
The All American Aldi - briandear
https://www.theawl.com/2017/12/the-all-american-aldi/
======
linkmotif
There’s a lot wrong with this piece, starting from the subhead:

> unfriendly German efficiency.

Aldis are some of the friendliest grocery stores I know. Their employees
always seems happier than employees other places. And my guess is because they
treat them well. The stores close at a reasonable hours, are always closed on
holidays. My guess is they pay employees reasonably too, because the job
postings always list decent seeming wages.

> In New York City, the company’s only location (for now) is on 117th on the
> banks of the East River.

Unless Queens is no longer in New York City, there has been and Aldi in Rego
Park for years now. It’s a pretty good one too, right by Q train and Queens
Mall.

> If you are at Aldi, it’s because you needed groceries and you went out to
> get them, not because you were tempted in by a cute box of chocolates,

Nonsense! What a bunch of BS this line. They sell awesome seasonal assortments
of cookies and chocolates of all varieties, imported from Germany or USA
local.

> The fact that Aldi is only starting to make concessions to US norms

What norms? Like giving all your money back to the man as soon as you get it?

And on and on and on this article.

The Awl... :( everything they touch is classist. Here they survey the poors
who shop for food and their sad grocery store. Gross.

~~~
tptacek
"The poors"? Grocery stores in black and (particularly) latino neighborhoods
in Chicago --- ie, the poorest neighborhoods --- are nothing like this
description of Aldi, or any Aldi or TJ's I've ever been in. Most have better
produce than Whole Foods, a giant meat counter, and minimal, off-brand
packaged foods. You cannot buy a $3 bottle of richly floral dark extra virgin
olive oil at Del Rancho Market, and the greens are not shrinkwrapped in
plastic.

I'm sure the demographics of Aldi customers is sharply lower-income than that
of Whole Foods, but I dispute the idea that Aldi gets to play the standard-
bearer of the working class.

~~~
kasey_junk
Aldi has a pretty good penetration in working class Chicago neighborhoods and
unlike Whole Foods or Mariano’s that’s not new.

I don’t know what it means to be a standard bearer of the working class for a
grocery store but Aldis has for a long time gone places others don’t & more
notably stocked the same stuff in those locations as their more well heeled
locations. That’s fairly rare for a national (or even large regional) chain.

I’d add that I find the description of Aldis as dingy & lowlight not matching
my experience now or in the past.

~~~
tptacek
I don't know what those words mean either. I guess I would just push back on
the idea that a criticism of Aldi is necessarily a criticism of grocery stores
for the working class.

Aldi in Chicago might be a west-side south-side thing? There aren't many south
of Fullerton and west of Kedzie, but there are lots of grocery stores for
black and latino markets, and they don't look (on the inside) that much like
Aldi.

Certainly I don't have a problem with Aldi. They're better than Dominicks was,
and in some ways more admirable as a business than Whole Foods.

~~~
kasey_junk
(Shrug) the Aldis in Woodlawn was far and away the nicest grocery store in the
neighborhood. I never noticed a tremendous difference between it and other
grocery stores other than the “Moo & Oink” which was weird in its own special
way.

~~~
tptacek
no shrugs we must litigate this to its full conclusion i'm getting in the car
now

------
freeflight
As a German, this article kinda reads like a misconception about what Aldi is
actually supposed to be and what it's doing right now: It's a discounter,
always has been a discounter and now it's trying to be a "discounter with
class".

You don't go to Aldi to get the biggest selection and all the big brands, you
go to Aldi to pay less for your food because Aldi doesn't spend as much money
on making "everything look nice and have the widest selection" compared to
their competition, at least here in Germany, so they can undercut the
competition with prices.

Recently Aldi Süd has started to change this, even in Germany. Stores are
being renovated and made to look "fancier", with some added selection in
wares, getting closer to other non-discounter supermarkets like Edeka and
Rewe. At this point, Aldi exists on kind of a middle ground between the pure
discounters like Netto and the "brand supermarkets" like Edeka.

------
MrBuddyCasino
A few years ago there was some Aldi anniversary, with accompanying editorial
articles in the newspaper and stuff.

What surprised me was how many poor people expressed their gratitude to Aldi
in the comment sections, saying that few companies did so much to enable them
to life a dignified live by offering cheap but decent quality groceries.

~~~
Roritharr
Aldi is the main reason my (widowed & working) mother was able to budget our
expenses to not let us know how little money we had, that in itself gives me
the same feeling of gratitude.

I've come to realize this later on in life when managing my own finances how
much of an impact shopping at Aldi must have made to my mother. We had good
homecooked food whenever possible, 90% bought from Aldi. I still feel like a
failure sometimes when I check my bank statement and see how much I spend on
food bought elsewhere.

~~~
froindt
>I still feel like a failure sometimes when I check my bank statement and see
how much I spend on food bought elsewhere.

Out of curiosity, why don't you shop there now?

~~~
Roritharr
I do, but not as often as I should.

Convenience and falling prey to marketing gets me to part with my hard earned
cash too easily.

------
fencepost
Perhaps Aldi stores in expensive parts of NYC ("It's not Amazon, it's the
rent" in the last few days....) are dim and cramped like my midwestern mental
image of a NYC bodega, but out here in the great wide open every Aldi I've
been to is brightly lit, with wide aisles and shelving that's not stacked up
to over my head. In a word, bright and roomy.

Aldi isn't a gourmet shop with dozens of varieties of truffle oil, but it
doesn't pretend to be. Instead they have nice, bright, roomy stores that
frankly I'd recommend as a first place to stop for anyone mobility impaired
because everything is reachable (caveat: BYOScooter). It's entirely possible
that some items they sell aren't up to the quality level of top-tier branded
versions of the same thing, but they're decent quality at frequently excellent
prices.

~~~
maxsilver
I think it depends on the age. I'm also in the Midwest, and the two older Aldi
stores here that were built in the 90's are dim and cramped (they're both
still open, and still that way today). They tend to look like this ->
[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNeZx43jXsM/TyoFKEU_9hI/AAAAAAAAKg...](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNeZx43jXsM/TyoFKEU_9hI/AAAAAAAAKg0/f1pPAjF40Go/s1600/aldi.jpg)
and [http://cdn.arn.com.au/media/7139552/aldi-old-
man.jpg](http://cdn.arn.com.au/media/7139552/aldi-old-man.jpg)

But the newer Aldi remodeled stores are bright and roomy and nice. They tend
to look like this -> [https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-
dam/Media_Pages/Store...](https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-
dam/Media_Pages/Store_Images/Full/ALDI_Store_Interior.jpg)

~~~
fencepost
What I was saying about aisle widths and shelf heights even applies to the
older ones I've been in, and I've never been in one that I'd consider dim.

------
southphillyman
I recently got into an online argument with a woman because she claimed that
eating healthy was more expensive than eating fast food or from chinese take
outs . I countered that I feed two adults on $40 a week by shopping on the
perimeter of the market and/or shopping at Aldi's. Cutting my diet down to
basically fresh fruits/vegetables and poultry has really saved me a lot of
money. My local Aldi's has a dozen eggs for less than $1 and I can get 6
chicken wings for $3! Aldi's has really hit the market and improved on the
affordable market concept that places like Save-A-Lot mostly failed on.

~~~
froindt
>My local Aldi's has a dozen eggs for less than $1 and I can get 6 chicken
wings for $3!

Maybe I have a local anomaly in egg prices, but I was picking those up for 37
cents/dozen all summer, then moved to a larger town (also in Iowa) and they
moved up to about 60 cents/dozen.

~~~
psy-q
Wow, U.S. egg pricing seems crazy to me. It's US$ 9.90/dozen in Switzerland at
a normal nationwide store vs. US$ 5.90 at Aldi Suisse (both selling free-range
Swiss eggs).

This can't be explained just by purchase power differences. Considering the
conditions even for Swiss free-range chickens aren't good, are they
particularly terrible for chickens laying 5 cent eggs? I couldn't find any
information (not even pricing) on the Aldi US site.

~~~
froindt
I come from Iowa, which is by a large margin the largest egg producer in the
country. It could be partially a locality thing (very little transportation).

Also of note, this last summer was very very rough for chicken production.
Prices were very low compared to input costs, and chicken farmers were losing
their shirts. Chicken renderers (mass killing of chickens when the price drops
too much) were backed up for many weeks.

[http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-
overview](http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-overview)

~~~
psy-q
That's horrible. I just looked at some farming methods. Man, all the evils of
humanity...

Caging has been illegal in Switzerland since 1992, that probably makes part of
the price difference. So egg collection can be automated easily in a U.S.
process (in states where cages are legal) but is harder to automate here. I
would guess they still use nest boxes so there could theoretically be an
automatic method from the nest box to a conveyor belt. I'll research if
Switzerland hand-collects things, then the wage difference of whoever does
that plus vastly more expensive land could explain the rest of the price.

------
rndmize
> Aldi makes absolutely no effort to tempt through sensual delight. It’s a
> perfect example of spare, unfriendly German efficiency. All the goods are
> displayed on metal racks in their original cardboard shipping containers—no
> labor wasted on display; there are maybe two options for each type of
> product—no shelf space wasted on a tenth variety of cracker that is
> purchased by that one guy every month; employees can be found, more or less
> exclusively, at checkout, where they will ring you up but not provide you
> with bags or, god forbid, bag your groceries for you. Efficiency also
> applies to production, in that almost all the goods are house brands.
> Nothing extraneous comes between product and customer—hence the high quality
> of Aldi goods with incredibly low prices (show me another store with a dark,
> fragrant extra virgin olive oil for three dollars and change).

So... Costco? It feels like there's a lot of other options as far as places to
buy food that the author doesn't seem to know much about.

~~~
TillE
Costcos are enormous warehouses located miles out in the suburbs. Aldi is a
tiny store that you can probably walk to.

------
smhg
As a European it sounds like the article mixes up Aldi Sud and Nord.

Aldi Sud is a wonderful place compared to the (old) Aldi Nord.

I have no idea where/how they source their products, but in-store Aldi Sud
feels quite high quality. With many dietary options and many common brands.

The only real difference to other stores being (almost) one brand per product.
Which makes shopping so easy!

~~~
paulmd
Oddly, it's the other way around in the US. Trader Joe's (Aldi Sud) is upscale
and Aldi (Aldi Nord) is the downscale one (not that it's bad or anything).

~~~
pasbesoin
As I understand it, from a second-hand but reliable recounting, in the foreign
market (outside Germany), the two Aldi's have mostly divided the markets on a
country basis. (One or the other will be present in a country, but not both.)

The large and rich U.S. is the exception, where the Aldi name is used by one
of the two (from other comments here, Aldi Nord, I guess -- oops, another
comment says Sued), while the other (Aldi Sued, then -- or Nord, it seems) is
present through its Trader Joe's mark and model.

By me, the nearest Aldi is a dingy looking affair with a pretty small and
limited selection. I don't mean of brands, but simply of products and produce.
This may be just this particular location, which is kind of out of the way.

Trader Joe's has been very slowly expanding its store base, and those I find
much more useful, though they are still small and don't have the range of
coverage that a supermarket has. I've seen the same employees at those stores
for years -- and years. And gotten to know some of them, to varying degrees.
Their staff stick.

------
desireco42
I find that author tried to make some point but it is completely lost on me.
My Aldi experience or American Supermarket experience differ from what he
describes. Aldi has quality items and you are supposed to do the work of pick
them up and package them. Prices are lower then other places.

Checkout is example of efficiency, I know their checkout people are paid much
better then other places and it is clear why, they scan those things like a
lightning.

~~~
froindt
>...I know their checkout people are paid much better then other places and it
is clear why, they scan those things like a lightning.

I'm an industrial engineer. I love efficiency. I primarily shop at Aldi
because the prices beat anywhere else and I love finding the little things
they do to be efficient.

 _Only a couple employees at a time working, sharing all jobs as needed.

_ Conveyor belts long enough to hold approximately 1 cart of groceries. This
lets everything get queued up for the checker.

 _Leaving the boxes with the product. One waste stream is manged by reuse then
recycling by customers while also avoiding the cost of bags.

_ No local phone number publicly listed. Cuts calls out.

 _Barcode on most sites of product so they don 't need to be in a specific
orientation.

_their POS is setup for speed. They can scan an item and type a quantity
quickly. At other grocery stores I haven't seen this happen (probably
partially because of the large number of similar but not identical items).

 _almost all produce is pre-weighed and price labeled, or by quantity.

_ By having only one of most products, they reduce waste from low-running
products going bad.

*They don't stock every single thing you need. It's a bit annoying to not have Worcestershire sauce when you need it, but in my experience Aldi is nearby other shopping venues.

Also their pricing for spices cannot be beat. It's only about 18 basic spices
carried, but I've never seen a cheaper price per unit.

------
revelation
There are no concessions, they are updating the stores in Europe all the same.
Pictures from very early 2016:

[http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/aldi-mit-neuem-
ladende...](http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/aldi-mit-neuem-ladendesign-
so-sieht-der-edel-aldi-aus/12807568.html#image)

~~~
thesumofall
Indeed - that bothered me about that article as well. Aldi in Germany has
since a while recognized that customer expectations are evolving and that
other supermarkets offer superior “feel” at similarly low prices. Hence the
upgrade. Guess a bit of a similar story as McDonalds’s push for higher
(perceived?) quality

------
em3rgent0rdr
I find fascinating how Aldi split akin to how the Roman Empire split, "The
separate Aldi companies came about 50 years ago: the brothers disagreed about
some business practices and decided to split the company along geographic
lines across Germany."

[https://consumerist.com/2016/08/15/the-family-that-owns-
trad...](https://consumerist.com/2016/08/15/the-family-that-owns-trader-joes-
is-having-a-frugality-war/)

------
tinbad
I haven’t been to an Aldi in the US but the ones I’ve been in Europe have all
been very barebones and the atmosphere reminded somewhat of communist grocery
stores from when I lived in USSR.

Funny notice when I first came to US and visited Trader Joe’s I immediately
wondered if it was owned by Aldi (it is). The concept is very similar (one
product of each, no choice of brands) but executed very differently. Whereas
Aldi is trying to be as cheap as possible, TJ seems to cater to urban
hipsters. And yes, personnel is much friendlier too!

Also, in the Netherlands Aldi had the reputation of “Walmart” of employers.
Many stories of poor working conditions like timed bathroom breaks, etc.

~~~
pgeorgi
Aldi Netherlands is different (belongs to Aldi North) from Aldi USA (belongs
to Aldi South).

In Germany the "Walmart" reputation belongs to Walmart (who withdrew from the
German market because they couldn't exploit employees the way they could
elsewhere), with Lidl being a close second.

With family having worked in HR in retail, I heard that they sometimes had
staffing issues because Aldi outcompeted them all (incl. high-end clothing
stores) on wages.

------
k__
Aldi is a prime example why Walmart failed in Germany.

------
holydude
Article full of stereotypes. So nowdays costsavings are presented as german
efficiency my fucking ass.

------
marze
A few months ago I was shopping at Trader Joe’s, and having only recently
learned of the Aldi connection, I asked my checker how it was working for a
German grocer.

He had no idea. He’d been working there three years.

------
chrismeller
> Since it first opened its doors in Iowa in 1976, it has established 1,600
> locations across the nation. Over the next five years, it announced in June,
> that number will jump to 2,500, putting its reach alongside that of Walmart
> and Krogers.

Ehh, it is currently in the same realm as Safeway (1300 stores). In 5 years,
if all goes according to plan, it hopes to be closer to Kroger (2800 stores).

It is not, nor will it even come close in the next 5 years, to being a
Walmart, who already has 4700 stores.

Particularlu given the love of the US for membership-based big box stores like
Costco I also doubt a budget chain (that, last I checked, still charged you 25
cents for a shopping card), will become quite the “staple” Walmart or any
other normal supermarket chain is.

~~~
lotsofpulp
They don't charge you for using a shopping cart, it's a refunded deposit to
get people to return their carts to the cart storage areas.

