Aldi is wildly successful in Southern California. Some stores will not make it, which ones? (Santa Clarita: buying, closing)

[kttam186290]

I walked into an Aldi, spent five minutes looking around, then walked right back out.

Just not my thing, I guess?

[Mr_Geek]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

I walked into an Aldi, spent five minutes looking around, then walked right back out.

Just not my thing, I guess?

Just curious, what didn't you like about it?

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by Mr_Geek

Just curious, what didn't you like about it?

It felt too generic. I'm willing to acknowledge that, perhaps, this "issue" is me expecting a more frilly shopping environment for all the hype about it being related to Trader Joe's, I don't know?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

I walked into an Aldi, spent five minutes looking around, then walked right back out.

Just not my thing, I guess?

Let me see, I am betting you love stores like Whole Foods, shop at specialty stores and spend weekends shopping framers markets? Am I right? Just curious.

[Mr_Geek]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

It felt too generic. I'm willing to acknowledge that, perhaps, this "issue" is me expecting a more frilly shopping environment for all the hype about it being related to Trader Joe's, I don't know?

Well frills cost money and Aldi is trying to save you money.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Mr_Geek

Well frills cost money and Aldi is trying to save you money.

Yes, ALDI's is more about the customers ability to buy, than being cool or trendy.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

It felt too generic. I'm willing to acknowledge that, perhaps, this "issue" is me expecting a more frilly shopping environment for all the hype about it being related to Trader Joe's, I don't know?

I understand what you are saying, but there is a huge difference between T.Joe's and Aldis. This has been mentioned over and over. One is a specialty store, the other a no frills, store for those who want quality but on a low budget. So the selection is nothing, they have what they have and the frills are for other stores. Even though the same family owns both T Joe's and Aldi's. It is a separate arm of the family involved in each store. T. Joe's originated in Pasadena and was bought out by the German family in the late 70s I believe. Aldi's originated in Germany.

[69Charger]

50 cent eggs, 59 cent mustard, $4 frozen pizza...and all are good! What's not to love? Just avoid the cereal and oatmeal. And the meat prices are average.

[SUPbud]

I actually like these conversations about grocery stores, as a former grocery store employee, and a guy that browses leisurely down each aisle.

WHY do you think some chains can or should fail in a short amount of time? I do not believe one size fits all. There is a market (in the economic sense) for many varieties of experience, many themes, many providers.

Also, how nice or how ghetto YOUR local store is, is a function of the neighborhood you live in, and the building's year of construction. I think any grocery store built in 1979 that started life as a Lucky Market and has changed names 7 times in the last 38 years should just be bulldozed and re-built from scratch. Not facade-remodel - bulldozed.

Aldi is a trip with their .25cent grocery carts. But notice homeless people never have Aldi carts! If I was homeless I'd score one, just as a badge of honor. The thing I don't like about Aldi, is the fresh fruit and vegetable section is kind of like an afterthought in their store - lots of mass buys of some special items in season, but ultimately there is only 1 kind of tomato or 1 kind of zuchinni to pick from, or do without - like somekind of Soviet-era state commissary. Good buys on their generic cereal. Non-food dime-store junk in the center of their store. They have a separate "bag your own loot away from the checkstand" theme.

Fresh n Easy was good for the 'post-zombie-apocalypse' vibe - there was never any people in their stores... creepy... which is prolly why they failed. Also, Bill & Hillary Clinton were part owners of Fresh n Easy (look it up: Yucaipa & the Clintons).

My love affair with Trader Joes has been life-long and ever-lasting, but you can't do ALL your shopping there. I also object to their "buy SIX zucchinis in a clamshell" packaging as anti-democratic. I only *need* 1. And Trader Joes has pushed me to try new foods, that I never would have discovered without them. Seriously, there's no "chia seeds" at Stater Bros.

Whole Foods is so ridiculously expensive, I have theory that the only people who shop there on the regular, have some kind of eating disorder, to where they just don't need to eat that much food! I see "rib eye steak" at $29.95/lb - get out of here! I'll go vegetarian OR CANNIBAL before I'll pay $29.95/lb for meat. Still, there are some features of Whole Foods which are globally unique, and I am happy they exist.

And of course sometimes you need the large Ralphs Albertsons Vons Stater Bros just because I only have 1 afternoon to get it all, best to find it all under one roof... even if your goddamn cilantro is $2.49/bunch and $6 eggs (I'm looking at you, Albertsons).

I enjoy rotating amongst all the stores in my area, I do not choose only one, I choose them all. One day if there is only "Walmart Groceries" and "Amazon-Whole-Foods" as the only choices, humanity will lose.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by lukas1973

Safeway belongs to Albertsons and they belong to Cerberus Capital Management. That's a private equity firm. Ralphs is just a banner from Kroger. Kroger is surely a very strong food retailer, but I doubt that they will do their business under so many different banners for ever. With declining margins they will be forced to cut costs even more. They could do that (among others) by reducing the number of banners.

Among the big grocery retailer in the U.S. Albertsons seems to be the one that is the most in danger.

From Wikipedia:

Albertsons operates stores under the following banners (number of stores):

Safeway: 1,308
Albertsons: 575
Vons: 325
Jewel-Osco: 187
Acme: 178
Shaw's and Stark Market: 169
Tom Thumb: 64
Randall's: 44
United Supermarkets: 37
Pavilions: 36
Carrs: 24
Haggen: 15
Market Street: 12
Amigos: 4
Lucky: 2
Super Saver Foods: 2

To me it looks extremely inefficent to operate grocery stores under so many different banners.

Kroger is much cheaper than Albertsons. Safeway, as an independent company, was in between those two. Here in Houston, Randalls is more expensive (to astronomical Albertsons prices) post-merger. Albertsons is known in the grocery industry to be the most expensive.

How about the dual banners there in L.A.? In Dallas-Fort Worth, Albertsons decided to rebrand the Albertsons-branded stores (mostly in Fort Worth) to Tom Thumb. Are they also unifying under the Vons banner right now?