Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
581–590 of 653 posts
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#582Earlier quoted context omitted.
No self checkout would be a show stopper for me, some of us actually prefer it to going to a manned register. Not that we have Aldi where I live, but we do have Trader Joe’s, and I simply choose Safeway or QFC because I really really like self checkout.
Maybe if you went to an Aldi you would change your mind. I generally prefer self checkout as well for a few reasons, all of which are not relevant for Aldi: 1) It's faster for self checkout because the line moves faster (one line for multiple checkout stations) and because I can scan my items faster than they can. However, Aldi checkout lines move ridiculously fast, so this ends up not mattering much. 2) I get to pac…
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#583IMO, what Aldi succeeds in is doing more with less. Aldi's aisles, stores, and product ranges are smaller compared to big grocery stores. However, Aldi leverages a 'curated assortment' of products to offer good quality items at a lower price than other grocery stores. There's also 1 "Aldi Finds" aisle in the stores which seems like it's to beta test potential items or offer short-term deals on limited items (? - just…
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#584Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never, ever carry change.
Why not? Cash is divisible, readily accepted, and anonymous.
I also don’t carry things in my pockets.
The fees associated with debit card transactions don’t land on me, so...
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#585Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re barcodes, in Germany, in the beginning, the cashiers were trained enough that they could actually enter the UPC from memory faster than scanning the item. Later, they added the barcodes on all sides which increased the speed even more. The quarter in the cart thing is very common in Germany even at high end supermarkets. The higher overhead compared to the US makes it very hard to higher people for this kind of jo…
They didn't enter the barcodes from memory, they entered the price of the item from memory. That alone is a feat, though.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#586Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to work at a grocery store deli. Every week, without fail, we'd sell 75% yellow American cheese and 25% white American cheese (and that's being generous to the amount of white we sold). I asked my boss why we didn't just buy more yellow than white instead of buying exactly one box of white for every box of yellow and she just got mad and said "what, you think you can do my job better than me?" I still deeply w…
> we'd sell 75% yellow American cheese and 25% white American cheese Both are terrible. If there is one thing I really missed on the other side of the Atlantic it was the European quality and variety of cheese.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#587Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#588Earlier 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.
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#589Earlier quoted context omitted.
In some cases the cheaper Aldi products is the same as the more expensive product from another store. When I was younger there was no difference between olé’s chocolate and Leo with the exception of the package. It was the same taste and factory producing them.
If you have a thing for Girl Scout cookies, the Aldi generics taste just the same for a fraction of the price
Re: Aldi, a brutally efficient grocery chain, is upending America's supermarkets
#590Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re barcodes, in Germany, in the beginning, the cashiers were trained enough that they could actually enter the UPC from memory faster than scanning the item. Later, they added the barcodes on all sides which increased the speed even more. The quarter in the cart thing is very common in Germany even at high end supermarkets. The higher overhead compared to the US makes it very hard to higher people for this kind of jo…
They didn't enter the barcodes from memory, they entered the price of the item from memory. That alone is a feat, though.
Side-effect: I would have cleaned up on "The Price is Right" if they'd let a kid on the show, since I knew what everything cost.