Americans love these 2 cheap German grocery chains | Hacker News Reader

Americans love these 2 cheap German grocery chains

thehustle.co

21 pointsacqbu47 comments

Missing here is the 3rd cheap German grocery store that Americans love: Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is owned by the same family that owns Aldi Nord. Aldi Nord also operates Lidl stores in the US. If you pay close attention, you will see some of the same products with different branding and if you squint you will notice the same reduced SKU grocery discounter business model.

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

I agree that Americans love Trader Joe's, but I would by no means consider it to be a cheap grocery store.

At least in NYC, Trader Joe's is cheaper or comparable with other grocery stores. I spend about half there as I would at a whole foods for a weeks worth of food.

It depends on how much processed food you eat

My average bills there are close to shopping at Aldi. Here in Florida at least Publix is significantly more expensive.

My local "regular" grocery store , Ralphs,has several identical items to Trader Joe's (like the exact same orange chicken, salsa, etc with different labels). The TJs version is universally cheaper. It's a bit more expensive than Walmart and the dollar store but arguably a much better value.

It is actually cheap relative to the quality you get, so a lot of value. A linked article from TFA notes how TJ's is ranked #2 for quality https://clark.com/shopping-retail/cheapest-grocery-stores/ . Sure you can't find the junkiest cheapest things like at a Walmart, but if you need actual food basics like fresh organic produce, organic japanese green tea bags, kefir, and salmon lochs, there's almost nowhere cheaper.

> salmon lochs

Lochs (LO-Hs) are scottish lakes, lox (LOKS) are yiddish salmon fillets...

Ah yes. My mind must have just went to the first unusual ‘ks’ spelling, knowing it was an odd one.

> Aldi Nord also operates Lidl stores in the US.

That would be fascinating because they’re fierce competitors in Germany. However I couldn’t find a source for this to be true. Instead I found a few articles about Lidl opening a US headquarter[0] and having their own distribution centers.

0: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcaul...

I honestly never understood the appeal of Trader Joe's. I think I'm in the wrong demographic. It seems like they completely nailed their marketing and millenials/zoomers are like moths to a flame with Trader Joe's. I always viewed it as "Zoomer Whole Foods" but that's not accurate. Trader Joe's definitely has a smaller product line and are ruthless with underperforming lines. Still, it's a place I never shop.

It is interesting it's owned by the same family though.

They offer a lot of products we couldn't normally get conveniently elsewhere as well where we are.

The demographic for Trader Joe's is people who want to feel quirky and original about buying groceries, but not by paying Whole Foods prices. They've nailed that marketing position pretty well, yeah.

Nope, GenX grew up on and still loves TJ’s, in SoCal anyway.

It's processed convenience food that is just a little more healthy or tasty on average than the freezer isle at Walmart. It also tends to be just a little ahead of food trends than your typical grocery store. It has some "cute" branding too. It's for people who rarely cook but don't want a diet of 100% take-out. I think Whole Foods is for people who fancy themselves home chefs.

It has use in cities like SF that lack better options. They have parking and the prices are cheaper than whole foods and similar stores, and it's better than going to a corner store. That's about it.

Aldi and Lidl are German stores/brands that have moved into the US. Trader Joe's is an American-founded and centered company that was owned by an American (for many decades) and then bought by a German brand.

They're not exactly the same.

I mean it was bought by Theo Albrecht on 1979. Pretty must everything about the company's DNA is influenced by its Aldi parent company.

Operationally, yes, branding and positioning, no.

Learning that Trader Joe’s and Aldi’s were so closely related was one of those facts that I never expected, but once I learned it, it made a whole bunch of things click in my head.

I'm german and never heard of "Trader Joe's". Seems like it's really an US store, that was acquired by Aldi Nord.

You don't know what you're missin!

It doesn't really look like an Aldi, but Aldi Nord is selling products with under the Trader Joe label even in Germany! https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/snacks-suessigkeiten/nues...

I’m currently visiting Europe over the spring and thus also shopping at a lot of local grocery chains.

From what I can tell, most grocery stores in Scandinavia are pretty close to an American Aldi, but that’s just how they are. Corner store grocery’s are much more popular in cities and the limited space in legacy buildings makes it a requirement to be efficient.

To be honest, I don’t really miss the likes of Target, Walmart, Kroger etc for anything except some product selection. I don’t need 50 types of ketchup to choose from. Store brands are fine. If I want a special thing, I can order it online or go to a specialty store that focuses solely on a specific item or occasion.

I’m also really enjoying how cheap fresh foods are relative to processed food. Instead of chips and candy, I’m buying grapes to snack on in my hotel room. Meat is a bit pricier but not bad when compared to buying a similar amount at a local restaurant. No joke, in Oslo, my wife and I spent $100/day on food eating at counter serve joints and convenience stores. Eating out is insanely expensive in some of these places.

All that to say, I’ll be shopping at Aldi way more when I get back to the states because now I see the appeal in the context of where it was developed. It’s not a perfect system yet but I’m confident they will get there in the next decade.

I never understood Aldi. Maybe I've just got a bad Aldi, but I was the opposite of amazed when one opened near me. I don't know what people are raving about. Yeah, it's cheap... and it's cheap. Not bad or anything, but the hype seems odd to me.

Whereas Trader Joe's is relatively inexpensive in contrast with the competition, and the quality is really good.

I've really taken a liking to Grocery Outlet, which is a grocery store chain where a lot of overstock and discontinued items end up, but it's far better then 99 Cents Only. Their wine selection is pretty good as well. I find a lot of the same stuff there I used to buy at Von's and Ralph's for a significant amount less. These days I'm shopping primarily between Grocery Outlet and Trader Joe's, and sometimes at Sprouts.

> And they just so happened to be under the same parent company as Aldi, strangely enough.

Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd are different companies. They were founded by brothers and operate largely independent from each other

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi

How confusing!

We have an Aldi's near me, and I have the exact same feeling. It's small, they don't have a ton of what I'm looking for and it feels like an EconoMart. So yeah, it's cheap in both vectors. That's fine, but not what I'm looking for.

Here's how I think of Aldi's: it's like real-life loot boxes. I mean you don't actually get a mystery box but for a lot of people they go to the store not knowing what there'll be and I think a lot of people like that. It's like gambling in a way.

This seems to really appeal to some people. I'm not one of them however.

Aldi definitely varies by area, in my experience. We have 2 Aldis in our area and one was nicer than the other. Than they remodeled the older one and now they are comparable.

I have every possible grocery chain around me and I still choose Aldi. Sure the selection is smaller and mostly non brand names, but that's why I go there. $50 can get you a variety of produce and meats, while $50 at a place like Publix gets you barely anything.

“Americans love the German grocery chains Aldi and Lidl”

This headline does not need to be worded as clickbait.

BTW a great use of AI would be to detect clickbait headlines and automatically rewrite them as the page loads based on an analyzed summary of the pre-fetched link content.

There's not much in this article, but I think it goes beyond being cheap. If your local area Walmart has obliterated all competition and you simply want to go to NOT WALMART. These rapidly expanding chains offer some form of alternative that's smaller and easier to navigate.

Last time I visited an Aldi the line was to the back of the store since they historically only have one lane open with two employees in the building at a time(cost savings measure). To the customers there this did not matter, it was not Walmart and was the only other food store within proximity of their home.

For a much more interesting read, check out the story of Bottom Dollar foods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_Dollar_Food

This feels so ridiculous having lived in germany, where aldi would open another lane when more than 5 people are waiting in line.

Aldi and Lidl have captured every market they have entered. In the UK and Australia they have gone from effectively zero marketshre to almost 10%. Lidl does not operate in Australia but Aldi has high quality products not unlike Costco Kirkland products.

Every year in late May Aldi sells ski clothing and it is riot. They have to limit the number of people in the stores and the fights are crazy.

Yep, Aldi and Costco are absolutely comparable in Oz.

Lived in the US for 30+ years, and shopped at times at Trader Joe's, and - much less often - at Aldi, with an overall "hmmm...ok" reaction. Once in France, I started going to a Lidl very close by to our place, for some generic stuff (who would live in France and not choose - first - a few boulangers, fromagers and bouchers, and a few outdoor marchés, for fresh produce, and a few vignobles in the area, before entering the more generic stores?). After a little while and few visits to Lidl, I literally got to the point of going there at least once a week. They continuously refresh parts of the store, so one week you run into Norwegian products (the Norwegian week), another Swiss, then Italian, German, etc., with a large variety of products from each country/region. And the prices to the quality ratio! - beat any store I have ever been to, States or France, ever. High five to Lidl!

Here's another perspective: bundle up Aldi and Lidl with the various dollar stores (eg Dollar Tree) and then argue this is evidence that Americans are increasingly reliant on discount stores so this is just further evidence of wealth inequality and living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Our family does about 80% of our grocery shopping at Aldi despite having far above median income. The number of Teslas and higher end SUVs I see in the parking lot tells me I’m probably not the only one.

I'm going to say you are in the minority. I remember many people near me growing up, who weren't very well off themselves, who considered Aldi to be the "cheap store all the foreigners go to". Regardless of how one feels about the perception, the perception certainly exists.

As a Swiss person living in Germany, those stores were just terrible for me. Even the more premium German stores were totally subpar.

In Switzerland Migros and Coop are just so much better. Aldi/Lidl might be a bit cheaper but not close to worth it for me.

When we lived in San Diego, we loved the Aldis they built. We moved after I got out of the Navy back to where my wife is from that doesn't have an Aldi and it is something we miss. My personal experience was the selection was good and cheap. I also liked how items rotated out so every time you go in, there is new stuff to look at and try.

Costco and Sams Club cannot compete with this.

The Ballad of Lidl & Aldi - Mick MacConnell at John B. Keane's Bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL7jyXCQ2Zc

Another big draw to me is that the checkout process is fast and efficient. Take a look at the packaging and you will notice the barcodes are massive to facilitate rapid scanning.

A lot of things at Aldi are structured to make work efficient and need for staff minimal. Supposedly they pass the savings onto the customer in the form of lower prices. The staff often don't have a phone to answer either.

Why would a grocery store have a phone number at all?

You'd be surprised but some people want to call the grocery store and ask questions. Ask if X is in stock, if they can rent a rug doctor, if they can buy propane, if they can go there to pay this or that bill, what hours they're open, do they renew vehicle registration, etc.

Source: worked at Kroger when I was a teen.

What is super interesting is that Aldi only moved to barcode scanners very late (past 2000). Before that cashiers entered the product codes manually - they knew them for each product and were super fast at it. The conveyor band never stood still, and they were entering codes the same thing it moved. It was super impressive.

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