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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

#541

Post by kachurovskiy »

hjk05 wrote: post #539

> without compromising on quality This might be true of the new American stores but is definitely not true in Northern Europe, they regularly have rotten fruit in the stands and I only once dared buying the frozen fish which led to a nasty case of diarrhea. This was back in my student days, when I realized paying 3% more for meat and vegs was worth the extra cost if you can avoid spending 2 days in bed because of a g…

This is my experience as well in Germany. Fruits and vegetables are also quite tasteless. Some common items are simply missing. I'm afraid same will happen in US once the initial hype and attention to the details wear off and ROI considerations kick in. Or maybe it will work out great - Trader Joe's is an amazing example of that.

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

#542

Post by wccrawford »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #132
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> -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…

Our local Publix does this for a few items we buy. The one that's currently biting us is Coke w/ Splenda. Every single sale the shelf is empty, and even sometimes when it's not on sale. And yet they never order additional amounts of it. Most other varieties are full on the shelf at all times.

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

#543

Post by taneq »

imhoguy wrote: post #496
jaabe wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There are two ALDIs as article mentions and they differ in quality: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/63hce5/aldi_nord_bl... Aldi Süd seems to be more preffered, however I personally prefer Lidl which is based on similar efficiency concepts.

According to wikipedia:

> Internationally, Aldi Nord operates in Denmark, France, the Benelux countries, Portugal, Spain and Poland, while Aldi Süd operates in Ireland, Great Britain, Hungary, Switzerland, Australia, China, Italy, Austria and Slovenia. Both Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd also operate in the United States with 1,600 stores as of 2017.

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

#544

Post by wccrawford »

mac01021 wrote: post #340
chodeboy wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People leave there carts in the lots and workers collect them

In my experience, people leave their carts in the designated spot, mostly well nested. And a store clerk has to come out for about 5 minutes to bring them back every hour or so. I don't feel like that amount of labor is a tremendous cost for the supermarket.

I worked at at supermarket when I was young. Even when people left the carts in the best possible locations, it was still way more than 5 minutes per hour that we spent out there. Sometimes 2 of us would spent 10 minutes each per hour, but more likely one of us would be our there for 20-30 minutes per hour, especially during busy times.

And that's when the cart collectors were being quick and not just out there fooling around.

In addition, if things got busy inside and we forgot to collect carts for a while, we'd run out and customers would get upset that they didn't have a cart to use. This was especially likely during rain when no customers would return carts or bring carts on their way in.

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

#545

Post by adem »

mft_ wrote: post #511
kzrdude wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Living in Switzerland, I often choose to shop for groceries in Germany! Better prices and (much) better range in Hieber. (Although agree that France usually has both beaten.)

Assuming you mean the Hieber in Weil am Rhein, they really do offer a superb shopping experience, but it's vastly above the standard. I wish more supermarkets would adopt the self-scanning devices, it's perfect when buying single-digit items.

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

#546

Post by V-2 »

davej wrote: post #517
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…

A couple of things I've noticed here at Aldi in Ireland. Particularly interested in the psychological aspects: - The packing area (after the till) is quite small. This means that if you're not packing quickly and putting items back into the trolley then the till operator will have to stop scanning because of the backlog. They will often make subtle eye-contact (with a smile) when they have to stop, this puts the shop…

This is not the packing area though. In Aldis you are generally not expected to pack at the till at all. What should be happening is that you put all your shopping right back into the trolley, then take it away and bag your stuff at your pace at the window ledge, getting out of the way of next shoppers.

I don't know about Ireland, but in the UK there's been obviously some backlash from the customers who aren't used to this model. I've seen arguments break out.

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

#547

Post by V-2 »

troels wrote: post #161
MrsPeaches wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can glance down and count how many of each, scan one, then hit the number pad for the quantity. I haven't seen the number pad used extensively at any other grocer. I spent a lot of time in Germany in the 90s. Aldi (and Lidl) hadn't switched to barcode scanners and the chashiers were still typing in product numbers by hand. I was always super impressed with the speed with which they typed and it certainly felt…

They stuck to it for a long time and the argument was indeed speed and to some extend ergonomics (the cashier doesn't need to lift up items). There is a system to it (100-199 is liquor, 400-499 dairy etc.), so it's fairly easy to memorise it.

Still used for fruit and veggies - at least a few years back, in England. Up to 100 codes to memorize, but some would come and go every week or so.

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

#548

Post by V-2 »

dmos62 wrote: post #520
kzrdude wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Lithuania food is so expensive that there's a joke that it's cheaper to drive to Germany to shop. That's a bit of a hyperbole (German border is about 1000km away), but it's definitely cheaper to shop in Poland.

In Poland it's pretty common to do shopping in Germany, if you live close to the border.

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

#549

Post by antihero »

Fucking love Aldi. I'm pretty sure without them I would have literally starved to death. I can get food to eat for a week for like £10. The nearest Tesco to me (Crystal Palace) doesn't stock any basics stuff, and the larger stores seem to demand a car or nearly an hours walk.
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