Octopus Overlords

Aldi is Trader Joe’s brother (quite literally IIRC). Or is it Lidl?

Anyway, two German (?) relatives (pretty sure they are/were brothers) with slightly different ideas on how to bring Euro style grocery stores to the US.

I have all three near me so it’s hard for me to separate them in my head sometimes.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 11:48 am Aldi is Trader Joe’s brother (quite literally IIRC). Or is it Lidl?

Anyway, two German (?) relatives (pretty sure they are/were brothers) with slightly different ideas on how to bring Euro style grocery stores to the US.

I have all three near me so it’s hard for me to separate them in my head sometimes.

They're related companies like Puma and Adidas are. That is to say, not really.

The brothers split the company in 1960, over a dispute about whether they should sell cigarettes. Karl believed they would attract shoplifters while his brother, Theo, did not. This led to Theo running Aldi Nord, and Karl running Aldi Süd. At the time, they jointly owned 300 shops.[20] In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi—short for Albrecht-Diskont, which translates into English as "Albrecht Discount". Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been financially and legally separate since 1966.

Trader Joe's is Aldi Nord. Aldi (US) is Aldi Sud. Aldi Sud also recently bought Winn-Dixie

Aldi has exploded here in FL lately. 10 years ago I don’t remember seeing any. Now they are everywhere, with at least 4 in my town. And that’s before they start converting some Winn Dixie’s to Aldi’s.

We love the store. It’s a really cheap and affordable place to shop with decent quality items. The $3 wine doesn’t hurt either.

Until you drink it. That shit nasty.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 5:30 pm Until you drink it. That shit nasty.

Really? I had always read reviews that Aldi wine was supposed to be surprisingly good. I find their store brands to be hit or miss, so I'd think the wine would be the same, but reviews give it high marks. I try most of their branded stuff once and if their good, I continue buying. Their cookies, chips, and some of their crackers are all great. Their french bread pizza is pretty good. Their croissant breakfast sandwiches were the best when you got them 4 for $2. Oatmeal, pop tarts, canned beans, cheap nuke it pizza. All are horrible. Their bread is substandard but I grill most of my sandwiches and it's great for that and about $.50 cheaper than the larger grocer.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 11:42 am $0.25 (or a ruble) isn't going to stop someone from stealing a cart, which is why they also have the wheel locks, as you mentioned.

Today I learned that 1 Russian ruble is worth 1.1 American pennies.

Carpet_pissr wrote:Until you drink it. That shit nasty.

I’m glad I’m not a wine guy. I find their cheapy wines to be pretty decent, but I’ve always enjoyed whatever wines were on sale.

The headaches definitely hit harder with the cheapy wines though. Anything more than a couple of glasses can make for a real tough morning.

Aldi doesn't have a broad enough selection to satisfy all of our grocery needs, but we do use it for the staples. My wife has store pickup down to a science, so she'll place an order at Aldi and Food Lion and time it so she can pick them both up in the same trip. Take that, Russia!

None of my Aldi's do pick up. I'm surprised yours does. It's antithetical to their low employee overhead business model. The one I go to has one employee at the cash register and one or two doing stock. One of those three is the manager. The other two are come up and run cash register if the one gets too busy. This is less frequent since they put in self checkout. Essentially my Aldi is like a huge convenience store but with grocery store pricing, which is a primary reason I go there. Small to no lines in a smaller store so I can get in and out with pricing that doesn't give me sticker shock.

Aldi also apparently has the best cashier training in the industry. I need to ask them why they rip through checkout like their lives depend on it. I wonder if they get bonuses tied to speed. It’s truly amazing and I’ve seen it across multiple locations.

I also love that from a personal view…I hate chatty cashiers, especially if they are already slow, especially if I’m in a hurry, and especially if there are people waiting behind me.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:13 am Aldi also apparently has the best cashier training in the industry. I need to ask them why they rip through checkout like their lives depend on it. I wonder if they get bonuses tied to speed. It’s truly amazing and I’ve seen it across multiple locations.

I also love that from a personal view…I hate chatty cashiers, especially if they are already slow, especially if I’m in a hurry, and especially if there are people waiting behind me.

Huge bar codes. Plus they don't have to bag.

Good points, but I still think it's more than that. They just seem to move a LOT faster in general and are EXTREMELY efficient in both talking and loading up your cart.

I buy for five people (four now with one in college), so when I go to the store, it's almost always a full cart. Aldi clerks seemed to have been trained VERY well on exactly how to load up a cart most efficiently. I think I am good and fast (and I am, again, after having done a pretty long stint with Instacart), but these people are on a different level. It could be a regional thing, but I have observed this at a few different locations. It could just be experience as well, but I don't think so...it looks very much like the result of some serious, and well-done training, OR really good pay and/or bonuses for speed. Maybe a combo of those.

Trader Joes' excellent cashiers come in second (and then nobody else even close), but Aldi checkout makes TJ look like amateurs fumbling about. I know TJ pays very very well, so that could be it wrt Aldi as well. "We are going to pay you $25/hr, but to stay here you have to be performing at 110% all the time".

It's the same here. I think everything is just designed for them to check out fast and they probably hire/retain based on ability to run the checkout.

Barcodes, as mentioned.
They're seated and have a well-laid out "cockpit."
They really only have one packing strategy to perfect: put it in the cart.
They have the cool-looking polos.

Also, it's fitting that the Tucker Interview thread is becoming more about Aldi than Tucker's stupid interview.

After getting backlash for being too honest, Jon Stewart learn from Tucker:

My main problem with John Stewart in that video is that I saw more of Tucker Carlson than I would like. So I literally stopped watching.