Serioisly some bomb stuff and brands you cant get at walmart and the like, often cheaper and higher quality than name brand shit
According to the founding myth, the original inspiration behind Aldi were military logistics. The whole thing was designed to be efficient.
Only stock predictably fast-selling stuff, for easier logistics and less warehousing. Don’t stock wares into shelves, just dump the whole pallet or box on the floor to save on labor costs. Sell only your own generic brands so you can dump your supplier for a cheaper one. No big advertising campaigns, just print some leaflets and distribute them yourself. And then they massively expanded to benefit from economies of scale.
In Germany, in response to this, the competition created their own Aldi-style discounters with mostly identical prices and on average roughly equivalent quality, which are now everywhere. The other successful strategy is what Rewe did: This supermarket chain copied some of Aldi’s approach to cost-cutting, and is now a bit of a hybrid between a traditional supermarket and a discounter. Importantly, they offer similar price and quality own-brand product for most things an Aldi would sell, while also selling more expensive alternatives and having a larger inventory. Why go to Aldi when you can get same price/quality as Aldi, but also this thing and that other thing Aldi doesn’t have? No need to go to multiple stores.
Meanwhile Aldi and Lidl have expanded their inventory and become more supermarket-like themselves (my guess is computerized logistics made this easier to do cheaply, and they have to compete with Rewe).
One other thing that happened is that these very large chains can squeeze their suppliers with their massive buying power. They basically suck all the profit from the supply chain for the benefit of just a couple of superrich families (though this also happened in other markets with e.g. Walmart in the US.) Oh and they are militantly anti-union, but again the whole industry is.
We don’t have Aldi here, but Lidl is my go to grocery store, especially after they did the ultimate
move of dropping the price of every vegan product.You really can’t beat Lidl when your shopping list is something like:
- Bread
- Cheese
- Milk
- Eggs
- Kayak
- Plasma cutter
The staff all seem pretty relaxed too, the cashiers have seats and chat to pretty much everyone, but especially the older regulars. I know they squeeze their supply chain hard, but from the customer perspective it’s a pretty good experience.
Aldi and Lidl are my go to places to shop. They have a surprising number of vegan options
I like aldi the price and quality seems good and that is a good trade for selection. Honestly I prefer the more narrow selection it feels more honest somehow. Also, I like that they let their cashier’s sit. It is probably one of my favorite grocery places. I don’t have a costco conviently near me. At least for the one where I am I get a little bit of the same vibes.
Also, I like that they let their cashier’s sit.
My god would I have hated work significantly less if I could have sat down when I was working the register.
I was dating a girl that got like, clinical level foot damage from working at a place that didn’t have proper standing mats.
I could totally see it. I had the mats luckily and I wore NewBalances with 2 stacks of gels and thick gym socks. I also worked the deli counter. Since I was the only one that could lift the big logs of meats and cheese they always had me cleaning and refreshing the backbar area (basically an open fridge you load from the top and sits about waist height). I remember saving my breaks for when the searing pain in my feet and back was just about to make me drop. Fucking 8.25/hr. I stole EVERYTHING I could.
It’s cheap as fuck and they let the cashiers sit down, which is incredibly rare in amerikkka
I don’t have personal experience, but from what I gather they work their employees to the bone. Everybody in there is expected to do all the jobs at a fast pace. The cashiers are expected to work incredibly fast, and if the register is slow, they close it down even for a couple of minutes and have the employees do something else. Pay (in Germany) is above average for cashiers, but there’s been some serious union-busting fuckery at Aldi and Lidl that’s actually quite shocking by German standards. Lidl (maybe Aldi as well?) are surprisingly in favor of a higher minimum wage, because they need less workers than the competition thanks to labor-saving procedures, and that would give them a competitive edge. It sounds alienating as fuck.
Of course it was too good to be true
Aldi where i live raised their wages to a minimum of $23/hr, significantly above minimum. They do work hard though, and the speed at which they chuck your shit into the cart when they scan it is a meme
They have the most fruitful dumpsters, and also usually the best prices.
it’s p good, but i have one complaint, which is that i am a US customer, but apparently in Spain and Portugal Aldi they have these charming blue puppet mascots named Al and Di and in the UK they have Kevin the Carrot and his produce friends, whereas we have nothing but asshole security guards that harass homeless people. Please replace the rentas with puppets Aldi!
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
They have an especially great selection for cheese. The only place I can find reasonably priced Brie and Camembert
Ancient mysteries explained: The middle aisle in Aldi
I love this guy. And Aldi is dope, so is WinCo.
Winco is amazing because it’s also employee owned.
he’s underrated on da hex
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Aldi is name brand quality stuff with a generic price point.
I get most of my condiments there. Their produce is okay but I’ll get it on sale. For essentials they’re usually a dollar cheaper and high quality. They’re also some of the few stores that still do a heavy discount on almost expired food. Walmart only knocks off 25% but I’ve seen Aldi go as high as 75% before. I got 4lbs of really high quality chicken there before for $3.50. Cheapest Tofu and eggs around. Cheese is more expensive for some reason. Same with name-brand chips although their own chips are really good and decently priced.
The only problem I have is that I could have even more savings if I bought stuff in bulk but they only seem to carry smaller portions. I wouldn’t even car if they’re the same price per ounce, I just don’t want 5 bottles of mustard in my pantry when one big one would do.
every time i get meat at the local aldi i can only count on it being edible for like 3 days tops, so i rarely buy my chicken there, but everything else has been good.
If I didn’t pre-cut and freeze it than I wouldn’t buy more than a dinner’s worth at a time. Luckily the fridge the previous tenant left behind had one or else I’d be screwed lol.
bit of hedacanon worldbuilding: i like to imagine the next great european war happening along these lines: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Aldi_branches_in_Europe.svg
Loves me an Aldis. I kinda like the limited choices? Sure it can be annoying when I gotta add a couple stops to get the less common indredients or the “no really you gotta get the name brand” stuff but are many fewer avenues for self-doubt in one of those places. They have lots of nifty useful things in that limited time offer aisle, I got a sonic toothbrush for 20 bucks there, so that was neat. The frozen pizzas are pretty good but like actually why are there 20-25 varieties there? Its kinda fucking insane like pizza is the easiest thing to add your own shit to why are there so many different kinds?
I will say, that a lot of the produce is very hit or miss and the bread all kinda sucks dick unless its that cinnamon swirl dessert shit.
i dont think ive even seen one of those kraut stores in passing lmao
far away from me but worth the trip. for just myself (since my partner works away from home for long stretches) I can drop $100 and have enough food for almost 2 weeks.
meanwhile the chain i work for is like 50-70 just for less then a dozen items
only big negative is how items just come and go. found a water flavor enhancer that was amazing and unique and once it was sold it never came back
