
The Aldi effect: how one discount supermarket transformed the way Britain shops - axiomdata316
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/05/long-read-aldi-discount-supermarket-changed-britain-shopping
======
temp-dude-87844
Aldi is really quite bizarre, in a way the article tries to capture. For all
their rock-bottom prices on store brand goods, whose quality ranges from
pretty good to never-again mediocre, they stock the store with a rotating
selection of random crap that fell off the boat, baiting the impulse for an
aspirational or just-in-case buy. But then again, by now, Amazon's front page
recommends a carousel of similar dropshipped junk from vendors whose names
appear to be machine-generated. At least Aldi bothers to "curate" in the sense
of commissioning most of its stock as a store brand, whereas Amazon is
seemingly devoid of the slightest amount of steering from above, save for
locating popular items after-the-fact and releasing an AmazonBasics.

In the process, Aldi and its slightly-nicer copycats siphon away marketshare
from normal stores who actually carry name-brand food and home goods you'd
want to buy again, if you weren't on a misguided mission to penny-pinch.
Stores pivot towards overpriced premade sandwiches, cafes and hot buffets, and
meal kits that make zero economic sense, because that's where you can still
pull a good margin. The middle empties out.

If you look, you can see this same process play out in other areas of retail
and services. Aldi's gain is our collective loss, the widespread embrace of an
insincere "good enough", either because our budgets are truly crunched, or
because we don't let ourselves value our mundane maintenance desires. On the
far side, people who have rejected this can look like they're engaging in
conspicuous consumption. Sometimes they are.

~~~
taneq
> they stock the store with a rotating selection of random crap that fell off
> the boat, baiting the impulse for an aspirational or just-in-case buy

I believe this is the key to their fanatical customer base. The random crap
aisle means that when you go into the store _there 's a chance_ of an awesome
deal on _some random thing_. This provides strong intermittent reinforcement
which directly triggers the brain's reward mechanism, no different to loot
drops in an MMO or payouts from a poker machine. People literally get addicted
to Aldi's random-stuff aisle.

We've actually taken to referring to Aldi as "visiting the casino". :P

~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
This is an amazing observation, and as someone who used to shop there and at
similar stores a lot, I have to agree.

You really _do_ get nice deals though. Many of my tools are from Aldi or Lidl,
and in my experience, they're cheap in terms of price, but still surprisingly
decent quality, pretty consistently.

------
drewmol
>Aldi stores has tripled since the early 90s to nearly 2,000(SKU's), although
that remains tiny compared to the 25,000 or more in a big supermarket.

This is why I shop at Aldi when possible. I'm willing to make small
compromises on quality and overall selection for efficiency gains and less
frustration. I don't want to navigate 25+ brands of canned tomatoes, disect
manipulative pricing schemes (10 for $10* | * must buy 10, lesser quantities
sold at $2.79/ea), subsidize add-on services I don't use like free in-store
daycare or check cashing, walk to the deliberately deeply placed staple
sections like produce, dairy, etc., calculate _savings_ in expiring and
unclear fuel rewards at on site gas station, or be forced to provide my
private information for my purchases to be tracked and sold in order to be
eligible for purchasing things at advertised prices.

~~~
Semaphor
> manipulative pricing schemes

Here in Germany, where Aldi originates, those don't exist.

My reason not to go to Aldi is, that they lack the things I want to buy. I
cook every day and whenever I end up at Aldi I wonder what people do there
because it does not seem possible for me to get all the ingredients I need.

~~~
sarnu
Out of curiosity: what do you cook that you do not get at Aldi? Myself, I
could get more than 90% of the ingredients of most recipes at Aldi. Some
things I buy at an Asian or Turkish store, and I have to buy most cheeses
somewhere else. But Aldi has come a long way, now they sell a decent variety
of organic, regional produce.

~~~
drewmol
I live close to an Aldi in the US. When it was first opened (Aldi 1.0) I would
agree with parent that the selection and availability made it difficult to get
the bulk of my grocerie needs there but since they remodeled (Aldi 2.0) they
have wider selection and larger more reliable inventory especially for fresh
items (produce, meat, dairy) and now it suites most of our needs. This my play
a part in the varied experiences commentors are reporting

------
rdm_blackhole
I like shopping at Aldi because it reduces the paradox of choice.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice)

Less choice, less time spent in the supermarket. I buy 90% of my weekly
groceries there and it takes me less than 15 minutes to be out of the door.

The remaining 10%, I buy at different shops as those are really specific items
that Aldi does not carry.

I like the low prices and the efficiency of the checkout process.

Anecdote: I have noticed a saving of approximately 15% compared to when I was
shopping at the competitor's stores.

~~~
roghummal
>I like the low prices and the efficiency of the checkout process.

I especially liked standing in line for five extra minutes while the customer
in front of me demanded they pay a different (lower) price for their frozen
pizzas because, they said, the pizzas were in the wrong spot.

They eventually got the lower price. Woo Aldi.

I hope they're kicking Temple Grandin a percentage. It's hard to shop at their
stores without feeling like cattle being moved from one place to another.

(But 15%! What a deal!)

~~~
close04
> I especially liked standing in line for five extra minutes

If one time or rare bad things were a good measure wouldn't we all end up
being judged on HN based solely on our worst comments?

> (But 15%! What a deal!)

It is for some people.

------
avar
There's many comments here complaining that it's impossible to shop at Aldi
because they won't have all the ingredients for whatever dish they were
planning to make.

This is largely true, but I feel misses the point. For a grocery store to
exhaustively and consistently stock all combinations of products you need for
a given dish you have in mind costs money they need to roll onto you as a
consumer.

Rather, the idea with Aldi is that like with a farmers' market you should see
what they have in stock at that moment and _then_ decide what to cook.

------
rb808
I love Aldi (And Lidl) The great thing about the lack of choice means the
supermarkets are small so its quick and easy to do your whole shop. Its like
Costco with sensible sizes.

~~~
chrisseaton
> its quick and easy to do your whole shop

You can't do your whole shop because it's a lottery what they'll be stocking
that day. They seem to just stock whatever was cheap at the time, which always
makes me think someone else was trying to get rid of it for some reason. It's
all random junk with no system or logic behind the range at all.

Not stocking apples today, but they have a huge range of pneumatic power tools
for some reason, is a typical experience.

At least that's my experience of my local Aldi.

~~~
JdeBP
> _You can 't do your whole shop_

I tried it once. It turned out that I can.

> _Not stocking apples today,_

That is not my experience of _any_ supermarket, ever. Although people are
predicting that it might be after the end of this month.

------
robertAngst
Aldi has a crazy strong marketing presence(astroturfing), and despite claim to
be low cost, I have not seen that in cost comparisons

[https://efficiencyiseverything.com/grocer-comparison-aldi-
wa...](https://efficiencyiseverything.com/grocer-comparison-aldi-walmart-
costco-kroger/)

Crazy loss leaders get people into the store, but 1$/lb more expensive meats
kill any cost savings immediately.

~~~
ggm
Australia: significant price savings on unbranded same-factory product (OJ,
Yoghourt)

~~~
taneq
Yeah, it's really random though. Like some things are 20% more, some are 20%
less. I find it comes out roughly even...

Speaking of random, those center aisles... I'm almost always tempted to buy
some interesting item that we _really don 't need_.

~~~
jaimex2
Special buys is my cryptonite.

Though I can't say I've ever been disapointed with the products and their
return policy is super flexible.

~~~
cstrat
Back in the early days of Aldi in Australia (early 2000s) I loved the Medion
PCs they came out with. They were awesome!

~~~
jaimex2
They were, used one as my primary gaming laptop for years till the nVidia chip
fried itself ( nVidia known issue, not Medions )

------
pighive
I am glad I found Trader Joe’s. Never have I ever been excited about a trip to
super market. It rivals Costco too (in food section). Before that, I took
weekly trips to Aldi/Lidl for a year, and few of their products’ quality is
quite low in my opinion, and not everything is cheap.

~~~
mhb
Trader Joe is a fun trip, but my enthusiasm is tempered by some truly
disgusting house brand crap they sometimes sell as well as frequently dropping
items that I like (e.g. crackable almonds in shells, half-popped popcorn).

~~~
kawfey
I really liked that half popped popcorn.

~~~
mhb
FWIW, this describes how to make it, though I haven't tried yet.

[https://www.flytraplife.com/blog/half-popped-
popcorn/](https://www.flytraplife.com/blog/half-popped-popcorn/)

------
oblib
Aldi is a favorite here in the rural Ozarks. The closest ones to us are over
40 miles away but my wife and I make a point to shop there when we're in the
area.

There's talk of one being built in Branson, MO, which is less than half the
distance and everyone in the entire County has their fingers crossed they
will.

These are big issues here. Aldi's would give us all another option and save us
money too.

Here, a lot of the little "mom & pop" stores got killed by Wal-Mart and Lowes
close to 20 years ago. Dollar Stores have now replaced them in the past few
years, which is kind of strange to see because they're very similar in most
ways, and they've now taken a pretty good chunk of WalMart's market share.

Our first Wal-Mart in Branson is still there, and it's pretty small compared
to the "Super Wal-Mart" they built there a few years ago. But locals don't
really "love" Wal-Mart like they did 25 years ago. In fact, most really do not
like it, but they didn't have many other choices just a few years ago because
all the little Mom & Pop grocery stores had closed.

The two Aldi's close to us are constantly busy. They're like a rural "Trader
Joe's" for us bumpkins in that they have stuff no other stores carry, and
their produce is usually a lot better too.

------
gatherhunterer
In the U.S. Aldi is where you buy off-brands like Drinkerade and Cool-o-Cola.
I have seen an inordinate amount of Aldi-related posts recently, are they
planning a new strategy that is being headed off with a PR campaign?

~~~
maxxxxx
You can't compare US Aldi with Aldi in Germany or Britain. The US stores have
only cheap crap. They feel like it was when I grew up in Germany.

Modern stores in Germany or Britain have pretty good stuff. Wish they would
bring this to the US.

~~~
ChrisRR
I'm in England and I agree with the first comment. The brand rip-offs are
completely shameless. And while Lidl and Aldi do have brand names, they
definitely make up less than 10% of the stock

------
donglebix
Great recent Freakonomics podcast on Trader Joe's...

~~~
ekovarski
For others interested, it's Ep 359. Should America Be Run by … Trader Joe’s?
from Nov 28 2018

~~~
sjwright
And for people wondering why this is relevant, Trader Joe's is owned by Aldi
Nord.

(American stores with the Aldi brand are owned by Aldi Süd. Nord [North] and
Süd [South] are separate entities owned by brothers, and they voluntarily
avoid competing with each other geographically in Europe. The easiest way to
tell them apart is with their distinctive logos.)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi)

------
novalis78
This is what I have been telling Publix managers for a while now. They don’t
want to want to see it either, saying that their customer service is so far
advanced and thus Aldi won’t play into their territory. Oh well, we shall see.

------
ahartmetz
> Second, the main chains – the big four as well as the leading “soft”
> discounter Kwik Save (which stocked a larger range than Aldi) – were listed
> on the stock exchange. The best way to fight Aldi early on is to slash
> prices, but few bosses of public companies are happy to accept lower
> profits, and thus lower bonuses, by pursuing long-term strategies.

This is not at all surprising, but it's rare to see such a clear-cut (more so
in context in the article) example of short-termism hurting companies.

------
atombender
I don't, and likely never will, understand why anyone would want go to chains
like Aldi, Lidl, Shoppers etc. to shop unless they had no choice. These are
the most depressing supermarkets in the world. I can understand low cost, but
why do the stores need to look and feel like you've been transported back to
Cold War-era Soviet Russia?

I will also never understand, I suspect, the austere attitude in Germany to
supermarkets. I've only ever lived in Berlin, but I longed for a Whole Foods
or at least a Trader Joe's while I was there -- Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, Edeka,
they're all super depressing. Berlin has a decent selection of "bio"
supermarkets, fortunately, but their selection is also frustratingly limited,
and the slight increase in quality isn't really worth the increase in price.

The US has plenty of terrible supermarkets, too, but they're often depressing
for another reason; despite a much bigger selection, they devote an enormous
amount of shelf space to disastrously unhealthy food and candy. (And then
there's the bread. Very difficult to find good, freshly baked bread in the US
that isn't plain white.)

~~~
scrollaway
> _I don 't, and likely never will, understand…_

Well, I don't understand why someone would make their groceries (a major
portion of monthly spendings) 2-6x more expensive just because the shopping
experience is less "fun". Personally, groceries are a chore no matter where I
shop.

All in all I just shop wherever convenient. I live next to a Lidl right now so
I shop there, and my only annoyance with it is that they don't have that much
stuff (not in terms of brand choices but in terms of items altogether).

~~~
atombender
You misunderstood my comment. I do much of my shopping at a local low-cost
chain, but it's nowhere near as depressing as the ones I mentioned.

That said, being a low-cost chain, I have to make trips to several other
supermarkets to completely cover my grocery needs during the week, which is
frustrating.

------
system2
Sounds like what Trader Joes does. Although, slightly better I guess.
[https://www.businessinsider.com/trader-joes-sales-
strategy-2...](https://www.businessinsider.com/trader-joes-sales-
strategy-2014-10)

Less products, cheaper, better service etc.

~~~
crankylinuxuser
Trader Joe's is Aldi North (Nord).

Aldi is Aldi South (Sud).

Same company, just split between 2 brothers.

~~~
mdhen
Totally different companies now. They do have an agreement to not compete in
most countries though. The only countries both are present are Germany and the
United States.

~~~
baddox
Interesting. Aren’t such deals usually banned as anticompetitive?

~~~
sjwright
Only if the deal had any chance of hurting consumers, which it does not.
Customers in Europe have many supermarket chains to pick from, including a
near-perfect clone of Aldi called Lidl.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl)

Besides, why should the Government force a company to open stores where they
have chosen not to?

------
sidlls
The one time I went to an Aldi is the only time I ever hope to. It was
disorganized in a way that makes Costco look tidy and filthy besides. The poor
selection was just icing: I'm not a brand snob but I need a wider variety of
goods.

~~~
lqet
Aldi Süd started a redesign of their markets a few years ago in Europe, the
Aldi in my area looks like this:

[https://www.handelsblatt.com/images/billig-allein-reicht-
nic...](https://www.handelsblatt.com/images/billig-allein-reicht-nicht-
mehr/13585010/2-format2020.jpg)

~~~
buddylw
They are doing this in the US too. My local Aldi was remodeled last summer and
looks like the photo.

~~~
sjwright
They look even more upmarket than that in Australia.

------
bsder
The problem in the US is that the places that would most benefit from Aldi are
generally the places Aldi least wants to locate at.

People who drive SUVs don't need another choice for groceries--people who
can't afford SUVs do.

~~~
kasey_junk
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/g...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/03C1A8B0-9703-11E6-8F1D-BF313838A245)

Aldi only recently moved into those locations. Their US base is actually low
income neighborhoods.

~~~
teddyh
Non-AMP link: [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/discount-grocery-aldi-
head...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/discount-grocery-aldi-heads-into-
wealthier-areas-2016-11-01)

------
JackPoach
This article is really inspiring to other industries as well. You can really
re-evaluate current business model based on what potentially can be done.

------
pragmaticlurker
what about the Primark effect?

