Aldi is the brand of two different supermarket chains with over 10,000 stores in over 20
countries that makes over $50 billion dollars a year.
Based in Germany, the grocer has a reputation for providing quality product at discount
prices thanks to it's "Guiding Principle", that great quality shouldn't come at a high
price, rather great quality should come with every day low prices.
That principle has clearly served them well so we decided to find out the Top 10 interesting
facts that you might not know about Aldi.
It's Actually Two Different Businesses
While they sometimes go by the formal name Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Compagnie, oHG, especially
in North America, the reality is that Aldi as we know it is actually comprised of two
separate companies.
Named Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord (German for Aldi South and Aldi North), the two companies
are actually headquartered in different parts of Germany (with Süd being located in Mülheim
and Nord being located in Essen) and have been separate entities since 1960.
The companies are actually financially and legally separate but do combine their efforts
in terms of branding and when negotiating with contractors, but otherwise have been
operating as completely different companies (with slightly different logos) since around
the time that the Beatles were tearing it up in Hamburg, Germany.
The brothers that founded the company split in 1960 over a dispute as to whether or not
they should carry and sell cigarettes, back when they had only 300 stores and a yearly
revenue of $90 million German marks.
The individual groups were originally owned and managed by the brothers until the death
of Karl Albrecht, who died in 2014, with a net worth of $17.2 billion Euro, making him
the richest man in all of Germany.
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Aldi's Got Good Gin
While they pride themselves on the value that they provide at the low price points they
have, it's safe to say that most people don't associate high end or premium, anything, with
Aldi.
So it may surprise you to hear that the store-branded gin has won awards for quality.
That's right, Aldi's Oliver Cromwell London Dry Gin won a silver medal at the highly prestigious
International Spirits Challenge in 2017, which was amazing in and of itself
but when you hear of the names that it beat out it's even more amazing.
Gins that cost as much as six times as much as Aldi's brand couldn't best their dry gin,
meaning spirits from Tanqueray, Hendrick's and Beefeater were sent home packing.
The gin goes for $12.15 in England whereas the competition like Beefeater's Burrough's
Reserve Gin sells for $80 at most stores in the UK.
That wasn't the only win for Aldi on the day, either, as their more upscale gin, Topaz Premium,
also ended up taking home a silver medal.
While it is their premium brand it isn't something that'll break the bank, either, as it retails
for about $17.50.
Talk about a deal!
Aldi's Spirits Aren't the Only Award Winning Items You Can Find at your Local Chain
Some states in the United States don't allow for the sale of liquor in grocery stores
so you might feel short-changed when it comes to your ability to purchase award-winning
items from Aldi if you're unfortunate enough to live in one of those areas.
As the previous entry showed, Aldo knows how to make a really good gin at a really low
price but luckily that's not the only thing that they sell that has won an award.
Their Broken Clouds brand Pinot Noir, which is a wine and thus also alcohol, has won awards
at different wine contests and considering the fact that it typically runs at a price
of less than $10, it is quite the steal.
Beyond that, the Broken Clouds Pinot also has won awards when combined with Aldi's SimplyNature
Organic White Cheddar Puffs, namely at the 2017 Product of the Year awards in the Salty
Snacks and Wine category.
Product of the Year is the world's largest consumer-voted award for product innovation
and considering they taste over 20,000 wines per year, the fact that Aldi was named a 'Best
Buy' (something that less than 10% of those wines receive) means that they're not only
good at making gin or even alcohol, but at basically making everything that's borderline
unhealthy for you.
Aldi's is Actually a Really Good Deal
Part of the reason that some people don't like shopping at Aldi is that they don't have
the same brands that you'd find at most of its competition and while that's something
you'd have to get used to, the savings you receive from shopping there are definitely
worth the switch.
Studies have shown that shopping at Aldi and buying their in-store brands can save you
on average around 50% versus national brands and while that number can vary it has been
shown to never be less than 40%.
That's against national brands though, so how does it stack up against other stores
and their brands?
Wal-Mart is the obvious choice for comparison as it's been able to negotiate amazing deals
for its shoppers while putting basically everyone they go against out of business (except for
Amazon, who is basically doing to them what they did to everyone else) thanks to their
ability to buy things in such massive amounts, and also thanks to their notoriously hardcore
buying methods.
Aldi actually beats Wal-Mart's brands as well, with an average savings of 20% in that regard.
That means that Aldi is basically the best place to shop if you're looking for savings,
that is until Amazon drops the prices at Whole Foods to levels no one has ever seen before.
Aldi's Instant Bread?
If there's one food that has been the staple of nearly every meal since people learned
how to bake, it's bread and while you can buy bread at the grocery store in pre-sliced
loaves, there's still no substitute for freshly baked bread when it comes to taste and wholesomeness.
Aldi seemed to understand this and they sent a shockwave through the bread industry in
Germany when it was first reported that they had basically created miniature ovens the
size of vending machines that were capable of baking fresh bread at the push of a button
in almost an instant (at two seconds per loaf).
The timing was one issue they had with it, the other was that they were able to charge
only 15 cents per loaf, a price that no baker could compete with.
Beyond that, though, the bakers had an issue with the quality of the bread, saying that
they weren’t against Aldi selling bread, but that it was unfair of them to say that
it's somehow better or different than the packaged stuff they sell on their shelves.
Unfortunately for them the bread was apparently delicious, as well, so it ended up checking
all the boxes (from being extremely cost-effective, fast and delicious).
Luckily there's really only a few times a week that people will eat fresh bread and
so there's still room for the sliced stuff, but still, it's easy to see why the baking
industry was so shook.
Aldi Only Recently Allowed Credit Cards
Most places that offer low cost items have had issues with allowing credit cards at their
cash registers as credit cards tend to have higher merchant fees than debit cards or checks
and so up until recently Aldi didn't allow people to use credit cards when making a purchase
which seems unheard of in today's day and age.
However, because Aldi offers such low prices their profit margins are actually razor thin,
that means that adding an additional 10 cents per transaction can actually cut pretty deeply
into their bottom line.
However, Aldi also focuses heavily on customer experience and because of that, they decided
to make the change to accommodate the preferred buying methods of every person that shops
there.
The word is still out on needing a quarter for the carts there (as well as the whole
bag situation), the good news is that most people will give you their cart when they're
done so you really don't need any cash the next time you stop at Aldi - which increases
the amount of people in the store and thus their profits as a whole.
Aldi did also announce that they weren't changing their prices thanks to the addition of credit
cards, which was a huge sigh of relief.
Aldi was a Leader in Removing Chemicals from their
Products
These days it's not uncommon to hear from restaurants, grocery stores or basically any
business that sells food that they're moving away from food that has preservatives, dyes
or things like antibiotics or MSG in them.
That hasn't always been the case, though, and you can really thank places like Aldi
for leading the way in terms of chemical free, FRESH food.
They produced an in-store brand called SimplyNature that's focus was providing food that was as
close to a natural product as possible and through SimplyNature and then throughout all
of their private label items they eventually removed synthetic colors, partially hydrogenated
oil and monosodium glutamate (MSG) from their products.
SimplyNature goes WAY beyond that goal, though, and actually bans 125 of the most "egregious"
ingredients that people like to avoid (they also offer a gluten-free line for those of
you with celiac disease).
Aldi’s Moving Towards Organic Food
In the same vein as the SimplyNature brand, Aldi was obviously one of the first grocers
to fully embrace providing healthy food to people, or should we say healthy health food
to people.
A large part of that extends to their meat and dairy products, as they removed artificial
growth hormones from their milk, as those hormones have been linked to all sorts of
problems in humans with the most notable being early puberty in children.
As of this video, they're still in the process of removing the same from their yogurt, sour
cream, cottage cheese and other dairy products which is simultaneously endearing and troubling.
It's the sort of thing where you don't really think about what is in your food until you
hear what they're removing from it.
100% all-white chicken in your chicken nuggets?
What was in it before?
Yay...
I guess?!?
To show its commitment to this cause, Aldi launched another in-store brand called Never
Any!, which means whichever item they've branded with 'Never Any!' will never have any antibiotics,
animal by-products or additives.
Considering the cancer rate has been increasing in recent years it's stuff like this that
people should pay attention to.
While organic food has a bad reputation as being over-priced and less delicious or the
go-to for hyper crunchy people who tend to lecture you about food being farm to table,
they do have a point and it's great to see a company the size of Aldi embrace the tenets
of that philosophy while ensuring that they keep prices at a level that are realistic
for every person and family.
Aldi Actually Does have Great Food
When people think of discount stores, especially when it comes to food, they think that the
low cost... costs them something.
What is that cost?
Typically people believe, at least in the case of Aldi, that they're unable to get brand
names or quality food in the store.
While you won't find a ton of brand names at Aldi (for a reason, since a lot of those
brands contain the chemicals and hormones listed in the last two entries) that doesn't
mean that you won't find food that is as good, if not better, than those brands.
Aware of their reputation, Aldi has been rolling out "fancier" products these past few years
while most importantly not sacrificing the low prices that made their owners the richest
men in Germany.
Items that Aldi has rolled out over the past few years are artisanal cheese, quinoa, smoked
salmon, and all sorts of organic foods.
So the next time one of your friends mocks you for only having Aldi brand food in your
house, slap them across the face with the gigantic smoked salmon that you bought earlier
that day and tell them that you're more than able to pay for their medical bills from the
money you saved buying from Aldi.
Once they come to, they'll understand.
They Sell Color Changing Gin
As we learned earlier in this list, Aldi is great at making gin, as they've received silver
medals and multiple awards over the years over other "fancier" gins that you'd expect
to be higher on the list (if their price is any indication, that is).
It turns out that Aldi wasn't willing to rest on those laurels, as they’ve recently launched
a gin that literally changes colors.
The most recent entry on this list in terms of when it was launched, Aldi's color changing
gin just came out in late July and is not only different in terms of what it looks like
but also in terms of what it tastes like.
By itself, it tastes like gin, with some forest fruit flavoring added into it, but if you
add a mixer like a tonic (to make a classic gin and tonic) that's when the magic happens.
Thanks to an Asian flower ingredient, the gin turns from a pale blue to what has been
described as a "blossoming pink" color.
The gin is distilled with the blue petals of a flower named Asian butterfly, and thanks
to it's manipulated pH levels when most anything is added to it, it will change colors.
You'd think a magical drink like this would be extremely expensive but if you're still
thinking that after listening to this entire video, then you either weren't paying attention
or we didn't do our jobs.
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