Aldi
From CorpKnowPedia
Aldi is a discount supermarket chain of German origin. Aldi is an artificial word composed of "Albrecht" and "discount". It was founded 1946 by the brothers Karl and Theo Paul Albrecht in Mülheim an der Ruhr. It was only a small food shop then. In 1962 it was split into two companies and became the supermarket chain we know today. It was the first real discount supermarket in Germany.
Aldi comprises two companies, Aldi Süd (Aldi South) and Aldi Nord (Aldi North), which cover different regions in the European and North American markets. Aldi was divided to form those two companies (each belonging to one of the brothers) in 1961 and today they share nothing but the name and a common corporate identity. In Germany each of them has its own territory. They both have international activities.
Aldi Nord operates in
- Northern Germany
- Belgium
- the Netherlands
- Luxembourg
- France
- Spain
- Denmark
Aldi Süd operates in
- Southern Germany
- Great Britain
- the USA
- Ireland
- Australia
- Austria (in Austria, it trades under the name Hofer).
Aldi specializes in food, drinks, sanitary articles and other cheap things one needs daily, cheap clothes and special offers on more expensive products such as computers, which change weekly. For example, it is the largest wine retailer in Germany. Aldi mainly sells unbranded products that are produced exclusively for Aldi but are typically of high quality. Aldi maintains very low prices. The company can do this despite the relatively high quality level due to strict staff management and because it doesn't spend much money on shop decoration, commercials and so on. Queueing at the checkout counter is common, being efficient in terms of cashiers.
In Germany, before about 1990 Aldi was generally thought to be a cheap shop which sells poor quality goods (although this was never really true). Most Aldi customers were people who couldn't afford to shop elsewhere. After the German reunification, mainstream families had to be more careful about spending their money and so Aldi's popularity grew. The public soon realized that the poor reputation of Aldi's products was undeserved. This shift in perception was boosted by a series of cookbooks that only used Aldi ingredients, which led to the emergence of a kind of Aldi fandom.
Recently the similar Lidl chain grow bigger than Aldi.
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Adapted from Consumerpedia under the clauses of GFDL
