Where Wal-Mart Failed, Aldi Succeeds (2011)
Something I&#x27;ve been working on in my spare time is a database of grocery staples (about 200 items, plus 80 common cleaning&#x2F;toiletry items), their costs (per item, unit price, per package), and where you can get them for that price.  Regular everyday price, not sale prices.<p>Aldi not only outcompetes most supermarkets -- including ones that are traditionally considered inexpensive like Market Basket -- but can go toe-to-toe with warehouse clubs and bulk services like Amazon Subscribe &amp; Save.  Having spent far more time in supermarkets than I&#x27;d care to admit, it&#x27;s pretty obvious as to why:<p>* The stores are smaller.  They pay less in rent.<p>* They have a limited selection of inventory.  Don&#x27;t expect lots of pre-prepared food, and fancy pre-made items.  In fact, expect very little.  It&#x27;s mostly staples with some extremely common packaged convenience foods.<p>* As a result of the first two items, they don&#x27;t need much in the way of staff to cover the store.  They&#x27;re spending their time restocking the store as stuff runs out, so things <i>don&#x27;t</i> run out.  However if you want some items, your best bet is to go at open.<p>* Which is 9AM.  They also close at 9AM.  Not running 24 hours means lower costs.<p>* They have few registers.  My local store has four.  However they don&#x27;t bag your groceries.  Your groceries get dumped into another cart at the end of the register, and you go pack it yourself.  The speed in which a person can be checked out is VERY quick as a result.<p>* You pay $0.25 for a cart, and get it back when you return it.  The upside is no one is outside rounding up carts.<p>* They provide no bags.  At all.  Though they&#x27;ll happily let you take the empty boxes items came in.<p>Compared to the local BigCo supermarket chain, they come in at about 40% cheaper, even if you&#x27;re buying store brand from the BigCo chain.  On many items, they undercut both the local BJs and Costco, despite not selling that kind of quantity.  They do it by providing exactly what you need at a grocery store, and nothing you don&#x27;t.<p>Even compared to Market Basket -- which I do love and still go to for some things -- they still easily come in 15% cheaper.  There are some things I can&#x27;t get at Aldi (so I&#x27;ll go to Market Basket, as I&#x27;ll go to Trader Joe&#x27;s to get high quality produce easier), but damned if they aren&#x27;t a super efficient setup.