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0 pointsowenversteeg6y ago0 comments

The Aldi is "third world"? What on earth?

I personally shop in Lidl, not Aldi, but Lidl is often compared to Aldi, about as popular and occupies the same price segment. And I eat like a king from there! Excellent protected origin cheeses, meats, wines, organic products... Half the time I leave the Lidl I go with a shopping cart that would make an American foodie drool. My most recent purchase there included Manchego cheese from Spain (fantastic stuff!), French wine, Kalamata olives, Belgian beer, Belgian chocolate...

The Americans I've taken to the Lidl have all been impressed; they certainly did not say anything to the effect of it being 3rd world. Canadian supermarkets, on the other hand, I remember as having shockingly high prices (even after converting prices from Canadian peso) and far fewer fresh items than I was used to.

Furthermore, people with "regular jobs" in Germany generally live much richer lives than their American counterparts. Fancy/organic foods are far lower priced in Europe, 30€ with a low-cost airline will take you everywhere from the south of France to Spain or Italy, museums, music and events are cheaper, top universities are in reach for your children... And yes (gasp!) in many places you don't even need a car! I commute around 240km a day by train + a few minutes' bike :)

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15 comments · 3 top-level

biztos6y ago· 7 in thread

I'm American and I find Lidl to be absolutely ghetto; Aldi only marginally less so; but neither of them as scary as Netto! A lot of my friends shop at these places, because they're really cheap, and if you don't actually care who gets your money (or you can't afford to care) it's sorta like why not?

In their favor I will say that there is less choice of products than in, say, a Spar or Rewe (mid-market grocery chains) and thus shopping, especially for a family, can be both cheaper and more efficient. At least in Berlin there's also Edeka everywhere, which is sort of cheap-ish but not so soul-crushing.

I guess I'm pretty far off topic already, but I will add that I find it weird that there's no equivalent of Whole Foods in Germany. You have some chains of "Bioladen" like LPG (yuck) or BioCompany (pretty good IMO) -- but nobody's got that magic Whole Paycheck mix of yummy food, organic and also gourmet stuff, and that sort of vaguely aspirational shopping experience while also having a big fat parking lot.

Or maybe this exists in Munich?

novok6y ago

Most americans are shopping at a grocery outlet, walmart, foodmaxx or a 7-11 equivalent buying hotdog meat and white bread, which is way worse than any Lidl. The furnishing might not be as fancy at Lidl compared to safeway, but what they sell is fairly decent quality.

jimbokun6y ago

How do German grocery stores compare to Italy?

I haven't been to Germany (outside Frankfurt airport), but on my Italian vacation last year, just going to a convenience store and picking up some bread, cheese, and fruit was cheap but WholeFoods-like quality or better. Same with their supermarkets, with regional products featured with government regulations controlling what can be labelled that way:

https://www.thechefandthedish.com/single-post/2016/10/25/Wha...

Anything equivalent in Germany?

vinay4276y ago

The point of Whole Foods (at least for those I know) isn't quality of produce. You can get similar quality produce by spending more at most other supermarkets. The point is the diversity of specialty items which I haven't really found an equivalent for in any chain store in Europe so far. I don't think that model would succeed in many European countries that are slower to adopt novel and/or imported food trends.

kaybe6y ago

That's why you have several stores close to each other which can all stay in business. You start at Aldi and get the basics, go to Rewe for fancier things, stop by dm or Rossmann for the most fantastic selection of toiletries and hit the bakery on the way back. Or if you live in the city it's easy to take turns every few days instead of doing it all at once.

addendum: I really like the efficiency of Aldi/Lidl with respect to filling shelves. Why does someone have to touch all the pasta packages and arrange them when it's almost the same work for the customers to grab them right out of the box?

overkalix6y ago

That's not why a lot of times you can find Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, etc stores together. It's a combination of zoning regulations and Hotelling's Law.

saturnV6y ago

I feel that where all Aldi’s are relatively comparable, for Edeka it seems to depend a lot on the shop. Where I live there are two Edekas within a 3min drive, one is a bit more fancy than the average Aldi, however the other one has 50 different types of quinoa and people that make you sushi on demand. It is a totally different shopping experience.

biztos6y ago

I recall that my local Edeka, before Edeka got so big, gave a lot of room to the local managers, who were ex-rocker types who were really good at employing local young dudes who probably weren't all that employable elsewhere (and who did a fine job as it turned out).

Enough that I kind of assumed it was a franchise rather than just a chain, until they started buying up all the Kaisers.

So maybe that's part of their strategy, to give the managers more responsibility to differentiate their stores instead of making them all the same?

If so I wonder how they incentivize that.

TillE6y ago· 5 in thread

Look, I like I lot of things about Germany, but the supermarkets here are a joke. There's more product variety in a single Whole Foods in America than there is in the entire combined inventory of all German supermarkets.

Most processed foods (ready meals, frozen pizzas, etc) are also extremely low quality.

magduf6y ago

>Look, I like I lot of things about Germany, but the supermarkets here are a joke. There's more product variety in a single Whole Foods in America than there is in the entire combined inventory of all German supermarkets.

You've got to be kidding. German supermarkets are just small, because they don't have the cheap real-estate that suburban stores in the USA have, but the food is far higher-quality than in mainstream US stores. Comparing to Whole Foods is just idiotic; that's like comparing German cars to American cars and picking whatever passes for an economy car in Germany, and comparing that to the Tesla model S. Only a very, very tiny percentage of the American public shops at Whole Foods, or can even afford it. Most places don't even have them available.

>Most processed foods (ready meals, frozen pizzas, etc) are also extremely low quality.

Compared to what? Not stuff in American supermarkets.

glofish6y ago

The Aldi in the Americas (midwest) are not even remotely similar in quality to the Aldi's of Europe.

Walmart supercenters have much higher quality - every larger town has mainstream and cheap grocers substantially better than Aldi in every respect.

To me, Aldi for food is like Goodwill for clothes. I understand that some people hit hard times and have no other options, but my perception is that if you shop there it probably means that you are in serious financial trouble.

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thatfrenchguy6y ago

> Most processed foods (ready meals, frozen pizzas, etc) are also extremely low quality.

Funny because processed/frozen food in the US, even from a expensive store like WF look and taste so disgusting to a french person (ever been to a Picard ?) that I've stopped eating any of them (which is great for my health I guess)

aeyes6y ago

Aldi, Lidl, Netto, etc aren't supermarkets. They are discounters.

Go to a real supermarket like Kaufland or Globus.

Ididntdothis6y ago

On the other hand you can buy good bread and a lot of other basic foods pretty cheap and in high quality. When I look at American stores there is an enormous variety of cheap crap and then some decent quality expensive items.

Bayart6y ago

Aldi and LIDL (or any other chain with the same working-three-employees-to-the-bone and having and narrow set of products) are pretty ghetto compared to other EU supermarket chains with larger footprints and higher prices. Though there are things in Aldi I like (at least in my own country, I know there are two different Aldi structures going around).

And Germans definitely have a reputation for being cheap and careless with their appearance that's not quite just a cliché.

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