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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

#551

Post by 52-6F-62 »

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.

Same with here in Canada. It’s been the norm at some supermarkets for a long time.

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

#552

Post by apexalpha »

jacquesm wrote: post #505
krn wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Aldi was founded in 1946, and many of its efficiency-oriented practices were later adopted by other supermarkets in Europe[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi

Albert Heijn started the whole self-serving thing in 1952 (and was founded in 1887!). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Heijn

And in the chart in the article you can see that they (AHold) are really big in the US, too. Didn't know that.

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

#553

Post by Amygaz »

skrause wrote: post #508
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.

Cheap medium-quality food is not really just an Aldi/Lidl thing, it's culturally a German thing. Germans just don't care about food quality as much as e.g. French people, so competition values price over quality. I'm German and also this way, that's why I'm generally happy to shop in Aldi/Lidl.

That would explain why Aldi can be successful in the USA. Even after more than a decade living in more than one states, and I am still not used to the generally poor quality of fresh produce.

Seasonal gardening and local farmers help, but it's not cheap at all. I grew with up with seasonal farmer's market having higher quality at the same or even slightly lower price than the grocery store, but not in the US, higher quality but at fancy price, although they receive the same subsidies and it does cost them that much more.

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

#554

Post by dmos62 »

V-2 wrote: post #548
dmos62 wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's pretty ridiculous how in that region, as you drive south the average wage increases, but the food prices decrease.

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

#555

Post by xena »

notahacker wrote: post #129
antnisp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As someone who was hired to literally take carts in from outside, yes the concept of a quarter deposit to use a cart feels innovative to me. Would have saved my back a bunch of pain.

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

#556

Post by xena »

kodablah wrote: post #133
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…

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…

It's almost like taste is subjective or something.

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

#557

Post by wcunning »

function_seven wrote: post #434
tzs wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just Safeway. I see the same thing at Walmart with 2 liter bottles of Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper. I've never seen them run out of Dr. Pepper, and frequently see them out of Diet Dr. Pepper. This has been going on for years, but I've never seen them change the relative amount of Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper they stock. Same story at the vending machines at the office building that my company used to hav…

I thought my store was the only one. At Stater Bros. the Coke product 12-packs will almost always be “on sale” at either 3/10.99, 4/12.99, or sometimes even 5/14.99. (And you must buy the multiple listed to get the deal) Every time, without fail, the Diet Coke column is nearly empty while the Coke, Sprite, and Coke Zero ones are full. Not only that, but Diet Coke gets the smallest portion of the endcap. My only ratio…

Reasons that I can think of:

1) they don't want to take more of a loss than they have to go get you in the door, 2) the people who buy diet coke or diet Dr pepper are statistically more likely to shop sales than the people who buy non-diet, 3) the relative allotted shelf space and display area aren't just a store manager decision, but actually a product the grocery store sells to the manufacturers, 4) (2) & (3) imply that stores in different class areas of town might have very different which product sells quickly and utterly fail to optimize stocking of the thing you noticed when it literally never sells out at the Kroger a mile away, for example.

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

#558

Post by secfirstmd »

skrause wrote: post #508
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.

Cheap medium-quality food is not really just an Aldi/Lidl thing, it's culturally a German thing. Germans just don't care about food quality as much as e.g. French people, so competition values price over quality. I'm German and also this way, that's why I'm generally happy to shop in Aldi/Lidl.

It's also diet and food choices. For example I shop in Aldi here in Ireland and this week a standard problem happened. I went with a list of ingredients to make an Indian curry from scratch and only managed to get about 70 percent of what I needed there. The same thing has happened before when doing a Thai or Chinese meal. Comparatively a normal sizwd Tesco would nearly always have everything. In particular Aldi would have a lot less options for things like spices etc.

One thing I do find funny though is the Lidl (and Aldi) practice of selling loads of random items in one or two of there aisles. Many is the funny story I or friends have of going into the shop for milk and bread and coming out with a unicycle, power welder and night vision goggles instead :)

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

#559

Post by kzrdude »

luckydata wrote: post #274
antnisp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

American grocery stores are so comically bad and poorly managed it's hard to imagine for a European until you move here. Trust me, it's a shitshow. The only one that works is Trader Joe's for completely different reasons and personally in my first couple years I was completely obsessed with it, now a little less.

What's comically bad about them?

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

#560

Post by TheTrotters »

Galaxeblaffer wrote: post #488
Lukas_Skywalker wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It’s very common in Poland as well though probably not 100%.
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