How a cheap, brutally efficient grocery chain is upending America's supermarkets | Hacker News Reader

How a cheap, brutally efficient grocery chain is upending America's supermarkets

cnn.com

32 pointsapo23 comments

A year ago I stopped going to Whole Foods and started buying packaged foods at Trader Joe’s and produce at Berkeley Bowl. My food spending halved.

Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Lidl, and to a lesser-extent Costco, are revolutionizing the grocery business in much the same that Walmart and the A&P did. Except they sell high-quality store brands and offer fewer, better choices to customers with less in-store cruft.

Americans spend a smaller proportion of their income on food now than they did a generation ago; roughly 10% now compared to 17.5% in 1960 [0]. It’s exciting to imagine that average falling to 5%.

And it’s even more exciting to imagine other consumer spending categories falling relative to income, e.g., transportation and housing.

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/02/389578089/yo...

Hey Aldi! Could you do us all a huge favor and make an accredited, academically sound, university in the US, so we can afford to pay our way through college again instead going into a 100k of debt?

If Aldi would move to places that don’t have a grocery store close by and get rid of the organics - the whole idea of organics is just feel good marketing anyway - to save even more, they could really make a killing where their only competitors are Dollar Stores.

I wonder how much Aldi's rise in America has to do with consumers facing steep wage stagnation and less discretionary income.

20 years ago Aldi's were only in poor immigrant neighborhoods, now they're everywhere.

In the article, the section "Cheap kombucha on the shelves, BMWs in the parking lots" says:

For Aldi, part of its success lies in appealing not only to low or mid-income shoppers, but to wealthier ones as well. Aldi’s core shopper tends to make more money and have a slightly higher education level than the overall grocery shopper, according to Bain. On a recent trip to an Aldi in Hackensack, New Jersey, luxury vehicles, including a $50,000 Jaguar and an $80,000 Tesla Model X, dotted the small parking lot alongside Toyotas, Fords and Hondas. Walmart’s Foran has marveled that when he visited an Aldi in Australia, BMWs and Mercedes were in the parking lot there, too.

I think they're just generally liked across right across a whole spectrum of incomes.

Relevant? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UFc1pr2yUU

Ha ha...."$80's for my 6 items". Is it "Whole Salary" I believe Whole Foods are jokingly called in the US?

“Whole Paycheck”, but yeah.

If it is true that you can get in and out faster (not even caring about cheaper) then I can imagine that would appeal to a lot of wealthy(er) but time strapped people.

From personal experience (Scotland, Ireland), both Lidl and Aldi do tend to be in places where you kinda do need a car to shop there. They are pretty convenient compared to larger stores such as Tesco or ASDA (Walmart's UK brand) where shopping is more of an "expedition".

Jaguar, Tesla, and BMW are not cars of the wealthy, they are cars of those who want to appear wealthy even though they are barely getting by. The average poor person probably has as much savings (though of course the poor person has a more modest lifestyle)

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

I recently moved to Canada from the US, and there's stores here that do the coin-deposit for shopping carts--and have folks bag their own groceries. I know the latter would save money, but the former makes sense, too--labor costs are higher, there's liability, and honestly, having wayward carts about the parking lot makes it look a bit unkempt. I bet there's folks who'd gladly pay a quarter--or more--just to have a decent cart that hasn't been beaten by cars and rain.

Is it still a quarter in Canada? Even if it is, they can look forward to using loonies and toonies in the future while dollar coins never seem to take hold in USA …

Surely a lot of people don't mind losing USD25¢ to toss the Aldi shopping card in the ditch behind the parking lot?

People here in Kansas City will gift their paid-for cart to someone else rather than leaving it in the parking lot.

From what I've seen on YT, cart rental is a Euro in Europe.

In my area, it's a loonie for a cart at the discount supermarkets.

Yea...I have an Aldi just a stones-throw away from my house. I was mailed a "grand opening" coupon for first time shoppers. I skeptically took the bait. It was a sad, awkward experience.

Weird knockoff names for popular brands, especially their beer and wine. They look like popular brands, but If I'm going to put alcohol in my body, it better be effing good.

I prefer to go to my regional grocery chain. Much better selection and quality, marginally higher prices...but I don't care. I grab a cart. No hassle and NO QUARTER (who the hell carries change?) I bring my own bags, but if I forget I can use their paper or plastic ones (plus bring back the bags for recycling if I want). I can also order online, pickup if I want or have them deliver. That's what I want, not the shopping experience Aldi offers.

I get it. Millions of people disagree with me. This is my data point of one, Me, but that's the only data point that matters to me.

As Travis Tritt said: "Here's a quarter, call someone who cares..."

It was their "cheaper than gasoline" milk that got us in there. The overall quality of their offerings kept us going there. There are some specialty items that we have to go to our local grocery for.

From what I remember of my first exposure to Aldi about a decade ago, they were cash-only and had a horrid fruits & vegetables selection. Some of their stores in some parts of the country still have the fresh fruit & veg problem. (They have a distribution center two towns over from where we live.)

You can google up various "best beers at Aldi" list and find differing opinions. It's cheap enough that if you're willing to try something and abandon it at a party if it's not to your taste, you can probably find something that you like. They don't sell a porter or a stout, but their "Holland" is a decent enough summer Bier. (I'm surprised that they don't have a Weissbier, though.)

I agree with you. But, I realize that I’m in a position to value time and convenience over money.

> Weird knockoff names for popular brands,

These "knockoffs" are almost always from exactly the same factory as the "popular brands". The product is identical, only the packaging is different.

Also when the packaging is the same, manufacturers will put different quality stuff in it. Same ingredients but different quality so they can sell it cheaper. Happens for many products although I don't know of it happens for food.

the whole point of aldi is that its decent quality but cheap generics. Their generics are pretty good.

I am a huge fan of Aldi, and it is my preffered grocery store when I actually go in person.

However, I do my shopping at Walmart, who offers similar prices with online order and free pickup. This convenience is worth the small price differences, and I usually purchase the generic brands at Walmart which are very competitively priced.

I've never been to an Aldi, but at this moment in my life I would have a hard time switching from HEB/Central Market. Perhaps I would have liked it as a student.

I'm not really a fan of copycat brand labeling though. If a product is going to be plagiarized, I would hope they would produce original labeling. That takes money though, and would affect their slim margins.

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