Two Ways

There are only two ways to establish competitive advantage: do things better than others or do them differently.” (Karl Albrecht)

Have you heard of Aldi? This massive discount grocery store chain has more than 10,000 locations in 18 countries (including 1,500 stores in 32 U.S states). It was founded in 1946 by two brothers, Karl and Theo Albrecht (who were in their mid-twenties). They took over a small grocery store run by their mother in a suburb of the German city of Essen.

In 1960 after a huge expansion, the company split in two with each brother taking half.  Karl took Aldi Süd (South), and Theo took Aldi Nord (North).  The name Aldi itself is short for “Albrecht Diskont.” Both companies are represented in the U.S  Aldi Süd operates under the Aldi name, while Aldi Nord exists as another chain that we bet you’ve heard of (more on that later).

Aldi recently announced an aggressive growth strategy, which it's projecting will usher in 100 million customers per month to its various locations. The strategy includes dedicating $1.6 billion to remodeling 1,300 of its existing storefronts by 2020, as well as investing $3.4 billion to expand to 2,500 stores nationwide by 2022. Aldi is the fifth largest supermarket in the United Kingdom. Here are eight things you need to know before your next trip to Aldi (as revealed by Aldi Spokesperson, Liz Ruggles):

 

1.   Aldi offers weekly deals on certain products-Every week, the store offers deals known as "Special Buys". They include discounted products from a specific department of the store. You can leave with some stuff you never knew you could afford.

 

2.   Aldi sells knock-off Girl Scout cookies-These cookies are exclusive to Aldi, and the general consensus is that the "knock-offs" taste amazing. "I don't allow myself to buy them often; I'll eat the whole thing by myself in a day or two."

 

3.   Buying Aldi-exclusive brands is the easiest way to save a ton of money-Liz explains: "Smart shoppers have found that switching from national brands to Aldi-exclusive brands can save them up to 50 percent on their grocery bill." Now that's something everyone can be happy about.

 

4.   The cashiers don't stand because they're lazy-If you ever wondered why the cashiers were always sitting at the checkout line, it's because it's a European thing. The register chairs are a German thing. I like to think they sit because they work hard cleaning and stocking when they aren't ringing.

 

5.   The company is linked to Trader Joe’s-Remember when you were reading about Aldi Nord and how it was different from the regular supermarkets that you’re used to seeing throughout the US? That’s because these stores are actually labeled as Trader Joe’s stores in the United States.

As you can see, there’s a reason that these two brothers decided to go their separate ways when it came to business. They each have a very different vision of how things should be when it comes to operating their stores. Most people would never guess that Trader Joe’s and Aldi are even remotely related.

 

6.   The produce is as fresh as it is inexpensive-The cheap produce is among the stores' top-selling product so it's always fresh. "We get produce deliveries every morning. The turnaround is very fast so we don't have much waste." They continued: "We just don't over-order, I guess. It's more typical that we are all out of broccoli by the time we close than it is that we have several extra cases that just end up in the trash."

 

7.   There's a reason Aldi is so inexpensive-Liz explains: "We don't have hidden expenses because we choose to save shoppers money rather than have nonessential grocery store services like in-store banking, pharmacies, and check cashing." Those "convenient" extra services really do mark up the costs, and Aldi does their best to keep them down.

 

8.   Using a shopping cart requires a deposit-To use a shopping cart in the store, customers deposit a quarter, and when they return their cart to the corral, they receive their quarter back. This allows the store’s workers to focus on customer service rather than having to retrieve carts from the parking lot.

 

9.   You can return any Aldi-exclusive brand product for a full refund with no questions asked-Liz is quoted as saying: "We're so confident in the quality of our products that we offer a double guarantee, which means if for any reason customers don't like an Aldi-exclusive brand product, we'll give them their money back and replace the item."

 “The typical human life seems to be quite unplanned, undirected, unlived, and unsavored. Only those who consciously think about the adventure of living as a matter of making choices among options, which they have found for themselves, ever establish real self-control and live their lives fully.” (Karl Albrecht)[i]

Karl Albrecht and Aldi

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[i] Sources used:

·         “13 Secrets Shoppers Need to Know About Aldi” by Andrea Browne Taylor  

·        “20 Things You Didn’t Know about Aldi Stores” by Nat Berman

·        “7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Aldi” by Carina Wolff

·        “8 Things you didn’t know about Aldi, as revealed by insider employees” by Leon Oleng

·        “Things You Didn’t Know About Aldi” by Dan Myers

 

This post is dedicated to my wife, Bobbi, who does the majority of her grocery shopping at Aldi.