion.

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

#484

Post by icebraining »

crazygringo wrote: post #62
ThJ wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I've mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Scandinavians are big on DIY and minimalism, and not big on service. This is a common complaint from foreigners who visit, but it's the working culture here. You, the customer, a a big boy and can take care of yourself.

I mean... that may be the attitude, but that doesn't make it good. The last time I went to IKEA, their website had said they had 50+ of an item in stock, but there were 0 where it was supposed to be. I had to spend 10 minutes with an employee for them to find where the entire box had been misplaced by another employee, in another aisle. When employees mess up (which is very common, we're all human), you can't take ca…

I don't get it, didn't you find an employee to help you when you actually needed it? How would the "full-service" model have helped?

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

#485

Post by maigret »

mrob wrote: post #457
Skunkleton wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should stop that.

I assume you're vegan, you don't own a car, you never travel by airplane, you don't use heating or air conditioning, you only take cold showers, you wear your clothes until they're worn out beyond repair, etc. When somebody takes environmentalism that seriously, it might actually make sense to worry about a few grams of plastic.

Well:

1. Plastic bags often don’t really get destroyed, but get shipped to poor countries and land in the ocean. 2. Paper bags or boxes do the job as well, unless you are driving home your stuff through a long walk under rain or bike. But pedestrians and bikers usually have enough bag capacity with them.

I’m only using plastic bags every couple months, because I know keep bags and boxes in my car trunk. Easy, 0 impact for me.

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

#486

Post by blotter_paper »

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.

I've seen it work! If I hadn't, I might question it. My comment wasn't wondering whether there are more carts left in the parking lot of an Aldi or a Price Cutter, it was wondering if more carts get taken off property entirely and used for other purposes. If that's your goal, a quarter is pretty negligible. Years ago I worked at motel near an Aldi and a WalMart, and saw a good number of both companies' carts left in the parking lot. More WalMart carts, for sure, but they also get more traffic. I used Price Cutter as an example instead of WalMart because I think some people have a special hatred for that particular company that might make stealing from a WalMart easier to rationalise for other reasons (I'm not making a value judgement about that, just stating it as something I've anecdotally observed).

Efit: s/anf/and

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

#487

Post by arcticbull »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #415
thaumasiotes wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those are some really weird sales then, what use is the sale if nobody knows about it? OK, it's possible that there's a low-profile outlet for releasing news of upcoming discount periods, and I just don't know about it. However, I can list several effects of the sale that occur whether or not shoppers know about it in advance of coming to the store: - You might choose to buy more of something than otherwise, since…

In addition to that, there are psychological effects. You go to the store and find things unexpectedly on sale, which makes you want to go back to the store. Then when you do something else is on sale, which pleases you again and reinforces you coming back to the store. The fact that one $3 thing you bought was unexpectedly on sale but every time you go to the store you spend $200 on other stuff is a thing that the s…

Ah yeah I hadn't considered the random reinforcement effect. Devious, really.

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

#488

Post by Galaxeblaffer »

Lukas_Skywalker wrote: post #456
sorenjan wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Lidl came to Sweden most people didn't like to shop there because of their short conveyor belts after the cashier [0] relative to the regular Swedish ones [1][2], so you felt stressed when shopping there. There were no room for your groceries. Usually you put your stuff on the belt, the cashier scans it and moves it along, you pay, and then you pack it in your bags. It took them four years, then they changed to…

I know a few stores in Europe that have a wall separating the conveyor belts in two parts [0]. The cashier can basically chose if the product will end up on the left or right end of the belt, giving the customers time to pack their things while already serving the next customer on the other side. [0] https://static.az-cdn.ch/__ip/r-ymFggeoyzNSXf6FkMQRwePLN0/57...

In Denmark that's a 100% of grocery stores

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

#489

Post by kzrdude »

hannob wrote: post #478
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).

Euro here, I don't think chasing the bottom of the barrel is worth celebrating. Also, Germany has the worst standard of grocery stores (I'd prefer grocery stores in general from neighboring France, Switzerland etc) due to their assortment and quality of products - and Aldi and Lidl are responsible for that.

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

#490

Post by Zarel »

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

I assume this is a metaphor. But even for products that _are_ byproducts, it seems like the correct solution is to sell the less-popular one at a lower price.
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