Dear americans, explain yourselfs on your supposed use of bags.

That's the Aldi image prevailing around here until the 1980s. Since then it has become socially acceptable to shop there. The quality is top notch, the prices are low, the product range is good, the stores are efficient. Just not pretty.

Compare Berlin to London. Spot a difference?
 
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narf said:
Aldi ...The quality is top notch
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I haven't been to an Aldi since my aunt & uncle's kitchen had been overrun by little tiny white moths that came from a box of cereal they bought there. This was like 20 years ago. Put me off forever.
 
narf said:
By that standard Mercedes, VW, Toyota, ... would be dead. Shit happens.
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It works both ways though. Anyone I have talked to who has recently bought a Toyota for example is buying them because they were the most reliable 20 years ago and it took forever for their last one to break. Brand loyalty is a funny thing like that. Hell, I bet a lot of people who own my car bought it because they loved the original bug.


On a related note, NEVER EVER buy food at Walgreens without checking the expiration date. If you can't find it or it is one of the stupid code ones, don't buy it. (I was told not to throw out expired milk while working there, and I am pretty sure juice drinks shouldn't change color...)
 
At least food in the US is epic cheap :O
 
First Aldi is still pretty ghetto in the states...

Second, five pages on grocery bags WTF?
 
For the record I use heavy canvas bags made by Lands-End...

390583_AH10_D1_HRD
 
NecroJoe said:
I haven't been to an Aldi since my aunt & uncle's kitchen had been overrun by little tiny white moths that came from a box of cereal they bought there. This was like 20 years ago. Put me off forever.
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Yeah, something like that could never happen in any other supermarket... Suuure...

Seriously, though, 30 years ago Aldi had the image here it still seems to have in the USA or UK right now. But make no mistake: their business model is very clever and very successful. I reckon that Aldi sooner or later will overtake Wal Mart in size and number of shops. It's just a question of time and ignorance will play into their hands, as it did here.

It took Aldi almost 40 years to conquer the market here. However, people will eventually recognize the advantage of a pre-chosen, limited range of goods with high value and high quality. Aldi has become classless and today even wealthy people shop there. Basically Aldi appeals to everyone who isn't completely fixated on brands and thus has become a brand of its own in time. "Cheap but good" is what defines the Aldi brand here. What I can get for 40 Euros at traditional supermarkets, I can get for 20 Euros at Aldi in practically the same quality -- only without the fancy brand names.

You may mock but they will keep on growing and eventually gain the same status elsewhere, that they have here now. It's only a question of when.

By the way: I've written this on a PC from Aldi ;)
 
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Aint no Aldi here (crazy large country with a relatively small population, not at all attractive for foreign businesses that aren't already huge in the States) as such I don't really follow where this topic's gone and I will leave now, but not before posting this bag that used to belong to a kangaroo

http://img89.imageshack.**/img89/8259/kangascrotum.jpg
 
MacGuffin said:
Seriously, though, 30 years ago Aldi had the image here it still seems to have in the USA or UK right now. But make no mistake: their business model is very clever and very successful. I reckon that Aldi sooner or later will overtake Wal Mart in size and number of shops. It's just a question of time and ignorance will play into their hands, as it did here.
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I have a great deal on either swampland in Florida, or a large metal support structure located near Brooklyn, New York. Interested in either?

I thought so.

Wal Mart is like government; once it is in place it will never go away nor will it decrease in size. It is awfully endearing that you think otherwise. You're so cute, MacGuffin, what with your whimsical dreams...
 
In order to overtake Wal Mart Aldi would have to roughly add eight times its current revenue. Even with the current practice of opening at least one location per week that will take ages if it even happens at all.
 
Jay said:
Wal Mart is like government; once it is in place it will never go away nor will it decrease in size.
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They were in place here, too, with the intention to take over the market... and failed miserably in competition with Aldi as well as other discounters and supermarkets. Also got some very bad headlines for trying to forbid their employees to have relationships with each other...

Now they're gone after sinking a few billions into the loo.

Anyway, I might have been a bit provocative with my prediction but really: People shopping at Wal Mart complaining about Aldi beeing "too ghetto"? I mean seriously...

And I see no need for personal attacks here. Even if you should be a huge Wal Mart fanboy ;)

narf said:
In order to overtake Wal Mart Aldi would have to roughly add eight times its current revenue. Even with the current practice of opening at least one location per week that will take ages if it even happens at all.
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I never said it will be done in 5 years. Could even take another 40. Impossible? No, I think not. After all, General Motors was considered invincible once, too.
 
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MacGuffin said:
Yeah, something like that could never happen in any other supermarket... Suuure...

Seriously, though, 30 years ago Aldi had the image here it still seems to have in the USA or UK right now. But make no mistake: their business model is very clever and very successful. I reckon that Aldi sooner or later will overtake Wal Mart in size and number of shops. It's just a question of time and ignorance will play into their hands, as it did here.

It took Aldi almost 40 years to conquer the market here. However, people will eventually recognize the advantage of a pre-chosen, limited range of goods with high value and high quality. Aldi has become classless and today even wealthy people shop there. Basically Aldi appeals to everyone who isn't completely fixated on brands and thus has become a brand of its own in time. "Cheap but good" is what defines the Aldi brand here. What I can get for 40 Euros at traditional supermarkets, I can get for 20 Euros at Aldi in practically the same quality -- only without the fancy brand names.

You may mock but they will keep on growing and eventually gain the same status elsewhere, that they have here now. It's only a question of when.

By the way: I've written this on a PC from Aldi ;)
Click to expand...

Except I don't really see anyway Aldi is going to be much cheaper than the traditional options here in the US
 
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