ALDI ---The Magic Of Cheap

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The founders of the world’s most successful discount chain were the German brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. Karl and Theo Who? ALBRECHT, like in ALDI which means AL.brecht DI.scount. They have both died. Now their children are at the helm. They’ve got shops in 20 countries. (Trader Joe’s in the USA also belongs to the ALDI empire.) In 1961 the brothers divided their German discount empire into ALDI North and ALDI South, because they couldn’t agree on the question whether to offer cigarettes or not. Theo wanted to, Karl didn’t, too much loss due to shop-lifting, he said (although they lose only 0.5% through shop-lifting in contrast to other comparable German stores which lose 1%. In ALDI stores the customers are watched through one-way mirrors). If you’re interested in your future as a customer, read on. It won’t be long before ALDI becomes a household word in your country, too. It’s inevitable. Conscientious, price-conscious customers simply love it! In the beginning ALDI was a synonym for cheap and grubby and nobody wanted to be seen with a plastic bag from ALDI. This has changed completely. Now the customers come from all social strata. The fur clad wife of a General Manager arriving in a chauffeur-driven fat Mercedes (in German a big Mercedes is always ‘fat’) in front of an ALDI store is certainly not the rule, but no exception, either. The concentration on what is essential – less is more – makes the daily shopping routine less stressful. The standardisation of the shops results in an at-home feeling which many shoppers miss in gigantic supermarkets. Greed and thriftiness unite members of different social strata and democratise the experience of shopping. The shoppers are convinced that they aren’t cheated, that they always get the best quality for the lowest possible price. Food products can’t be fresher as they don’t stay long in the shops what with the many customers. A housewife who has bought 50% of all goods at ALDI for over 20 years, “I’ve raised my kids on ALDI products and one of my sons is the German Jiu-Jitsu youth champion. They can’t be so bad, can they?” If a product is qualified as worse than ‘satisfying’ by an independent organisation, it’s immediately thrown out. The supplier has to come with lorries and take it away at his own costs. “To go and report to ALDI is worse than confessing one’s wife an extramarital affair,” says a businessman who’s in the know. ALDI gives a 100% guarantee to take back the goods which don’t satisfy. No arguments. The customer comes, complains and gets his money back. No vouchers or some such nonsense. ALDI has NEVER spent a single cent on advertising. No posters in the streets, flyers in the letter-boxes, ads on the radio or TV, nothing. Once a week the local newspapers publish a page under the headline ‘ALDI informs’ on which the latest special offers are shown. When, say, computes are on offer, people start queuing in the wee small hours. Do I buy at ALDI? No, I don’t. The shop is too far away from where I live. Our household is small and it doesn’t make sense to spend money to get to a shop where I can save money. But yesterday I read in the local newspaper that ALDI plans to move into our neighbourhood, so . . .