
Where Wal-Mart Failed, Aldi Succeeds (2011) - Tomte
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/business/30aldi.html?pagewanted=all
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mdip
I'm an Aldi _junkie_. All of my grocery shopping and most of my _other_
shopping that can be done at Aldi is done there and I've been doing that since
before they started taking credit cards (credit cards were recently added in
March or so of this year).

I switched to this behavior after analysing my grocery bills -- family of 6 --
and discovering that they seemed to be an outsized portion of our budget.
Generally, I don't have time to coupon (and I don't subscribe to news papers
so finding coupons online was my only option). After analysing a few bills
from Kroger, I discovered that basically any item that wasn't purchased with a
coupon or wasn't on sale "with card" that month was marked up to "full price".
We switch to Meijer (a Wal _mart like chain) and found our bills drop,
generally, by about 20% because items, when averaged, were priced lower. I had
avoided Aldi because I had the impression that they were "lousy quality", but
out of desperation, we tried it. What we discovered was that _everything* we
ordered was less than the lowest price we could find elsewhere. Aldi shopping
generally involves buying "Aldi brands", which were "hit with a little miss"
\-- the kids love the Chicken Nuggets (more than Costco's brand) and we all
hated their maple syrup. On produce, though, was where the biggest surprises
were. My kids _fight_ over grapes and Aldi carried them at the lowest price,
and _only_ carried the small green or small red grapes (we're partial to
green). Small grapes are sweeter and these are these taste like candy. That
pattern repeated with every fruit, vegetable, and meat (we can't find pork
chops this good at any of the general grocers). Some things, like the cheap-o
frozen pizzas that I'm partial to, are larger and less expensive (Momma Cosi's
brand is $2.50 or less and compares with Tony's Pizza at $3.00 or more but the
Aldi pizza is larger and tastes better). I _might_ be able to do better with
coupons, but this saves me _time_ and it reduced by grocery spend by 60%
without affecting the kinds of food I purchase (the kids _prefer_ their knock-
off Coco Krispies and Cinnamon Toast Crunch to the actual brand).

Then there's the shopping experience: some parts of it feel strange to an
American ($0.25 deposit to get a cart being the one you notice immediately --
or having to bring your own bags/bag your own stuff[0]), but once you get past
those small things, the rest of the experience is great. The stores are well
organized and the cashiers are the _fastest_ (they're timed) and check-out is
quick regardless of the length of the line. I've never seen more than two
employees in a store any time I have ever shopped and I'm convinced they run
them on about that many people most of the time, but it doesn't impact
service.

Then there's the non-grocery items. The best blender I own was one I purchased
for $20 from there. I am currently leaning against a $5.00 pillow I purchased
from there and my laptop is sitting on a bamboo "breakfast in bed tray" I got
from there for $10. Last year, they carried the Wanhao i3 printer (same as
Maker Select v2 from Monoprice) and I picked up two Broadlink WiFi plugs for
$5.00/piece on the 50% off rack in January of this year.

[0] If you're a "go green" type and have discovered that those reusable bags
require an obscene amount of use before they cover the environmental cost you
can do what I do: every Aldi I have ever visited has a storage area for empty
boxes somewhere near the front. Take as many as you need and use them to get
your things home. They also have no problem with you consolidating boxes on
the shelves to get extras. I haven't brought a bag into Aldi in over a year
because I find it more convenient to use the boxes -- they fit more, they
stack better in the car and make it easier to unload everything when you get
home.

