Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We went through the discount grocery thing a few years back. There were several of them that popped up where the food was in boxes on the shelf, you had to bag your own etc. They went out of business maybe because of WalMart but possibly because people here are sort of lazy that way. Phoenix is the land where no one does anything themselves. They pay to have landscaping, pool maintenance, house keeping, and dog bathing. It also could be tht the shopping experience was ghetto. In any case, I prefer self-checkout, but I am not going to some dirty store that has a parking lot full of oil slicks from leaking junkers, with boxes piled all over the floor, and rub elbows with low-lifes just to save a couple bucks on groceries. Our area Walmart is clean, seems safe, the clientele is mixed but generally reflects the affluence of the area. I'll go there when I can and bite the bullet and get gouged at Safeway when its too inconvenient to make the trip.
Out of the 2,500 US Aldi's, I've been in 4 or 5 of them. Each one was located in a neighborhood where I would consider living. Aldi's targets demographics that value the dollar. So if they expand here for instance, I would expect them to locate a store anywhere where people look for value. For instance, a perfect location would be Sun City West even though there is a high concentration of millionaires. But in SCW, they don't pretend to be wealthy by taking out loans on bling cars, boats, etc. That's because they accumulated their money the old fashion way; paying attention to the one and five dollar bills which later turned into >>$1M. Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door
No thanks! I'm too busy for silly little gimicks. Why the hell would I want to put a quarter to get a cart ( I don't carry cash or change for one thing). Also why would I want to bring the cart back to the store; that is the store's responsibility and expense. I'm paying enough for the groceries, they can pick up my cart. And I don't have time to think about carrying bags into the grocery store and bagging my own groceries. Who has time for that. I'm paying for the goceries, you can bag them and provide me with a bag thank you very much.
People are brainwashed into thinking anything new is somehow better. Essentially, places like this have found a way to cut costs and make you feel better about it: "Oh you get to bring your own bag and bag your own groceries and pay a quarter for a cart and bring the cart back to the store. See how innovative they are" Give me a f$## break!
If I remember correctly, you are a cardiologist. Based off of time management, it's better for you to do what you do best and not run around all day long to save $$'s. Time is too precious. I use the same math to pay for someone to mow my grass 2x a month @$50 a time, $120 to clean my house once a month (we touch up in between) and now, $40 an application every three months to put down my bug killer. I would rather work by promoting my business versus clean, mow, etc. I prefer doing what I do versus those tasks.
With that said, I won't make a special stop to go an Aldi's. I would have to be driving by their store already. I already shop so the time impact is minimal. For the past 15 years, I work 15-30 hours a week and my wife works with me for about 10 hours a week (I worked over 100 hours a week for years when I started). If I had 3 hours a day to spend with my family, I would not bother casing down an Aldi's; I'd shop online grocer that delivers to the door. But one of my hobbies is maximizing my dollar. Sometimes irrationally; it's how I am designed. I have started businesses to get a deal on at least 5 topics. One turned into my profitable vocation (by accident). So being a cheapskate is who I am. I digress...
Other families have a stay at home parent and have decided to cut back where they can. One expensive category is groceries. So they clip coupons and watch for sales. For their position in life, an Aldi like store helps their bottom line making it possible for them to live off of one income.
As for a gimmick. Price, quality, service. Pick 2 of the three. Aldi's store are NOT service oriented and they lack selection (an aspect of service). They don't have people picking up carts and their solution is to make a bunch of cheapskates (like me) do their work for them by motivating them to return their cart (with a 25 cent carrot). It works. Your cable bill makes you do work by downloading the bill or they charge you $10 to send it in the mail. Southwest Airlines makes you do their work and book your ticket online or they charge you a service fee to call them. Doctors offices (and thousands of other businesses) make you go through prompts so that they don't have to hire someone to pick up the damn phone! In 2017, service sucks and is being offloaded to us all the time. Including picking up shopping carts.
That said, the Aldi's concept is innovative. It's a neighborhood convenience store that costs less because they only sell core items and they do so with two or three staffed employees. One or two cash registers and pumping out people non-stop as the manager is filling the shelves as fast as they can. I would call that innovative.
Last edited by MN-Born-n-Raised; 08-07-2017 at 07:29 AM..
If I remember correctly, you are a cardiologist. Based off of time management, it's better for you to do what you do best and not run around all day long to save $$'s. Time is too precious. I use the same math to pay for someone to mow my grass 2x a month @$50 a time, $120 to clean my house once a month (we touch up in between) and now, $40 an application every three months to put down my bug killer. I would rather work by promoting my business versus clean, mow, etc. I prefer doing what I do versus those tasks.
With that said, I won't make a special stop to go an Aldi's. I would have to be driving by their store already. I already shop so the time impact is minimal. For the past 15 years, I work 15-30 hours a week and my wife works with me for about 10 hours a week (I worked over 100 hours a week for years when I started). If I had 3 hours a day to spend with my family, I would not bother casing down an Aldi's; I'd shop online grocer that delivers to the door. But one of my hobbies is maximizing my dollar. Sometimes irrationally; it's how I am designed. I have started businesses to get a deal on at least 5 topics. One turned into my profitable vocation (by accident). So being a cheapskate is who I am. I digress...
Other families have a stay at home parent and have decided to cut back where they can. One expensive category is groceries. So they clip coupons and watch for sales. For their position in life, an Aldi like store helps their bottom line making it possible for them to live off of one income.
As for a gimmick. Price, quality, service. Pick 2 of the three. Aldi's store are NOT service oriented and they lack selection (an aspect of service). They don't have people picking up carts and their solution is to make a bunch of cheapskates (like me) do their work for them by motivating them to return their cart (with a 25 cent carrot). It works. Your cable bill makes you do work by downloading the bill or they charge you $10 to send it in the mail. Southwest Airlines makes you do their work and book your ticket online or they charge you a service fee to call them. Doctors offices (and thousands of other businesses) make you go through prompts so that they don't have to hire someone to pick up the damn phone! In 2017, service sucks and is being offloaded to us all the time. Including picking up shopping carts.
That said, the Aldi's concept is innovative. It's a neighborhood convenience store that costs less because they only sell core items and they do so with two or three staffed employees. One or two cash registers and pumping out people non-stop as the manager is filling the shelves as fast as they can. I would call that innovative.
Fresh and Easy had a similar model but crashed and burned here in AZ.
Out of the 2,500 US Aldi's, I've been in 4 or 5 of them. Each one was located in a neighborhood where I would consider living. Aldi's targets demographics that value the dollar. So if they expand here for instance, I would expect them to locate a store anywhere where people look for value. For instance, a perfect location would be Sun City West even though there is a high concentration of millionaires. But in SCW, they don't pretend to be wealthy by taking out loans on bling cars, boats, etc. That's because they accumulated their money the old fashion way; paying attention to the one and five dollar bills which later turned into >>$1M. Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door
You're lucky as I've had the opposite experience than you. I've been to 3-4 different Aldis and I would never consider living in any of those areas. Sure they target areas where people look for value,heck I'm always looking for a way to save money but there's one thing I will not skimp on and that food. I don't have time to remember to stack my back seat full of bags just to save a few cents on some no name brands and I very rarely have any change for a cart as I charge everything to accumulate my sky miles points.
Groceries were very expensive back in MA (as is for you in MN) and when Aldis came around I thought I'd give them a try. I saved .50 on a gallon of milk but found it spoiled in 3 days yet bought another and same thing happened. Had the same problem with their produce and their eggs so no thanks,I'll never step into another Aldi just to save a few pennies especially here in AZ where there are so many more better choices.
Same goes for Walmart back east. It was always dirty,in a bad hood and full of your typical undesirable people who you see in all those "people of Walmart" chain emails. Now the one here in Goodyear is a total 360 than any other Walmart I've been to. Very clean neat store and everyone who's come out to visit from back east wishes theirs was this nice. They'll price match competitors weekly ads so if you're a smart shopper (which I know you are ) and don't mind spending 10-15 minutes going through the weekly flyers you can save as much or more getting name brand items than some generic stuff from Aldi. I hope they do well if they come here but I think with all the competition here they're really going to have to be smart where they place their stores. Place them close to a Food City or a 99 Cent Store and I think they'll do well competing for that market.
We went through the discount grocery thing a few years back. There were several of them that popped up where the food was in boxes on the shelf, you had to bag your own etc. They went out of business maybe because of WalMart but possibly because people here are sort of lazy that way. Phoenix is the land where no one does anything themselves. They pay to have landscaping, pool maintenance, house keeping, and dog bathing. It also could be tht the shopping experience was ghetto. In any case, I prefer self-checkout, but I am not going to some dirty store that has a parking lot full of oil slicks from leaking junkers, with boxes piled all over the floor, and rub elbows with low-lifes just to save a couple bucks on groceries. Our area Walmart is clean, seems safe, the clientele is mixed but generally reflects the affluence of the area. I'll go there when I can and bite the bullet and get gouged at Safeway when its too inconvenient to make the trip.
Ugh. I'd never want to shop in a store like that either!
Thankfully Aldi isn't like that.
__________________
My posts as moderator will be in red.
You're lucky as I've had the opposite experience than you. I've been to 3-4 different Aldis and I would never consider living in any of those areas. Sure they target areas where people look for value,heck I'm always looking for a way to save money but there's one thing I will not skimp on and that food. I don't have time to remember to stack my back seat full of bags just to save a few cents on some no name brands and I very rarely have any change for a cart as I charge everything to accumulate my sky miles points.
Groceries were very expensive back in MA (as is for you in MN) and when Aldis came around I thought I'd give them a try. I saved .50 on a gallon of milk but found it spoiled in 3 days yet bought another and same thing happened. Had the same problem with their produce and their eggs so no thanks,I'll never step into another Aldi just to save a few pennies especially here in AZ where there are so many more better choices.
Same goes for Walmart back east. It was always dirty,in a bad hood and full of your typical undesirable people who you see in all those "people of Walmart" chain emails. Now the one here in Goodyear is a total 360 than any other Walmart I've been to. Very clean neat store and everyone who's come out to visit from back east wishes theirs was this nice. They'll price match competitors weekly ads so if you're a smart shopper (which I know you are ) and don't mind spending 10-15 minutes going through the weekly flyers you can save as much or more getting name brand items than some generic stuff from Aldi. I hope they do well if they come here but I think with all the competition here they're really going to have to be smart where they place their stores. Place them close to a Food City or a 99 Cent Store and I think they'll do well competing for that market.
I have shopped Aldi my entire life prior to living in AZ, so up until 2013. When people ask me what I miss about where I moved from, it's always Aldi (and Taco John's)!
Some Aldi are better than others, but I can say I have shopped in dozens of them and have never been in any I would consider them too scary or dirty to return to, especially in the last decade or so when the quality of merchandise has gone up (addition of many organic items as well and their Fit & Healthy line) as well as the stores themselves. If you haven't been in one for a very long time, you can't really judge all stores, especially newer ones, by that.
__________________
My posts as moderator will be in red.
I have shopped Aldi my entire life prior to living in AZ, so up until 2013. When people ask me what I miss about where I moved from, it's always Aldi (and Taco John's)!
YES! Best fast food place. Perfect place to go if you need a quick meal while out and about, much better than Taco Bell. really good taco salad, the best nachos, and if you need desert, apple grande is awesome. I don't even consider all of the "erto's" to be food here. (and I don't go to the other burger fast food places)
__________________
My posts as moderator will be in red.
[quote=Ponderosa;49104199 I prefer self-checkout, but I am not going to some dirty store that has a parking lot full of oil slicks from leaking junkers, with boxes piled all over the floor, and rub elbows with low-lifes just to save a couple bucks on groceries. Our area Walmart is clean, seems safe, the clientele is mixed but generally reflects the affluence of the area. I'll go there when I can and bite the bullet and get gouged at Safeway when its too inconvenient to make the trip.[/QUOTE]
Said by somebody who has never been to an Aldi's, right? (Rephetorical question. The answer is obvious.)
I'm not even an Aldi's fan, but at least my opinion is based on actually stepping foot in a few. And I don't mind going to Hispanic grocery stores either, regardless of the "low-lifes" and "oil slicks".
Is there any reason to shop at Aldi (*not Aldi's) over Costco? Are their prices better? I've never been in one of those stores but they were all over in MI and always seemed busy.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Now the one here in Goodyear is a total 360 than any other Walmart I've been to. Very clean neat store and everyone who's come out to visit from back east wishes theirs was this nice. They'll price match competitors weekly ads so if you're a smart shopper (which I know you are 
) and don't mind spending 10-15 minutes going through the weekly flyers you can save as much or more getting name brand items than some generic stuff from Aldi. I hope they do well if they come here but I think with all the competition here they're really going to have to be smart where they place their stores. Place them close to a Food City or a 99 Cent Store and I think they'll do well competing for that market.
