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).
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.
They’re not so much “innovations” but rather just frugal decisions in my opinion. By doing the quarter for a cart thing they insure people return their carts to the front without an employee. In other stores an employee just goes to collect them from the lot. By allowing people to take the boxes you reduce the number of bags used at checkout and you need less employees to remove the boxes from the shelves.
These aren’t ground breaking ideas, they are things which make sense in a capitalist world to minimize costs while being efficient. That said they are also contributing factors to why Aldi feels like a discount store in comparison to other stores. As a consumer I don’t mind the extra hurdles going to Aldi evokes, but if I’m going to Aldi I already am taking a step down in “quality” by US terms.
I’m struggling to see where the person you replied you ever suggested that it was Aldi’s original idea. It was Aldi’s decision to keep those things, which are common in Europe, in a market where it is not common (US).
Sure, and the point I’m making is that it’s amusing to see from the perspective of anyone for whom those things are the standard. I didn’t say they said anything, I said they were talking about it as though it was an innovation.
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.
Except that Aldi US has different worker rights from it’s European locations. Basically they have what is required by their local jurisdictions and that’s about it.
They got rid of DEI language when the administration changed, employment is at-will in at-will states (you can be fired without cause), Time off is only guaranteed if the state requires it to be (unlike in Europe; doing a bit of research US Aldi typically offers 7 days of leave compared to 29 in the UK), healthcare is tied to the job just like the rest of the US, and they don’t have a corporate minimum wage so it’s just market competitive.
Let me know if you know something about the US Aldi that I am missing, but as I understand it basically the only thing going for US Aldi is they let their cashiers sit down.
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).
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.
They’re not so much “innovations” but rather just frugal decisions in my opinion. By doing the quarter for a cart thing they insure people return their carts to the front without an employee. In other stores an employee just goes to collect them from the lot. By allowing people to take the boxes you reduce the number of bags used at checkout and you need less employees to remove the boxes from the shelves.
These aren’t ground breaking ideas, they are things which make sense in a capitalist world to minimize costs while being efficient. That said they are also contributing factors to why Aldi feels like a discount store in comparison to other stores. As a consumer I don’t mind the extra hurdles going to Aldi evokes, but if I’m going to Aldi I already am taking a step down in “quality” by US terms.
My point is that these weren’t Aldi’s ideas to begin with.
I’m struggling to see where the person you replied you ever suggested that it was Aldi’s original idea. It was Aldi’s decision to keep those things, which are common in Europe, in a market where it is not common (US).
Not
That is the point they are making.
Sure, and the point I’m making is that it’s amusing to see from the perspective of anyone for whom those things are the standard. I didn’t say they said anything, I said they were talking about it as though it was an innovation.
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?
In the sense of Workers Rights
I don’t care about the rest
Except that Aldi US has different worker rights from it’s European locations. Basically they have what is required by their local jurisdictions and that’s about it.
They got rid of DEI language when the administration changed, employment is at-will in at-will states (you can be fired without cause), Time off is only guaranteed if the state requires it to be (unlike in Europe; doing a bit of research US Aldi typically offers 7 days of leave compared to 29 in the UK), healthcare is tied to the job just like the rest of the US, and they don’t have a corporate minimum wage so it’s just market competitive.
Let me know if you know something about the US Aldi that I am missing, but as I understand it basically the only thing going for US Aldi is they let their cashiers sit down.
I think I am just really far behind on shit tbh, I had no idea about that shit