Looking forward to shopping this weekend at ALDI, a Germany-based, no-frills grocery chain. It has the reputation and feel here in the States of being an IKEA meets Walmart: Although there are cashiers, you have to bag your own groceries; the food, mostly staples such as canned goods, produce, milk and bread, is mostly ALDI-branded; it has a warehouse feel, where food is stacked in pallets and replaced when only the pallets are empty; they sell plastic bags, but you can bring your own; and you have to pay a $0.25 deposit into a machine for a cart, which you get back when you return.
That last one sounds really cheap, but it's (1) common practice in Europe, and (2) meant to discourage lazy people from abandoning their carts in the parking lot, which takes resources to go track down. I'm definitely all for that one; it drives me nuts to see people leave their empty shopping carts in whatever space next to their car they can find instead of walking a short 10 paces to put it in the space clearly marked "Cart return."
The chain is trying to make a big move in the U.S., with 13 new stores in Central Florida, and from what's been going on in the economy lately, they've picked a strategic time to do it.
Downside: From what I've read on its Wikipedia page, ALDI started out with a rep like Food Lion, a place only poor people with food stamps would shop. Since most of their food is generic, ALDI brands, it also had a rep for being poor quality, a la "Dixie Darling."
On the flip side, you can say the same thing about Walmart, which hasn't exactly suffered for being low-cost. And with the European economy being dragged down by ours, ALDI's rep has been elevated a bit.
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8 years ago
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You know that bumper sticker "49 percent sweetheart/51 percent bitch"?
We have an Aldi in my neighborhood, and my motto for them is "49 percent great idea/51 percent stupidest place on earth."
It's funny, cuz one day I broke down and read their wikipedia page to find out what they're all about. Up until then, I always thought when I was shopping there, "God, I feel the same way when I was in a supermarket in Belgium." Good to know my instinct for Euro-supermarkets remains intact.
The good: I guess if you got in the habit of shopping there, you could get interesting things at good prices, anything they didn't have you can get at Publix (thank GAWD we have Publix in S.C., we do 95 percent of our food shopping there). I mean, Aldi has got enough of the basics and snacks that you could subsist on what they sell there.
The weird: All those brand names you've never heard of. I don't think they're generics, I think they're known commodities in Europe. Over here, it just look frickin' weird and random.
The bad: If they don't have something you're looking for, you're S.O.L. But mostly it's the toys and household goods that are unreliable. Food, you can always find something to eat. But when you read a weekly circular and see a toy you want to get for a kid's birthday, and they don't have it, you feel like a fool for walking through their door.
But you're right ... it's a different culture ... if it's convenient and saves you $, then obviously get your Aldi on. I remain among the unconverted, but that's just because I'm stubborn and impatient, and get everything I need at Publix, which is closer to my house and 5,000 percent more convenient.
Until next time, enjoy your random snack food brands I've never heard of, Euro-suckers!
-- GH
Aldi has an agreement with Polk County to open a large distribution hub there, which makes total sense since it's the center of the state and every other major business has a large distribution hub there.
RE: the analogy to Wal-Mart -- the prices may be low, but you pay in other ways. Whenever there's one register line open and three people paying with WIC coupons plus a price check, you pay in time and blood pressure. So if you think of cost in terms of just money, WalMart is a good deal. If you think of cost in terms of time out of your life that you can never get back, Publix is the better deal.
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