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Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Why Aldi Is America’s Fastest Growing Grocery Store

Aldi’s ‘no-frills’ strategy has helped make it one of the cheapest and the fastest growing grocery stores in the U.S. For the past decade, it’s been growing at a rate of about 100 stores per year and thrives in economic downturns. Aldi helps keep expenses low by stocking less: Trader Joe’s stocks around 4,000 products where Aldi only carries around 1,600 products.

VIDEO HERE  (6 minutes)

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I believe Gallatin's got an Aldi store but I've never been in it. About the only time we're in Gallatin is for Lisa's doctor's appointments and by the time we're done with that, we're ready to unass the area and get back home.

I do prefer smaller stores, though. It's easier and quicker to find what you're need, which is just one of many reasons I prefer to shop Piggly Wiggly rather than Walmart.

42 comments:

  1. And your receipts aren't 3 feet long!

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  2. Have not gone to the one near me. It does not open until 9 am.

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    1. Yeah, by 9 in the morning, I've usually got my running for the day done.

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    2. I love our Aldis. Great tasting generic foods at cheap prices (well, cheaper than big chain grocery stores) Fruits and vegetables are top notch. My wife and I save money by shopping there. Nothing fancy and a smaller selection but everything we've tried has been great. Checkers ARE super fast too!

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  3. One of the things I liked about them is no self checkouts. Although that has recently changed at my local store. Still shop there since the prices are good and you don't have tons of jackwads to deal with.

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    1. Self checkout recently infected my Aldi's. Of all self checkouts, Aldi's is the worse. It constantly b*tches at you to scan the next item. Half the time I need the lone checker to correct a double scan. Still like the store. Just hate self checkout.

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    2. One of the main ways Aldi's keeps prices down is minimal labor. Other than checkers and the occasional person restocking the shelves, no one works there. Compare that to your average full service store that has 2 or 3 people in each of 10 departments.

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    3. PLEASE WRITE Aldi online and tell them to make the one human cashier a CASH ONLY checkout! It's been a nightmare ever since they changed. I shop there less and less exactly because of that.

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  4. Aldi's puzzles me. They have great produce and bread. The name brand stuff is what you'd expect. But the house brands, wow! How do you remove all of the flavor but maintain the appearance and texture? Cereal, I'd bet the box tastes better. Cheese? Some of it has a little flavor, but it's a crap shoot. Won't even buy their house brand stuff anymore, but it's on the way home from church so bread and produce it is.
    Nifter

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  5. I shopped there in days gone by, was totally unimpressed, and haven't been back.  It doesn't look like they have improved.

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  6. Gotta bring your own bags or box or can buy bags from them. Also, cashiers don't play when doing their job. Helps customers get in and out. Prices have usually considerably less than Wally world too.

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  7. We rely on Aldi's for cabbage and other veggie and fruit, delights, for our chickens...
    We supplement the chickens regular "laying crumbles" with a wide range of items...
    So as to prevent food fatigue...and keep them healthy.
    Aldi's is reasonably priced and their turn over is quick, so we rarely see
    items we wouldn't buy.
    Lately, costco has raw carrots in a five pound bag for 4.99
    They get one carrot each day and the bag usually last three weeks or more...
    Yes, our chickens are spoiled...but they lay year round...
    Short list of items they receive:
    cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, squash, apple, pear, celery, eggplant, and asparagus ...

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    1. Watched a prepper video some time ago. The guy would put scrapes of meat in a container and hang it. Flies would land on it and lay their eggs. Eggs turned into maggots which dropped out the bottom. His chicken loved them. -sammy

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  8. Aldi may be new in the USA but they have been in business in England for over a century. Once a month I drive 60 miles to Costco (Canadian name for Price Club) for frozen foods and dry goods but shop locally for meat and veggies.
    Al_in_Ottawa

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    1. At the Costco in Bellingham, WA, you see nothing but BC plates. I don't have a clue how they get back across the border without paying some kind of tax.

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    2. In 1961, the Albrecht Family founded the world’s first discount grocery store in Germany. ... ALbrecht DIscounters = ALDI

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    3. Lived across from an ALDI forty years ago in Manhattan Kansas. Cheap and cash only back then.

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  9. Springfield has one. Produce is cheaper than & just as good as Kroger; I can't compare to Mall-Wart, as I haven't been there since 2015. Bread & milk are cheaper than Kroger, but frozen items are overpriced.
    --Tennessee Budd

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  10. I haven't been to an Aldi in years (because I have been living in Aldi-less places) and I miss it. The checkout clerks were always awesomely amazingly speedy. One time (before they had scanners) I was still unloading my cart and the clerk waved me off. "I already rang it all up." She rang up the order quicker than I could put it on the belt! I looked into franchising but I guess they all are company owned? It would have been a gold mine, especially in the small town where I lived at the time, 50 miles from the nearest Aldi, only a Walmart on the edge of town and a couple of non-bargain grocery chains 15 miles away.

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  11. Not my cup of tea. From the coin operated rack of carts to the lack of enough staff to keep the shelves straight. Produce looked cheap.

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  12. Their oat bread is great but it seems their green bananas never ripen. Breakfast cereal is equal to any of the name brands and English muffins are good.

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  13. Same company owns Trader Joe’s also. Two brothers in Germany, hated each other, but loved the business. Aldi US is Aldi Sud overseas, and Trader Joe’s is Aldi Nord.

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    1. Both brothers served in the German army during World War Two, so Trader Joe's, loved by liberals, was owned by a Nazi

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  14. In our area of the south the Piggly Wiggly has some of the best fried chicken in their deli. Oink!!!

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  15. Aldis by us was a reliable source for basics. They had excellent produce, very good selection. Dairy, bread, and meat as good as anyone. Cracked us up to run into neighbors who had homes worth a whole lot more than ours. Easy in easy out, short lines. We liked moving out of the way, off to the side and packing our own stuff.

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  16. Not all that impressed by their brands when we tried them a few months ago. Dairy stuff was OK.

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  17. I "get" Aldi's business model, but my experience has been hit or miss. My nearest one is in a food desert, namely because Kroger pulled out due to "losses". (The usual suspects.) Subsequently, it's not a great experience. There is a Dollar Tree next door, so there's that. Not worth getting jacked in the parking lot.

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  18. We shop at Aldi's regularly, so the video was very interesting. Prices are about one-third of similar items at the other big supermarket. I don't mind the thin selection of products. I kind of reminds me of a military commissary, which I enjoyed shopping at (but not around pay-day, haha).

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  19. Thanks Kenny, I learned a new word today. "Unass".

    Re: Aldi's, there is one 10 minutes away but I haven't been in it yet.


    Irish

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    1. You've never heard the term unass the area before, Irish?
      It must be a military thing. I heard it all the time growing up, both from my dad and all his friends.

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    2. "Unass." My Dad sometimes used that term. (If Mom overheard it would result in The Look...)
      Whenever I hear or use it, I remember him.
      RIP, Old Man.

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  20. About a year ago, Aldi went FULL self-pay, but Carp payment ONLY. There's one cashier, but they accept ALL forms of payment.
    For ANYONE who shops at Aldi: Please write them online and ask them to make the cashier CASH only. I'm not the only one who often ends up behind someone with a full cart who then pays with a card (while all the other checkouts are free).

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    1. I usually end up behind the person who wants to pay with an out of state check and no ID got behind a person the other day that wanted to split their purchase between a debit card and a credit card after waiting a few minutes I just put my stuff down and left faster to go to another store.

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  21. Went to Aldi last summer. Wasn't til I got to the parking lot I realized the fuckers didn't put my food in a bags. I had to there everything into the bed of my truck along with the 2x4s from Lowe's
    Daryl

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  22. We started at Aldi about 2010 and it was cash only. Aren't any near where we ate now.

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  23. I found Aldi in 1990 when I was transferred to Chicagoland, we had a big family and Aldi's prices really made a difference. When I moved back to the west coast there were no Aldi and they were missed. I now live near one and it's a regular stop for groceries.
    I really like the fact that there are always shopping carts available all you need is your quarter. If you leave on in the parking lot someone will return it to get that quarter back!

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  24. I compare prices in Aldi's flyer to the ones at the local grocery store's flyer where I've shopped for over thirty years. Mostly no difference or just pennies.

    Nemo

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  25. I really like Aldi's house brands for some things such as milk, bread, cookies, cereals, cheese crackers, etc. The ones here typically have nectarines, grapes, and peaches cheaper than the major grocery stores. One of my daughters worked at one in Nebraska until last week. They pay their employees really well for the type of jobs they do, and their benefits are excellent. Unfortunately, a new manager came along that liked to cut corners and take the easy way out on everything, so she butted heads with my daughter, and my daughter went elsewhere.

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  26. I switched from planter’s red skin peanuts to Aldi generic. I don,t buy the meat, but everything else is great. Tom

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  27. The missus will not accept any store brand of mushroom soup and always requires the Campbell's brand. She is totally correct about store brands of mushroom soup being inferior. While the contents of the can may be mushroom soup, the quality is definitely inferior.

    Three weeks ago, Vons (an Albertson's store) had Campbell's Mushroom Soup on sale for $1.00/can, regularly $2.26/can. Ten days or so ago, Vons had it again "on sale" for $1.26 can. A couple of days ago, it was "on sale" for 2 cans for $3,00.

    I was in Aldi's on Sunday. Campbell's Mushroom Soup was $1.26/can, and that was its regular price.

    Aldi's beats hands down the big chains. Admittedly, most of its products are store brands but they are generally of good quality. While there isn't as broad a selection of products in its stores, the savings are dramatic.

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    1. Lisa's the same way with some things. It has to be a specific brand, Campbell's mushroom soup being one of them.

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  28. Some Aldis sell Halal meat--the meat acceptable to Muslims. It cannot come from America since Halal meat comes from animals who are not stunned first before their throats are cut. America does not permit that. Sorry, I don't care if the USDA inspected it. America raises enough for American stores. I don't want meat that comes from somewhere else no matter how cheap. The meat could come from anywhere. Halal is a red flag.

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