71–80 of 274 posts
Known as employing Germany's fastest typing cashiers Aldi introduced this quite late compared to other grocery stores. They experimented for many years to get the same speed and the result where these huge and multiple barcodes per package.
Visited Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I am sorry but I can't help hating those stores. It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. And then the whole experience with the cashier is hyper stressful and they are so blinding fast at scanning the groceries. It is like you are subject to some German Blitzkrieg or something. Interesting with the article that they explained why it was so fast.…
Can I ask which part of Germany you've been to – or rather which Aldi (Nord or Süd)? There's a surprising amount of difference between the two and I've always found one of them far nicer than the other.
Visited Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I am sorry but I can't help hating those stores. It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. And then the whole experience with the cashier is hyper stressful and they are so blinding fast at scanning the groceries. It is like you are subject to some German Blitzkrieg or something. Interesting with the article that they explained why it was so fast.…
Then why go there? Normally, you enter most stores by choice, so after a couple of (negative) experiences, just stop visiting them.
Can't speak for all Aldi and Lidl stores (not even in all of The Netherlands), but in my hometown a new Lidl store is actually better than just looking cheap and barebones. Wide aisles (sp?), less garbage of empty boxes and packaging material, friendly staff, great parking space. And still you're not paying for additional services and special/luxury items (which aren't there).
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Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. You unlock the cart by sliding in a quarter so you can use it while shopping. Since people want their quarter back they have to return the cart to the store. Great solution to eliminate a bag boy sweeping up carts from the lot all day IMO. Also way back when ALDI didn't even have barcode scanners to save money. There was a person typ…
>> Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. You unlock the cart by sliding in a quarter so you can use it while shopping. I must admit that the first thing I did after observing this new system was to test whether the chain was long enough to "lock" the cart to itself and get the quarter back without returning the cart. Try it for yourself ;)
Visited Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I am sorry but I can't help hating those stores. It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. And then the whole experience with the cashier is hyper stressful and they are so blinding fast at scanning the groceries. It is like you are subject to some German Blitzkrieg or something. Interesting with the article that they explained why it was so fast.…
I am not dismissing your concerns, but I've had the opposite issues going to the US where everyone is super chatty, seemingly needy, and slow.
You go into a store and they yell at you "DO YOU NEED SOMETHING" uhh, no, I'm sorry I came in to look around, is that a crime? The waiting staff return to your table every 30 seconds, and the cashiers are more interested in your life story than how you want your bags packed.
Aldi and Lidl are hyper-efficient. Sure, there's no bells and whistles, but all that stuff does is distract you from the goods on display that seem to rotate much more frequently than typical supermarkets (so you cannot just shop mindlessly).
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> Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. Wait, there are supermarkets that don't have that? How does it work? Do people just leave the shopping carts standing around on the parking lot? Not cynical, geniunely wondering how that works. Anyway, afaik virtually all supermarkets in Europe have that system. I'm pretty sure Aldi didn't invent it.
In the majority of US supermarkets, there are receptacles in the parking lot for carts. You just find the nearest one and push it in there and leave it after loading your car. It saves a trip back to the store. Later, a store employee will push a line of 20+ carts back all together to the store.
(Supermarkets also sell branded versions of the fake coins for customers too accustomed to arriving with no spare change for a trolley)
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> Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. Wait, there are supermarkets that don't have that? How does it work? Do people just leave the shopping carts standing around on the parking lot? Not cynical, geniunely wondering how that works. Anyway, afaik virtually all supermarkets in Europe have that system. I'm pretty sure Aldi didn't invent it.
The stores in the US mostly have metal "Cart Corrals" where you return the cart. They send out someone to collect them every now and again. This keeps the carts away from the cars, so you don't get dents. But of course, there's always a few lazy people who just leave them all over the place, or (my favorite) launch them towards the corral and turn their back and walk away as the cart careens off-course. Aldi's system…
Visited Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I am sorry but I can't help hating those stores. It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. And then the whole experience with the cashier is hyper stressful and they are so blinding fast at scanning the groceries. It is like you are subject to some German Blitzkrieg or something. Interesting with the article that they explained why it was so fast.…
I agree they are sometimes too fast for you, but when you're a student the savings are well worth it, often half the price of a normal supermarket
How's the food inflation nowadays? A couple years back it seemed like all the frozen items were huge boxes with lots of empty air in there.
So I eat junk food occasionally, usually end up regretting it ... unlike the local supermarket at an expensive $3.33 for a bag of 40 name brand pizza rolls, I could buy a large box of generic pizza rolls at Aldi for only $2.50 ... woo hoo sounds awesome ... containing 17 rolls. Oh maybe not so good of a deal. It was funny to look at frozen appetizers where there would be this big box of breaded mushrooms and in tiny print "qty 5" and so on. I seem to recall a big box with 3 mozzarella cheese sticks.
BTW I don't photographic memorize prices, the above prices were verified via google.
Much as I'm not rich enough to shop at walmart, I'm not rich enough to shop at Aldi.
Admittedly, the produce had little selection (food desert style) but what little was there, was good quality and cheap, so its not all bad.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. You unlock the cart by sliding in a quarter so you can use it while shopping. Since people want their quarter back they have to return the cart to the store. Great solution to eliminate a bag boy sweeping up carts from the lot all day IMO. Also way back when ALDI didn't even have barcode scanners to save money. There was a person typ…
> Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. Wait, there are supermarkets that don't have that? How does it work? Do people just leave the shopping carts standing around on the parking lot? Not cynical, geniunely wondering how that works. Anyway, afaik virtually all supermarkets in Europe have that system. I'm pretty sure Aldi didn't invent it.
In Chicago, some places have a little square outside the main entrance with posts too narrow to fit a shopping cart through, or an "invisible fence" system that locks up the wheels if the carts are brought past a certain line. In that case you have to bring your car around to the loading area and the cart always stays inside the perimeter.
Aldi and Lidl are blasting through other super market chains with their low cost, high quality goods. If there were ever perfect case studies for usurping incumbents in a sharply competitive market Aldi and Lidl are it.
Yes, and no. In the UK, I'm glad that Aldi and Lidl are challenging the larger supermarkets, but I would hate to see a situation where a race to the bottom on price means consumers have less choice across the entire supermarket sector. By choice I don't mean 20 brands of ketchup, I mean - to give just one example - a wide variety of herbs and spices for instance. (In my local Aldi and Lidl, they rarely have more than ten.)
Plus, UK supermarkets are a bit more flexible in catering to local shoppers. You'll often find South Asian/African/Chinese/Carribean/Polish goods stocked in the supermarket to reflect the local population.
Also, the discount supermarkets don't always treat suppliers any better than their larger counterparts. Last year, milk farmers in the UK protested against supermarkets that were paying them less than the cost of producing milk. Lidl and Aldi were among the supermarkets implicated. (To their credit, both Lidl and Aldi and other supermarkets agreed to raise the price they paid for milk as a result of the farmer's protest). Irish farmers also protested against Lidl and Aldi's low milk prices last year too.
In Germany, where Aldi and Lidl dominate the supermarket sector, there is far less product choice in the supermarket sector because of course the key to their low prices and profitability is fewer stock lines. I hope the supermarket landscape in the UK doesn't turn into something similar.