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Originally Posted by Fredster
TJ's is quite different from Aldi's
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California, this is the store that beats Trader Joe’s on prices.
Well, most of them.
Aldi is a low-cost supermarket chain started in Germany by two Albrecht brothers — one of whom later bought Trader Joe’s. While Aldi (a combination of the words Albrecht and discount) has been in the U.S. for several decades, it’s recently been on an expansion binge and announced plans in June to expand into southern California.
By the end of 2018, Aldi expects to operate nearly 2,000 stores in the U.S., compared with 1,336 at the end of 2014, mostly in the eastern part of the country. Trader Joe’s, which got its start in California, is far smaller; it had 418 stores at the end of last year, according to Euromonitor, a global market research firm.
“It does hit a sweet spot, the same type of sweet spot that Trader Joe’s hits,” said Tim Barrett, global retailing analyst at Euromonitor. “You’re getting good prices and not sacrificing quality.”
But while Trader Joe’s has a cultlike following, Aldi has a somewhat down-market image in some areas. But it appears it is trying to change that, as it has done in the U.K., where it and rival Lidl have been remarkably successful in gaining market share from the country’s main supermarkets. Aldi’s U.S. chief executive, Jason Hart, recently told the Los Angeles Times that the chain has been attracting more affluent customers and that its newest stores are in middle-income and upper-income areas.
“If you were to shop at Aldi today, you would find almond milk, organic coconut oil and chia seeds because that’s what our customers are looking for,” Joan Kavanaugh, vice president of Aldi corporate buying, told MarketWatch.
I still wonder how many of their products are the same with different brand names?