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Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

chargedretail.co.uk

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Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#101

Post by INTPenis »

megaframe wrote: post #68

I don't get how they plan to compete, do they have chip designers? or deals with SOC manufacturers because AWS/Google/Microsoft are fast because of custom chips that link NVMe directly to the NIC and skip the CPU and some of the network stack

This is clickbait. That's why it says Lidl instead of Schwarz Group. Everyone in Europe knows Lidl and find it amusing that they would run a cloud service. Which means they'll click the link.

In reality it's a major german business group who plans to get into IT services with a recent acquisition. They have none of the experience that AWS or GCP have acquired in the last 6-10 years.

They'll do their best and I honestly hope it works out because I want to see more European cloud providers compete with american ones.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#102

Post by verst »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #93
barbecue_sauce wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only been to Lidls in the US, but their stores seem pretty streamlined to me.

In Germany, their store managers do inventory manually, which means they have to order items they run low on, no tech insight. Their attempt at setting up SAP failed after burning 500 million on it. Delivery robots, Amazon-style prototypes for cashier-less systems, heck, even Instacart like delivery are nowhere to be found. If Amazon decided to enter the German supermarket landscape, Lidl (also, Aldi and others) woul…

Trader Joe's in the US is owned by Aldi Nord. How come Trader Joe's is doing well here in the US despite Amazon?

I don't know anything about the operations and logistics of Trader Joe's but from a consumer perspective the stores seem very streamlined. In many ways it reminds me of Lidl in Germany (more so than Aldi).

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#103

Post by ljf »

benjohnson1707 wrote: post #96

Former Schwarz employee here: The company made SO much money in the past 4 decades with big box / discount retailing, you won't believe it. Salaries are off the charts (it would make senior software engineers in SV look pale). Hubris is as well. The only thing that drives reasoning are statements like 'we're not just some random company, we're Schwarz Group'. It's the poster child Corp described by Andy Gorves statem…

I was running a stall at a graduate careers fair and was amazed at the interest both Aldi and Lidl were getting.

Both had amazing starting salaries - I think Aldi was £48k rising to £70k over 3 years if you went on the area manager scheme. Plus a car. The teams there were so enthusiastic and energised and appeared to really really enjoy their jobs.

I am impressed by any company that consistently looks after their staff financially and otherwise.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#104

Post by Semaphor »

mhast wrote: post #87
TomMarius wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is maybe not world class, but compared to other options in EU, it's first class

I have never been in a Lidl Store I would consider "first class". It's not bad products but they have a few factors that severely limit the impressions. They mostly only carry their own brand with extremely limited options. If you want orange marmalade they have one style from one brand (their own). If you want some other style, find a different store. (This is the case with most of their items besides a small additi…

This has been my experience with all discounters in Germany. Maybe it’s because 100% of my meals are cooked from scratch, but none of the discounters can get me what I want/need as well as REWE can.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#105

Post by TomMarius »

mhast wrote: post #87
TomMarius wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is maybe not world class, but compared to other options in EU, it's first class

I have never been in a Lidl Store I would consider "first class". It's not bad products but they have a few factors that severely limit the impressions. They mostly only carry their own brand with extremely limited options. If you want orange marmalade they have one style from one brand (their own). If you want some other style, find a different store. (This is the case with most of their items besides a small additi…

Seems like your country's Lidl lags behind mine's. They solved all these drawbacks in the last few years here in Czechia, including really nice reconstructions of the shopping spaces.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#106

Post by kleiba »

SparklingCotton wrote: post #99

Many good reasons why this would work in Europe. - Logistics in Germany is awesome, and Amazon really doesn't have a leg up on the already existing logistics solutions there. - For a cloud provider, negotiating deals now when AMD is on the rise must be perfect. - Beating AWS on EC2 pricing is easy. AWS EC2 pricing is insanely expensive. German providers like Hetzner Cloud entered the market at 1/10th of the EC2 price…

Right. Plus, let's not forget the legal implications for the companies that will be able to keep their data within Europe.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#107

Post by purerandomness »

estsauver wrote: post #94
markvdb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rather see them cancelling SAP as a positive sign. They seem to know what they are doing...

They cancelled their SAP integration after dropping 500 million euros... It might be a sign they're moving in the right direction, but it also tells me they are transitioning from a board and executive team that felt that was the right path quite recently.

They tried to integrate the business into SAP for seven years. Which still is fairly recently in non-startup terms, but I agree it's still a great sign they decided to cut the losses instead of falling for the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#108

Post by wolfgke »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #93
barbecue_sauce wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only been to Lidls in the US, but their stores seem pretty streamlined to me.

In Germany, their store managers do inventory manually, which means they have to order items they run low on, no tech insight. Their attempt at setting up SAP failed after burning 500 million on it. Delivery robots, Amazon-style prototypes for cashier-less systems, heck, even Instacart like delivery are nowhere to be found. If Amazon decided to enter the German supermarket landscape, Lidl (also, Aldi and others) woul…

> If Amazon decided to enter the German supermarket landscape, Lidl (also, Aldi and others) would be in serious trouble.

I doubt that since I think that Amazon's vision is very different from what many German customers want. Here is a (German) text of a German blogger who went to Amazon Books in the Empire State Building. His experience was not positive:

> https://www.danisch.de/blog/2019/06/18/ein-seltsamer-einkauf...

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#109

Post by londons_explore »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #93
barbecue_sauce wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only been to Lidls in the US, but their stores seem pretty streamlined to me.

In Germany, their store managers do inventory manually, which means they have to order items they run low on, no tech insight. Their attempt at setting up SAP failed after burning 500 million on it. Delivery robots, Amazon-style prototypes for cashier-less systems, heck, even Instacart like delivery are nowhere to be found. If Amazon decided to enter the German supermarket landscape, Lidl (also, Aldi and others) woul…

In the UK, discounted or damaged items have a special sticker meaning "discounted to £0.70". That sticker has a barcode on, and is what is scanned at the checkout.

That means they have no way to know which items were sold, since all those discount stickers are the same, no matter what item they were affixed to.

Given that, I don't see any way they could do decent stock control in-store. If you don't know what went out the door, you don't know what needs to be restocked.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#110

Post by eb0la »

SparklingCotton wrote: post #99

Many good reasons why this would work in Europe. - Logistics in Germany is awesome, and Amazon really doesn't have a leg up on the already existing logistics solutions there. - For a cloud provider, negotiating deals now when AMD is on the rise must be perfect. - Beating AWS on EC2 pricing is easy. AWS EC2 pricing is insanely expensive. German providers like Hetzner Cloud entered the market at 1/10th of the EC2 price…

Also, retailers don't like AWS. For them using AWS is gifting money to your biggest natural predator.
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