Why Aldi Is America's Fastest Growing Grocery Store [video] | Hacker News Reader

Why Aldi Is America's Fastest Growing Grocery Store [video]

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11 pointskamaraju13 comments

Aldi has become our first stop for everything, if we can get it there we do before going to one of the big chains around us.

Their prices are often 2-4x cheaper than the big chains, sometimes for the exact same item. “Fancy” cheeses that are $10 a block at the big chains are $2.50 at Aldi. Produce can be a bit iffy sometimes but if you’re flexible and spend a bit of time picking through it it’s fine.

The self checkout machines are also much better (even though they are annoyingly insistent about “scanning the next item”) and I’ve never had to wait for someone to come unblock it vs the big chains where they always seem to get stuck when I move some items around.

I’m also a big fan of the culture changes they embody - 25 cent deposit for your cart so the parking lot isn’t filled with carts from lazy people and allowing your cashiers to sit down while they work vs making them stand for no reason other than a power move.

It’s so much better than competitors that I’ve become a marketing employee for them anytime high food prices come up in conversations to the point where my partner jumps in with “get ready for the Aldi speech”

Agreed on most of those points. The self checkout is decent but I've had to get help and they've made a mess of it before. There were items that I didn't have that appeared on the screen. They cleared the whole cart and made me scan everything again. This resulted in an extra 20 minute wait for the bus because I didn't get outside in time.

That being said the above complaint is pretty modest and so are all of the other ones I have (their cans never stack well at home) They deliver acceptable quality for a good price.

The cart deposit might be a German thing. Aldi is German and in Germany you will be hard pressed to find any store (not just Aldi) where carts don't require a deposit. It's been a thing so long that most people seem to have little plastic chips instead of having to use coins like us tourists.

Also notable that most cashiers in Germany seem to be sitting (again not an Aldi thing).

What's an Aldi thing I guess is that they export these things to other countries they go to.

For the records, "Aldi" ("Albrecht Discount") in the USA is "Aldi Süd" (originally owned by Karl Albrecht) while "Traders Joe" (bought 1979) is "Aldi Nord" (originally owned by Theo Albrecht).

In my country we don't have Aldi, but we have Lidl. They seem very similar, but would be interesting to learn about their differences, and what history they have in common

they are basically the same from a consumer perspective

Lidl feels noticeably higher quality to me.

Lidl is less trusting of the consumer at least in Europe and completely unfriendly if you browse and don't find anything. You need to scan your bill to get out from automatic kiosks or not being able to exit anywhere other than the purchase lines in older layouts with no space to pass people with trolleys.

Spar seems similar to Aldi from a consumer perspective, but is not very nice to its employees.

In the UK I find Lidl disorganised, dirty, with unfriendly staff. Aldi is usually the opposite

Though Lidl has better bakery items and more loose goods, whereas Aldi prepackages almost everything.

They have unfriendly staff here too. But the cleanliness and organization varies by store. The purpose-built stores in suburbs are better than those housed in pre-existing buildings in the city

That's true. The newer, larger out-of-town Lidls are pretty decent. Still the same terrible staff though :D

Lidl is a nice store, I prefer it over Aldi.

Originally, they had alternative ( but good) products, which really reduced your costs to shop. They almost had no brand items in the past.

They also have some goodies at a good price in the middle rows of the store.

The bakery is good too

Jut avoid their cheap sick cannibal chickens.

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