My apologies, but this post is not computer related.
I just wanted the opinion of my European friends (Germans in particular) on the Aldi's (both North and South) supermarket chain.
Cleanliness, variety, quality of service and goods, etc.

Is there anything that makes the organization stand out from the competition?

While unrelated to any of our forums, I thought I'd get an unbiased pinion from you guys.

Thanks.

As far as I can tell, Aldi South, is clean and well organized.
It usually has a number of organic products as well.
The store design is simple but effective.
The employees are usually well educated and friendly.


Manfred

Not much to say really. Tend to be much more minimalist than UK retailers like Tesco, Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons. No in-shop restaurants or delikatessens, mainly just near and well-ordered shelves of stuff.

Tend not to focus on big brands or deals-juggling and more on generic European goods (which will no doubt go through the roof in price here after Brexit). Are almost always outside town with very large car parks and don't tend to ever operate smaller stores. You will never find handy stores in town like Co-op or Sainsbury's.

They take advantage of the UK's Universal Credit system to take multiple people on for low hour part time contracts while having the state pay for most of their rent, but possibly not quite as much as the other big names, and mostly in their warehouses. I'm not aware of them particularly mistreating employees.

Shopping in Aldi in a UK store is a far different experience to shopping at any Aldi in Germany. In short Aldi have adapted to the UK market which places more of a focus on things being visually attractive as a way of enticing people in and getting over the stigma associated with a discount retailer. Ive found in Germany people see food shopping as functional hence their stores Lidl, Aldi Penny Markt, Kaisers are a tad functional compared to UK tastes. German people I’ve found also do not like overpaying for goods hence why you have the proliferation of discount supermarkets. Like with recycling your bottles it’s taken years for the UK to follow suit...

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Aldi and others have definitely upped their game in recent years with regard to their store design, which is still functional but certainly much more inviting than it used to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z7NFqzDKyE

Edeka and Rewe have been leading the way with regard to more appealing store design and slightly more high-end selections of products. They have been quite successful and are now slowly being copied by their competitors. Here is an example of an Edeka flagship store: http://kinzel-architecture.de/content/en/archive/projekt/grocery-store-berlin

Aldi South is my second home in Germany.

greetings from the Turk.

Aldi in the UK is basically where peasants shop for the most part.

Or it was until the recession in 2008 when they built shops in wealthier areas. We even have one here in Didsbury Village now.

I am supplying Aldi Sud a food item in their private label in big volumes (say about 50 trucks per year). As most German s/m chains they force you to follow very strict rules quality wise (BRC, ISO, IFS, BSCI, SGF etc) but since they buy enormous volumes negotiating with them is unbelievably difficult. They buy really cheap, leaving you with virtually no margin and demand very special care on timing deliveries. Fines are unreasoanbly high for delayed deliveries across Aldi's shops. More or less same happens though with edeka, rewe and real (ja brand etc). Business wise, If you could you should avoid them.

In my city also there is one Aldi market, but you not know the opinion of one Aldi's from Palencia (Spain).

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Thanks Andre,
Those are some great references. Both parts of the company have stores here that focus on different markets.
They seem to be very good at marketing their brands. Its unusual for us to have a European grocer operating in the US. But they seem quite competent and competitive.

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I hear the US shopper is even shyer of brands they don't know than Brits are, and that's saying something. It's been a slow uphill struggle for Aldi here to sell things with Polish and German labels on them. I can only imagine it would be even harder stateside.

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Actually, these guys are pretty slick. Aldi Nord has opened a chain of high end stores in the US called Trader Joe's that features a lot of specialty items and organics, while Aldi Sud operates under the Aldi's banner with more traditional stores.
Your observation about our market is very correct, its also very competitive, but these two companies seem to be quite successful.

The funny thing is that "Trader Joe" is the label Aldi uses for their kind of/wannabe US products in Germany, say peanut butter or so.

Aldi kind of invented the simple basic discounter system in Germany. Lidl co-invented/followed them. In Germany customers are very used to it, a few years back Wal Mart retreated from the German marked due to the German customer's behaviour (high quality, low price), they were not able to compete with Aldi, Lidl and the likes.

Myself i have mixed feelings with Aldi, from the discounters it's for some reason the one i like them best. In Germany they have very good suppliers for their own brands e.g. Sweets from "Chateau" which are supplied by Stork (a very good German sweets brand with Toffifee, Merci and Werther's Original).
But it's not only sweets - it's with many products. Some are weak though...

Aldi also played some role in digitalization of the german population: Sales of the Aldi computer and later the aldi laptops were real events. Ppl were actually queuing in front of the stores. Not like these years on Apple shops, but in the nineties Aldi computer sales were very important for students and other folks usually low on cash, but in need of some powerful kit.
Medion is ther tech brand. Today good quality for good prices, but not that revolutionary as in the nineties.

Aldi has a simple slogan which was pretty true for the customer: "Qualität ganz obem Preis ganz unten".

And while I am a customer of Aldi myself I prefer a bit smaller and regional supermarkets. Aldi, Lidl at al are too powerful, too similar. The price pressure for delivery partners is brutal and destroying. Especially meat is way too cheap (the region i live is the home of Europes biggest pork butchery (Tönnies) which is the meat supplier for Aldi/Lidl/Rewe - the low prices are possible becauise farmers don't get adequate prices and personell for slaughtering the animals and processing the meat is casted in Eastern Europe for very low wages with kind of modern slavery work situations... But the meat is cheap, hence ppl buy it. This is not a sane ans sustainabble system.

> Medion is ther tech brand.

Medion is not an Aldi brand. Medion was founded in 1983 (as OHG, in 1998 change to AG) and has been owned by Lenovo for some years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medion

It seems the Yankee version of Aldi is even less classy than the British one lol

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-abcarian-hostage-20180803-story.html

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Doesn't reflect on the chain as much as my country. Stated simply, it gets scary here sometimes.
MaryLinda Moss sounds like quite an exceptional person though.
Thanks for that, oddly, it made me feel good.

I just buy things at shops. Seems to be quite an English thing to try to make it an event to flaunt social status. Buying stuff in Aldi and bringing it home in a Waitrose carrier bag so the neighbours can see it, etc.

We'll see what they're like after Brexit and the ports are jammed with goods nobody can agree on how to deal with. Nothing teaches humility like hardship ;)

Curiously, we don't really have those quaint institutions here, unless its some unprofitable artsy little place located in a restored downtown center.
And we are not at all evenly distributed, so the "Just support local shops..." argument isn't going to work on this side of the Atlantic.

As to Brexit, good luck with that idea.
Sounds about as inane as my President's sense of economics.

Curious that we are talking about a successful German firm operating internationally, and Brexit and "local shops" comes up.

I remember when economists in the US were suggesting we follow the British lead and become a "service economy" (what ever the heck that is, btw, how is that working out?).

Not to return to my usual snarkyness, but I wouldn't follow the British lead into retreat from engagement with the Global economy here. It just leaves room for someone else to profit.

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Ten years looking after a severely disabled wife and five kids, two of whom are also severely disabled humble enough for you Kenny? ;)

Tesco/ASDA/Sainsbury's/Morrisons do home delivery which is brilliant for disabled people. Aldi/Lidl etc don't seem to give a shit as there probably isn't enough profit in it for them, so they don't get our money.

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Don't worry, we've got in store Aldi murders here.

https://news.sky.com/story/man-pleads-guilty-to-aldi-murder-11290637

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Wow, Nik. Even more horrifying.
And I'll keep the lack of delivery options in mind when regarding the chain.
It's something more forward thinking outfits are trying here.

And if you don't have to enter the store, you don't have to face the environment.

Having been verbally abused and physically threatened at a local Walmart (by a person with a borderline personality disorder-the type of people we call "Walmartians"over here) I can understand your concerns.

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Blimey, that's bad. They own ASDA here, our local branch is staffed with mostly grumpy old Jamaican ladies that make you feel like they are doing you a favour by allowing you to shop in their store lol

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What exactly are you after?
Unbiased opinions or facts?
What for?

One thing Aldi sold in the 80s I never knew about until today:

The legendary Aldi C64

Wonder if they ever sold Amigas...

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Yeah, I have one of those.