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Comment by rtpg | Hacker News Reader

I remember going back to the US after a few years abroad and realising how low-quality most products felt. Sure, in a dollar store that seems normal, but even in "normal" grocers and the like everything felt like a low-quality rip-off to their european counterparts (even though they're usually the same brand!)

I feel like there's probably a good opportunity to make a business selling just slightly higher-quality products.

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Having grown up in western Europe and moved to the US at age 24, I feel the exact same way. Most products (examples that still strike my mind: home tools, buses, street signs, desk lamps, food, etc) in the States are lower quality than what I would find in Europe.

But stuff in the US is also usually less expensive. So I guess it is just an effect of the free market: US buyers preferring lower quality but less expensive products...

In my experience, that's what the "Whole Foods" chain is. Their marketing image is one of "organic", but I find walking around one is more like walking around a supermarket in Europe than anything else.

That is basically what Trader Joe's does.

Wasn't Trader Joe's the American branch of a notoriously cheap and low quality German supermarket? Is its US reputation really one of more expensive higher quality products?

Wikipedia says that it was founded by an American, Joe Coulombe, and then sold to trust which also owns a notoriously cheap and low quality German supermarket chain in 1979. Perhaps Trader Joe's started expanding more quickly after being sold.

Aldi is by no means low quality! However, I agree it isn't premium either...

Aldi may not be low quality in Germany (It's just a.n.other supermarket there), but in the UK, it is definitely percieved as such. A small percentage of the stock is german delicacies, and a further small percentage are standard brand name items, however the vast majority is off-brand look-alike items, usually dangerously close to a trademark infringement. Combined with very low prices gives it something of stigma with shopping brand snobs.

I'm not sure that the UK perception of Aldi is "low quality" as such. "Cheap", yes. "Chaotic", yes. "Just generally a bit weird and foreign", overwhelmingly. But i wouldn't expect the actual quality of the goods to plumb the depths of a Morrison's, or, god forbid, an Iceland.

But then, whilst i don't live anywhere near an Aldi, i have become something of a connoisseur of the baffling Teutonic delights of my local Lidl, so perhaps i'm biased.

I don't and obviously you don't but overwhelmingly everyone I talk to does percieve it, or at least auto-assumes it is because of everything mentioned above. Well at least in people who don't actually use Aldi (or Lidl for that matter) regularly

In Netherland it is considered low quality. From what I hear, goods remain unpacked in their boxes, are often not sorted by date, so there may be expired products at the back. I wouldn't know which supermarket chain could possibly rank lower than Aldi, though I'm sure there are some smaller and independent supermarkets that are worse.

But I have to admit I might be a bit elitist about this. Lidl, which I hear a lot more good about, also doesn't really meet my standards for a supermarket. And Albert Heijn, which is often considered pretty good, is not considered all that good by me.

Re the prior comments, I based my view on the instances in Germany. The products are usually good and prices really low. Especially the chocolate clones of some brands are some 30% of the price and 90% of the taste.

Then again, I saw just recently a dirty one in Luxembourg, so my first comment should read "it depends" (which is kind of a non-comment) ;)

There are actually two Aldis and in the US we have Aldis and Trader Joe's. TJ's is based in Pasadena and has the reputation for having products that are slightly healthier and higher quality than the average store, while being the same price or cheaper because everything is TJ brand instead of name brand. Of course they are also famous for "Two Buck Chuck" the $2 wine they sell, which varies widely in quality. It's definitely not high end like Whole Foods though, just maybe slightly better than Safeway or Kroger like the OP suggested was a good market niche.

I think the opportunity would be very risky.

There is a very evident difference between american and european supermarkets (and the food culture); in the former, the core idea is to present and mass-sell products, in an almost anonymous and very inexpensive way; comparatively speaking, food is more expensive in Europe, but also less anonymous.

My guess is that there is relatively little market space for products in between the cheap and the premium brandings.

Important note - with "anonymous" I don't refer to the brand, but to the quality of the product.

>> I feel like there's probably a good opportunity to make a business selling just slightly higher-quality products.

Whole Foods?

It's not really surprising to me. Do you remember the price comparison between "normal" grocers in the US and in places in the EU or say Japan? If I were to guess, they're higher other industrialized countries abroad. Probably as high or even higher than Whole Foods.

Globally food prices have been increasing consistently.

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