Seen as having bad standards compared to other EU chains, but a shining star by comparison to basically every chain in the USA
I don't know that I would agree with that, what's your metric for standards which sets Aldi above every other chain in the USA?
Aldi's great, don't get me wrong, I love several of their business decisions such as the quarter for a cart, allowing customers to take excess boxes to reduce clean up, and they let their cashiers sit. That said, they are an overstock/discount/outlet style store and don't reliably have the exact product you might want. If you're looking for good prices they will generally have something you want, but it might be a different brand or style. In my mind it's like a Ross, Marshals, or TJ Maxx but for groceries. Another plus is that Aldi has interesting items not typically seen at other stores such as German or European items.
Other people in these comments mentioned that their Aldi looks nice while having good prices, but the 4 Aldi's near me look like they are still in the 1990s. Other USA brands more reliably have staple items but might be more expensive. Publix, Harris Teeter, Kroger, Whole Foods, and Fresh Market are definitely nicer than Aldi in quality. Food Lion and similar stores are comparable quality and maybe just slightly more expensive, and then the Aldi clones are there too (Lidl, Trader Joes, etc).
actually from what i understand aldi isn’t an overstock kinda place: their brands are all in-house brands, but they go to big manufacturers and say you can whitelabel your product for us and get exclusive access to our shelves or we will go to your competitor
it’s often the same brand products that are 2x the price everywhere else but without the marketing and mark up that comes with
in australia i’ve never really had an issue with aldi not having stock of anything - unless you’re looking for brand name things, but that’s not really what aldi is about
That's really interesting, I wasn't aware of that. The reason I assumed it was overstock because they don't consistently have the same things and things they have will be weirdly specific. For example, the last time I went to Aldi (probably 2 weeks ago) they had a cooler full of pizzas from one brand that were all buffalo chicken and ranch. Looking at the online stock for my normal store they have 4 varieties of stuffed crust frozen pizza, two varieties of thin crust, and one variety of plain crust.
As for being out of stock, it's rare that they will be completely out but rather they won't have the option you got last time. For example the last time I went they had fettuccine but not spaghetti. I also like the german options (especially the Deutsche Küche soups), last time I went they had spaetzle and soup but looking online now they don't have either.
I wonder if this is a US Aldi specific thing?
I love several of their business decisions such as the quarter for a cart, allowing customers to take excess boxes to reduce clean up, and they let their cashiers sit.
I find this comment hilarious since all the things you’ve described are commonplace in all supermarkets across most of Europe, and you’re talking about them like they’re some innovation of Aldi’s.
Fun fact: Aldi are basically the only supermarket chain where they don't force their staff to stand up, and provide all cashiers with chairs
That's so weird. I simply see no reason why all the other US-chains force their employees to stand behind the counter.
Cruelty is the point. Once again.
Boomers think that workers being miserable is good customer service.
the whole point of having minimum wage staff is for boomers to torture people, Karen cant wank unless she yells at an overworked single mother who has not sat down in 7 hours.
We need to bring back right to sit laws in the US. They were passed in most states in the early 20th century, but most have been repealed with time and the general decline of labor rights. Those laws also were sexist and only applied to women. But we could absolutely use gender-neutral right to sit laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_sit_in_the_United_States
Fun Fact: Around 30 years ago, Walmart tried to get into the German market and got completely obliterated.
Then the German discounters counterattacked and the rest is history.
Fun Fact2: This is just Aldi Süd(South). Aldi Nord(North) is also active in the US as Trader Joe.
Add on fun fact: Aldi South and North ~~are~~ were owned separately by 2 brothers from Germany.
Edit: updated to past tense. Thank you kind stranger below to note that the 2 brothers are no longer alive
Listened to ‘No Such Thing as a Fish’ segment about them just recently. Original Aldi in general was founded on being frugal, but one of the brothers was so stingy that he didn't want to sell cigarettes, considering that they would get stolen. They parted ways over that, which led to the two separate chains.
were. They're both dead by now. It's now owned by their children.
A store you can quickly get in and out of with a variety of everyday items at a reasonable price that seems to pay its employees well. What's not too love?
Also, several in my area have implemented self checkouts that don't bitch you out for every single item. I can scan everything from my cart and bag it up later at a counter or my car if the weather's nice.
Also lets cashiers sit down.
Boomers are actively finding a way to be offended by that as we speak. "Back in my day, we stood on iron floor pads in slip persistent shoes for 12 hours a day and offered service with a smile!"
I’m a (spanish) boomer. I reported one of my bosses to my company health & safety comission because the bastard physically removed our chairs (I was a bank teller at that time). He was reprimanded, the chairs were put back in their places and the guy hated me deeply for the months we had to work together.
I was (still am) member of an union, btw. And that made a difference.
They already were offended by it fifteen years ago when I worked retail. Sitting on the clock looks "lazy", according to my first boss.
~~Boomers~~
Oppressors.
This is a class war, not a generational one. Don't let the king convince the torch wielders that their enemy is the pitchfork wielders.
And soon, this too will become unaffordable. Tax, the super rich. After a couple hundred years I don't think the trickle down economy experimental has worked. Not there, not anywhere.
Growth is stupid way of comparing…
Growth is only relevant for stock hodlers
(Not real numbers)
AkA 0.1% -> 1.5% 🥳1500% growth
50% -> 75% 😒 only 50% growth
"Last year, its stores attracted 924 million visits, making it the third-most visited supermarket in America after Kroger and Publix." Later on the article says there are 1 billion visits annually, so it seems that Aldi had 10% of footfall, which is pretty impressive penetration.
"Aldi gets almost as much penetration as your mom."
Yes, and in a saturated market like supermarket retail, “fastest growing” is mathematically guaranteed to be a company without so much penetration.
Also the article is a blatant advertorial for Aldi cooked up as a way of advertising on Reddit/Lemmy without having to pay. Don’t upvote it.
they're really efficient and cheap in my experience. they sell no-bullshit products. they don't spend much money on advertisement so they don't have to add that money to their expenses and therefore prices.
supermarkets make most money with highly-processed foods. every processing step adds another middleman that wants a slice of the price and that already increases the price, so you pay $5 instead of $2 for the raw products, and then the supermarket thinks "well, let's add a 10% profit margin" and makes that price $5.50 instead of $2.20, thereby further increasing the difference in prices. aldi mostly sells basic products that are not so heavily processed (at least where i live) so there's not much extra costs there.
They also let the cashier sit down...
Best kettle cooked potato chip on the market, less than $2. Their peanut butter is better than Jif, Skippy, or Peter Pan, and it's only about $3. Mayo is exactly the same as Hellman's, at less than $4. Great French Bread Pizzas for $3, and you don't have to add more cheese and pepperoni when you get home.
Lots of great chocolates, cheese, snacks, etc. I know someone who has a charcuterie catering biz, and she sources EVERYTHING at Aldi, including the serving trays and utensils.
There's the occasional dud, but almost everything is first rate, and much cheaper.
Yeah I get almost everything from Aldi because the quality is consistently comparable to name-brand while being significantly cheaper. Its also nice that the stores are so small so you can focus more on shopping and less on getting through the store itself
There's a few items where I do prefer from other stores (particularly meats and fresh fruits/veggies as the Aldi ones tend to go off faster and are lower quality) but generally I'll hit Aldi, then my local grocery store for the last couple of items from my list, thereby keeping me well-within my grocery budget and getting the best of both worlds. Plus I can usually get it all done within about an hour thanks to only needing to hit a couple of isles in the big grocery store
Lived in multiple countries and had an Aldi close in them all. The quality and variety does differ. In particular the quality of the meat and fresh produce and I agree state to state can provide a disparity. I suppose that can be hard to imagine if you are used to a consistent Aldi.
There are quite a few staples that I liked they were very cheap in comparison to the bigger stores. In particular the chocolate, kettle crisps, cheese twists etc.
I also found it helpful for stocking up when budgeting. Each Jan I would go buy the giant soap powder, dishwasher tabs, hand wash, toothpaste kitchen roll, olive oil, anything that could be stored in the garage. This stopped me visiting the other stores so much and spending on junk.
Cheapest eggs I’ve seen. Not everything is great quality. But, for certain items I’ll make the extra stop.
The Aldis around here look upscale, but they sell mostly store brands. So, a discount grocery store for people who don't want to feel poor? I can't tell if the quality is better than any other discount grocer. I do like their peanut butter cereal.
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