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Trader Joe's is Aldi's chain, right? Do you have Aldi too in addition?

Aldi was split into two groups in 1960, along geographical lines (Nord and Süd, serving resp. the North and the South of West Germany). Aldi Nord operates as Trader Joe's in the U.S., while Aldi Süd operates as Aldi.

Some more background on this because I find it really interesting:

Aldi was formed by 2 brothers and then split after a disagreement about whether or not to stock alcohol. The reason I find it interesting is actually because Aldi isn't the first big brand formed by two German brothers to split into two (big, recognizable) brands. That honor would go to Adidas and Puma.

Adidas and Puma are direct competitors though, but Aldi seems to have divvied up the countries between them so they don't compete with each other, with the exception of the USA.

There are also 2 Mercks: the original in Germany, and the USA Merck which was split by the government due to WWI.

Aldi owns Trader Joe's, but I wouldn't call them same chain. For instance, Kroger owns multiple chains with the store format, branding and products that differ a lot.

From my experience the US Aldi (which is part of an Aldi Sud) is a dimlit, bottom of the barrel discounter with a small selection of basics. Where Trader Joe's is a quirky "Hawaiian-themed" specialty grocer with a good selection of the unique-to-US products.

In the US NE, Aldi is replacing the old dark stores with nice new bright stores with good selections.

This is a good trend. We have a few Lidl stores around, and they feel like a right combination of discounted/german stuff.

The newer/larger stores seem like they might have also helped with inventory/space management, at least in my experience the smaller stores would be more likely to have things on extreme clearance.

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