Lived in multiple countries and had an Aldi close in them all. The quality and variety does differ. In particular the quality of the meat and fresh produce and I agree state to state can provide a disparity. I suppose that can be hard to imagine if you are used to a consistent Aldi.
There are quite a few staples that I liked they were very cheap in comparison to the bigger stores. In particular the chocolate, kettle crisps, cheese twists etc.
I also found it helpful for stocking up when budgeting. Each Jan I would go buy the giant soap powder, dishwasher tabs, hand wash, toothpaste kitchen roll, olive oil, anything that could be stored in the garage. This stopped me visiting the other stores so much and spending on junk.
Build one in my town plz
The more money they make the closer they get to changing to become just like Walmart. Money > everything.
I’m from Germany and Aldi hasn’t changed for as long as I can remember which is about 30 years. They got a bit cleaner and nicer if anything.
I dunno. The Aldis I’ve been to in the last 20 years or so seem the same as they did back then.
Although the cashier uses barcodes instead of superhuman typing on a keypad and somehow remembering the price of every single item in the store. Always thought that was suss.
mine has self checkouts now. Never though I would see the day. They still pay better because if you work there you do everything.
Ah yes, and they are actually very good. The little chirp as it registers the item on the scale makes things smoother.
yeah and no place you item in the bagging compartment nonsense that slows everything down. Or also as far as I can tell it does not go into call an associate mode because you scanned 5 of the same 2liter.
Literally been there since the 90s.
I feel like I went to aldi in the 80’s but I honestly can’t remember for sure but yeah its been a huge light for non wealthy americans.
Cheapest eggs I’ve seen. Not everything is great quality. But, for certain items I’ll make the extra stop.
Paid $1.65 for eggs there the other day. Half the cheapest regular grocery store price in my area. Meats at Aldi aren’t so great. Cuts are tougher, and I’ve found that the per-pound cost is about the same as the lower prices at regular stores. Aldi’s stuff isn’t trimmed as well, and once you get the fat trimmed you wind up about the same $/lb. Chicken is still a decent deal there.
In Australia the eye fillet at aldi is at least the quality of regular supermarkets, but about 2/3 the price.
So “affordability” isn’t a Democrat hoax? Well I’ll be…
Hell yeah GO ALDI
Great now do Canada. Fuck you Galen.
How “buy European” is this? Doesn’t Aldi have completely separate, American, supply chains for the vast majority of the products…?
When you see it as black and white than Aldi equals any other US business - but i’d argue it’s a more gradual thing and there is an actual difference. First because the top company is European a larger part ends up in European hands and also it could mean difference in policies.
They have to otherwise they would be impossibly expensive, importation of goods is not cheap. Their strategy is to sell as many of their own branded products as possible making them as close to premium quality as possible without compromising price. (Unlike a certain grocery chain in Canada that I could mention)
The USDA and FDA regulations make it basically a requirement for food to be processed in the US, hence why there’s so many massive food processing facilities in the US. Based on the recalls they’ve been caught up in, Aldi works with the same white label processors as other grocery chains and quite clearly works with them to set the taste, quality & ingredient expectations and of course the price.
There is a noticeably less sugar in Aldi’s goods than most other brands, but I also see far more packaging errors in Aldi’s goods than other budget brands, for example. Their packaging is also heavier into recyclable materials and uses less plastic
It’s EU in their values, of having good pay and not expecting staff to do bullshit like unpaid overtime
Fair enough. Bit shocking as a European that a discounter that’s known to put enormous pressure on staff, is regarded as very good practice on the other side of the pond… Sure Aldi pays their staff well but they also time and micromanage cashierd for how many seconds it takes per scanned product for example
I’m also EU, I’m going from what I’ve heard from an American friend that works there
Rural-ish American who’s moved a bit -
Currently my only significant options are national chains like Walmart & Dollar stores which are well known for being bad for their employees AND their communitees. Many of the employees of the former are paid poorly enough they require government assistance to afford groceries from the store they work at.
I’ve lived places with Wincos/Costcos & Market Baskets and those are much mote reasonable places that I’d compare with Aldi. The chairs thing is real when looking at piece of shit places like Walmart & Dollar stores - but I dont remember if MB &| Winco offers chairs to their employees.
There are often larger local chains that can be marginally better (food lion, tops, etc) but often their prices & selection won’t beat out walmart.
Aldi is a nice breath of fresh air for the customers.
I don’t know any employees personally, so I can’t vouch if they are treated significantly better than other stores like Market Basket/Winco.
I try to buy from local farmers where possible, but thats not always easy nor possible for some things.
Nor reasonably priced. Helpful to the farmer, yes, but pricy.
Coincidentally, from what I’ve heard, Aldi prints the barcode on all sides of the packaging, so the cashier doesn’t have to look for it. (Idk myself as there’s no Aldi where I am.)
Yes; it’s on at least 2-3 sides of all Aldi Branded products so they can scan faster.
Yes. Part of the reason it seems shocking to me that they are considered good practice in USA is things like this. Although the barcode thing is good and harmless, they try to make every little thing milliseconds faster, the cashiers at aldi don’t do small talk, they don’t have the time. If they are too slow at scanning, they get fired or that’s the rumour at least. They recently also started splitting cash registry, so they can process even more costumers per minute and must be even more of a robot and less of a human… At many other supermarkets, the cashiers know their customers, have small talk about the weather or the kids or so. Aldi kind of forbids it without literally forbidding it because forbidding would probably not be legal.
I mean, I don’t have a problem with the barcode thing since it saves empty effort of twisting the package around in one’s hand looking for the barcode. It’s a great design solution eliminating a small frustration that occurs hundreds of times a day. I’d be glad if my local supermarkets had that on the stuff I take to self-checkout.
it’s entirely american aside from the name/ownership.
Trader Joe’s is Aldi Nord. Aldi is Aldi Sud. Same business model where they direct person from a supplier than put it under their own label.
Aldi doesn’t have anything on Grocery Outlet Bargain Market.
Where are they?
I went in and shot that in Aldi for the first time this past week. Unfortunately didn’t have a quarter for the cart so I couldn’t use it. Which isn’t a huge deal had I known about it. But there was also six people online in one person working so there’s no way I could even get some change to be able to put a quarter in so I instead I had to grab a box and carry everything around. Which isn’t a huge deal but it made it very inconvenient and I did purchase less things because of that fact. I did enjoy their selection even though that particular store I was in was fairly small. It did have most of the things that I needed. And there were a number of things there that I looked at but didn’t need. Overall I would probably use an Aldi to supplement my shopping at a large grocery store.
Oh and I’m also going to 3D print one of those Aldi tokens so that way I have it on my keychain whenever I’m in another state that actually has them.
I’ve never had to pay for a cart when in lived near one. Someone usually just gave me one as I walked past and I kept the chain going.
This is the way
It’s like poetry.
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How so? Aldi is pretty dramatically different from every other grocery store here, both in how they’re set up and in their prices.
And treats their employees well and pays them well above the competition.
A thing i heard from someone here a few days ago. What was it again. Sketchy data handling in their bonus programme? Something like that.
Fine, let’s forget it.
I love how you’ve gotten up-votes for an unsupported statement with literally no backing in reality simply because it is contradictory to the general sentiment of the rest of the post and comment section.
The redditifacation of Lemmy is proceeding on schedule.
If the platform behaves more or less like reddit you can be sure the users will too. Lemmy was never going to solve the problem of obnoxious groupthink.
There’s a great song about Walmart, you know.
Fun fact: Aldi are basically the only supermarket chain where they don’t force their staff to stand up, and provide all cashiers with chairs
We need to bring back right to sit laws in the US. They were passed in most states in the early 20th century, but most have been repealed with time and the general decline of labor rights. Those laws also were sexist and only applied to women. But we could absolutely use gender-neutral right to sit laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_sit_in_the_United_States
That’s so weird. I simply see no reason why all the other US-chains force their employees to stand behind the counter.
Boomers think that workers being miserable is good customer service.
the whole point of having minimum wage staff is for boomers to torture people, Karen cant wank unless she yells at an overworked single mother who has not sat down in 7 hours.
Cruelty is the point. Once again.
They have an amazing dark chocolate selection for cheap
A store you can quickly get in and out of with a variety of everyday items at a reasonable price that seems to pay its employees well. What’s not too love?
Also, several in my area have implemented self checkouts that don’t bitch you out for every single item. I can scan everything from my cart and bag it up later at a counter or my car if the weather’s nice.
Also lets cashiers sit down.
Boomers are actively finding a way to be offended by that as we speak. “Back in my day, we stood on iron floor pads in slip persistent shoes for 12 hours a day and offered service with a smile!”
They already were offended by it fifteen years ago when I worked retail. Sitting on the clock looks “lazy”, according to my first boss.
I’m a (spanish) boomer. I reported one of my bosses to my company health & safety comission because the bastard physically removed our chairs (I was a bank teller at that time). He was reprimanded, the chairs were put back in their places and the guy hated me deeply for the months we had to work together.
I was (still am) member of an union, btw. And that made a difference.
Unions are absolutely necessary.
Boomers
Stop with this shit
Sorry, I just got done reading a bunch of stupid Google reviews with old people shitting on our local Chinese food restaurant for offenses like not being welcoming, not smiling, and serving the wrong kinds of food. It’s annoying that there’s a generation of people who expect servants when they exchange money for a service.
BoomersOppressors.
This is a class war, not a generational one. Don’t let the king convince the torch wielders that their enemy is the pitchfork wielders.
Fair. I’m certain there are gen x and millennials that expect “servants” to suffer as well.
Anyone who’s rich enough, basically…
I’m pretty close to being a boomer, my in-laws are. Nobody I know has a problem with that. Careful with your ageism.
My in-laws are more progressive than most and are deep boomers, I realize it’s not all of them. There’s enough of them that they do seem to standout as a general rule that want to perpetuate generational suffering. Granted, most of the worst offenders are gen x and millennial with the “grind set” mindset.
And why they’re the only one I’ll never know. All idling jobs should have a fucking seat, there’s no good reason for cashiers to be forced to stand
Back in the day when I worked at an American grocery chain they had a rule that you were not allowed to drink water where customers could see. Literally the only person who ever cared was the franchise owner. I’m sorry, I’ve been scanning and bagging hundreds of products for the last 3 hours during a holiday rush, I might need to wet my mouth between customers from time to time.
I wish more of mine had the self-checkouts. The ones that don’t, it’s a minimum 10 minute wait in line to check out. Never more than one cashier during the hours I go.
Then speak to someone about it.
Rumor has it they’re pulling all of the self checkouts out due to theft.
All of the ones near/by me have had them removed and regular registers put back in.
When they initially put in the self checkouts the delay for scanning was set to similar to a manned checkout, and as someone who spent my formative years cashiering at a grocery store, I greatly appreciated being able to quickly scan through my stuff. They upped the delay between scans after a few weeks, so now its like 10 seconds before you can scan another of the same item, so I’ve just gotten creative in alternating items to scan faster
