Hotels, restaurants, grocery stores on deck for Pooler

[gentlearts]

Originally Posted by lukas1973

Lidl is a little bit less hard discount, it's considered to be more soft discount. Something like a hybrid between a discount store and a supermarket.
Lidl will have an instore bakery but they don't will have meat, cheese and fish counters. In contrast to Aldi you can choose most of the produce freely (not prepecked). The stores will be a little bit more fancy, and they are about double the size. Most likely that Lidl will have self-checkouts.
I'm pretty sure that Lidl carts will have this deposit system, and no bagging service.

It's a little bit hard for me to understand that putting a quarter into the slot is an issue. But I also don't understand why Aldi in the U.S. don't provide free cart chips to their customers, especially in the U.S. where paying with coins is so uncommon.



In Germany even the most upscale grocery stores don't offer a bagging service, they also don't carry your purchases to your car. When an elderly customer would ask for such services, then they would get assistance, at least at traditional supermarkets. At discount stores they sometimes help challenged customers by bagging the groceries, but that's all.
Service in German supermarkets means normally good consulting at the meat, fish and cheese counter and advices like which wine fits best to venison. Or when employees accompany customers to the product they are searching for.

We shop mostly at Aldi and Lidl, but I can understand when people stick to traditional / upscale grocery stores.

But I have heard that in Germany the attitude of a shopkeeper towards a customer is very different. That is, much more aloof. It is more like, buy it, or don't buy it, I don't care. I wonder how this will translate here.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

But I have heard that in Germany the attitude of a shopkeeper towards a customer is very different. That is, much more aloof. It is more like, buy it, or don't buy it, I don't care. I wonder how this will translate here.

Uh ... I don't think actual GERMANS will be running these stores.

[pink caddy]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

It is more like, buy it, or don't buy it, I don't care. I wonder how this will translate here.

Like this (just in case you come across this problem).


Kaufen oder nicht kaufen es, ist mir egal.


Or ,if they really get down on you "Press 3 for German".






LOL at the many ways I avoid the work I'm suppose to be doing and posting this.

[gentlearts]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Uh ... I don't think actual GERMANS will be running these stores.

Oh really? I thought they'd be shipping them over.

[SavannahLife]

No soup for you!!

[lukas1973]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

But I have heard that in Germany the attitude of a shopkeeper towards a customer is very different. That is, much more aloof. It is more like, buy it, or don't buy it, I don't care. I wonder how this will translate here.

Obviously that Americans will work in the stores (like Newsboy already mentioned). But you are right insofar that a grocery chain in the U.S. with German shop assistants would never work.

The differences in the attitude are not a specific shopkeeper or retail thing, it's a difference in the mentality between Americans and Germans (of course it's generalized). In Germany for example we normally don't say hello to strangers. We also don't smile at strangers, it's just a neutral mien. If you pass a shop assistant in a German store he will not notice you and he will say nothing, even if you shop there almost every day. At the checkout the cashier will normally say "Hello", but that's also not always the case. At the end the cashier will normally say "Bye", a "Bye, and have a nice day" is already considered very friendly. But many German customers also don't say Hello or Goodbye.
Germans tend to be very straightforward. If you ask a shop assistant for help, he will most likely assist you. But if you ask a second question that might be appears a little bit silly to the shop assistant, he will most likely show that he is annoyed by your presence.
Germans also tend to give advice. If a customer doesn't behave in a proper manner (for example bagging the groceries directly at the checkout instead of bagging them in the bagging area), the cashier might be blame the customer for doing it wrongly.
Especially the employees at Aldi in Germany appears sometimes a little bit arrogant.
Most Germans don't want to be disturbed by shop assistants or by waiters in restaurants. If they ask for help they expect to get assistance, but otherwise they prefer to be allone.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by SavannahLife

No soup for you!!

Savannah Life that may be the funniest thing you've ever posted !

[gentlearts]

That's interesting, Lukas. What I was trying to say is the LIDL might have trouble translating the German company ethos to the US.

[pink caddy]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Savannah Life that may be the funniest thing you've ever posted !

I agree 100% ! Might be going from doom and gloom to Seinfeld humor. SL, congrats.

[lukas1973]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

That's interesting, Lukas. What I was trying to say is the LIDL might have trouble translating the German company ethos to the US.

I think that will be quite challenging. The CEO of Lidl US comes from Lidl Ireland. According to their website future sales operations manager, logistics manager and supply chain manager will be Americans that get a 21 month training in Germany where they also learn German.
The future store manager will be send for training to Lidl stores in Ireland and the UK.

Lidl operates in 27 European countries, that are often quite diverse in grocery retailing in each country. Lidl had in some countries initial difficulties. But I think they will be able to overcome the cultural differences between the U.S. and Germany / Europe.

I'm more curious about the size of the Lidl stores in the U.S. About 22,000 sq ft sales area per store seems unusual large for a limited assortment retailer. It's about double the size of an Aldi store and still about 30% larger than the most recently built Lidl "future" stores in Europe. And the planned number of employees per store will be reportedly about 30-35. They will need quite decent sales per store to make the business profitable.