There are 4.215 Aldi stores in Germany, 1.997 of those from Aldi Süd who also operates the US stores. Add to that 960 Aldi Süd stores in the UK, 530 in Austria, and a couple more in the other neighboring countries, and I think it's completely fair to be surprised if an aldi price map focuses completely on the US.
There is a big discussion in the EU for some products that are far more expensive in some countries over others. If someone who do this for Aldi in Europe, they would see that some "more expensive" countries, are selling the very same products at lower prices than some of the "more cheap" ones.
And that will piss people off, and politicians everywhere don't liked pissed-off people.
"Aldi" is actually split across two different companies that operate in different regions of the world: Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. In the US, Aldi Süd operates the Aldi stores, whereas Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's.
I think the problem there is that Aldi and Trader Joe's stores are in the same territory, should we be looking at localized warfare? :D . I like both, but Trader Joe's is always ridiculously crowded. They could add two more here and still be "crowded" but not "oh-my-god I can't go into that mess". I think they're leaving money laying on the table with this choice. I've lived in 3 cities and it was always the same, too much for those of us who get anxious when every time you stop to pick up something for more than two seconds, you have someone looking over your shoulder at the same thing.
For a long time there was only 1 NYC Trader Joes, in Union Square, and it was a madhouse. Fortunately they do tend to expand, it just takes a while. Off-peak hours like weekday mornings help too.
Don't forget there are two Aldi (Aldie?) the yellow South and the Blue North and they both have a different international footprint just to complicate things
I popped into an Aldi in Portugal ~6 months ago, and I noticed they had some Trader Joe's products on the shelves. Unsurprisingly, Aldi Portugal is owned by Aldi Nord.
As an American, I can understand the European internet user’s chagrin at our seeming total cultural ubiquity. It seems like almost every piece of media is about American concerns unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Just the other day the US news were all ablaze about how the Super Bowl was the biggest viewed program on television since Apollo 11. Except of course, the Eurovision Song Contest is way bigger.
How is anyone supposed to divine that a general English statement about a European MNC was restricted to just America?
It’s like me saying “McDonalds has stopped selling hamburgers” and expecting you to magically understand that this statement is about Indian McD’s and not American McDs.
Aldi was pretty ubiquitous in the rural Midwestern United States around where I grew up in the 1990s. We didn't associate it at all with Germany or Europe, and I had no idea about the company's origins until I read about it on Wikipedia many years later.
If you are the creator, the problem is more the title. You could write something like "Aldi Price Map in the US". Your current title is a good example of US defaultism and I happens way often (even in social studies where the scientist should be just embarrassed for that).
There is a link to raw data (a big json). Aldi is Hofer in Austria. Prices are probably the same in all their stores? Not sure something similar exists for Germany.
I don't get this criticism at all. Somebody created something for free to scratch their itch, and they're likely from the US, why would they bother with anything else? If it's so important to you, you can always scratch your own itch, I doubt the author of the project would mind help.
It’s not just the US. Im an American working remotely for a European grocery delivery platform, and one of the key feature requests from partners in UK and France is location-specific pricing. Presumably price discrimination for those in wealthier neighborhoods.
> price discrimination for those in wealthier neighborhoods.
In the case of this Aldi price map, they are doing regional pricing - it would seem that every store in an area has the same price regardless of neighborhood wealth for the individual store. So you get naval oranges in Los Angeles at $1.89, $2.39 in Chicago, and $2.99 in New York City (and Houston).
The difference probably has a lot to do with the cost structure for operating the distribution network. If you switch to the organic pasta sauce, it appears that the price is the same $1.99 everywhere except Los Angeles, where it is $2.19. Their oranges are likely coming from California and their pasta sauce is coming from somewhere east of the Mississippi.
It's not necessarily wealth that governs price changes, but access. Anyone with a car and 'enough' money for gas can go to the store across town if it's cheaper, but if a store is isolated enough by geography or neighborhood income level, you'll likely see higher prices.
Case in point: the Kroger in Oxford Ohio (where Miami of Ohio's campus is located) has had remarkably higher prices than other Krogers in the area for as long as I've known. Oxford is 'close' to Cincinnati, but there's enough corn and soybean fields between the two to make the trip a pain.
Ah I didn't realize cashback was US and Canada only. Purchasing over $6000/year will cover the fee, which isn't cheap if you don't do much shopping there. The rewards site has a table with reward estimates: https://www.costco.com/executive-rewards.html
In the US, the standard Costco membership does not offer cash back, the premium membership does. If you don't have the auto-renewal set up, they'll tell you which version is a better deal based on your purchase history from the prior year.
At Aldi Nord in Germany, the "Trader Joe's" products are just the usual cheap garbage with a label slapped on it. It's nothing like the interesting stuff you get in the US.
