Anyone ever owned or currently own a franchise?

[Mormon Red Death]

Seems to me like the consensus is to not do it and if I do get ready to lose everything.

No one knows anyone who has succeeded without it being so much work that they would never do it again?

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Here's a stat I picked up from Wikipedia:

"95% of blue-collar workers, 88% of white-collar workers, 84% of public servants and 80% of self-employed Germans shop at Aldi."

Lidl is a huge competitor of Aldi in Germany so this stat doesn't mean that these people shop exclusively at Aldi. I personally found Lidl and Aldi to have roughly approximate prices for the quality and IMO, Lidl was slightly better.

My wife mentioned that she would shop at Aldi when she lived in Missouri. I've never even seen an Aldi in the US. But it seems like the Aldi business model could crush the conventional grocery store model in the US. In Germany, Aldi and Lidl dominated with other competitors (Penny Markt) bringing up the rear. A few, more premium stores were around but the numbers compared to Aldi and Lidl weren't even close. The premium stores were similar to our grocery stores here, though smaller in size. The main distinction between Aldi and these stores (and our grocery stores) was the variety.

It makes me wonder how aggressive Aldi has been in the US.

[Mormon Red Death]

Here's a stat I picked up from Wikipedia:

"95% of blue-collar workers, 88% of white-collar workers, 84% of public servants and 80% of self-employed Germans shop at Aldi."

Lidl is a huge competitor of Aldi in Germany so this stat doesn't mean that these people shop exclusively at Aldi. I personally found Lidl and Aldi to have roughly approximate prices for the quality and IMO, Lidl was slightly better.

My wife mentioned that she would shop at Aldi when she lived in Missouri. I've never even seen an Aldi in the US. But it seems like the Aldi business model could crush the conventional grocery store model in the US. In Germany, Aldi and Lidl dominated with other competitors (Penny Markt) bringing up the rear. A few, more premium stores were around but the numbers compared to Aldi and Lidl weren't even close. The premium stores were similar to our grocery stores here, though smaller in size. The main distinction between Aldi and these stores (and our grocery stores) was the variety.

It makes me wonder how aggressive Aldi has been in the US.

They are all over the midwest well Michigan at least and the do great business. They are so cost effective they only have one person working the register. At times you will see a line 9 deep which at a normal grocery store would be a half hour wait and at Aldi's is 10 minutes.

I think Aldi would crush anything in Utah.

[falafel]

They are all over the midwest well Michigan at least and the do great business. They are so cost effective they only have one person working the register. At times you will see a line 9 deep which at a normal grocery store would be a half hour wait and at Aldi's is 10 minutes.

I think Aldi would crush anything in Utah.

My experience with Aldi (in Illinois) was that it was super cheap, but my fellow customers were a bit scary. I guess it wouldn't be any different than the clientèle at Wal-Mart, though.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

They are all over the midwest well Michigan at least and the do great business. They are so cost effective they only have one person working the register. At times you will see a line 9 deep which at a normal grocery store would be a half hour wait and at Aldi's is 10 minutes.

I think Aldi would crush anything in Utah.

I wonder how long they've been in the US.

Missionaries would get by with the crappy bread and meat they sold there, but we weren't buying fresh chicken, beef or pork. I can't even recall what they sold there in that regard. But it seems to me that bakeries and butchers did fine in Germany under the Aldi model while they don't do well in the US.

I would welcome the Aldi model if it meant more meat markets, vegetable/fruit stores and bakeries. With meat and bread (well, meat at least), there's a premium on quality and Aldi couldn't really offer that under its model. Wal Mart's meat quality is horrendous.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

My experience with Aldi (in Illinois) was that it was super cheap, but my fellow customers were a bit scary. I guess it wouldn't be any different than the clientèle at Wal-Mart, though.

My wife went to the pool at our gym on Saturday with our daughter. She came across a family that had adopted to Haitian children and she mentioned that it appeared as if they had been malnourished. At the same time, I went to Wal Mart while they were at the pool (where I saw really tiny Levis Jorts guy who I mentioned in the Wranglers Really Tiny Jeans thread). I told her I saw the exact opposite of the Haitian children at Wal Mart. Holy mackerel. I would be curious to see the rates of diabetes in a place like Haiti compared to the US.

[Flystripper]

Here's a stat I picked up from Wikipedia:

"95% of blue-collar workers, 88% of white-collar workers, 84% of public servants and 80% of self-employed Germans shop at Aldi."

Lidl is a huge competitor of Aldi in Germany so this stat doesn't mean that these people shop exclusively at Aldi. I personally found Lidl and Aldi to have roughly approximate prices for the quality and IMO, Lidl was slightly better.

My wife mentioned that she would shop at Aldi when she lived in Missouri. I've never even seen an Aldi in the US. But it seems like the Aldi business model could crush the conventional grocery store model in the US. In Germany, Aldi and Lidl dominated with other competitors (Penny Markt) bringing up the rear. A few, more premium stores were around but the numbers compared to Aldi and Lidl weren't even close. The premium stores were similar to our grocery stores here, though smaller in size. The main distinction between Aldi and these stores (and our grocery stores) was the variety.

It makes me wonder how aggressive Aldi has been in the US.

I recently shopped for the first time at an Aldi here in Chicago. I had never heard of the place before I walked in. I was not prepared.

1. I didn't have a quarter for a shopping cart. I tried loitering around the parking lot so I could hopefully use a cart that somebody forgot to put away, but to my surprise everyone wanted their quarter back so they all put their cart away. I decided I had to go inside and break a 20 for a quarter so I could get a shopping cart. It was annoying, but I eventually got my cart and I was on my way.

2. As I was going down the first isle I didn't recognize a single brand of dry goods. They had good prices so I picked a few that looked ok. (Turns out they were awesome!)

3. I got to the cereal section and I was pissed! They had Envirokids cereal which I previously thought was only available at Whole Foods or Trader joes (now that makes sense). The Whole Foods price was 4.50 per box. The Aldi price was 99 cents per box. Damn you Whole Foods!

4. When I got to the dairy section I was floored that I could buy a gallon of 1% milk for 2.25 and a dozen eggs for 50 cents. I loaded up my cart with milk for my cereal. (I know my eating habits suck...I have been a bachelor for 8 months and I am too lazy to cook all the time. I can't wait till I get my wife and family back in a week!)

5. The produce was crappy there was not a single thing that looked fresh and edible. Maybe it will be better next time, and I just got them on a bad day. Who knows, but it was bad.

6. When I went to check out I was confused. I put all my crap on the belt and the cashier rang up my stuff. My stuff ended up at the end of the chute and the cashier looked at me like I am an idiot. So I figured it was a bag your own stuff place. No problem. I do that at Meijer too! I went down to the end of the chute planning on making quick work of the bagging process. I then discovered the problem. They don't have any bags for you use. Bags have to be purchased or brought from home. So then I had get back in line so I could buy grocery bags. I was annoyed but I got through it.

Overall it was an interesting experience. There is no way I could do all of my shopping there, but if I didn't need produce it would be awesome for pretty much everything else.

[Flystripper]

My experience with Aldi (in Illinois) was that it was super cheap, but my fellow customers were a bit scary. I guess it wouldn't be any different than the clientèle at Wal-Mart, though.

yeah it was a weird place...see above

[statman]

Is Aldi the same thing as Aldi in Germany?

EDIT. Okay I read further and it looks like Aldi is the same thing. I actually didn't care for the place in Germany. There was a place called Lidls (IIRC) that I liked better.

25 years ago Lidl was not like Aldi. Now they could be the same store - almost an exact copy. PennyMarkt is in the same boat, as is Tengelmann. The other three used to be high-cost small neighborhood markets. Now they're all low cost, low overhead bulk sellers.

Aldi has improved the quality of their stores DRAMTICALLY in the past 10 years. They used to be in the dumpiest areas of town in nasty buildings & obviously were skimping on rent. With their busines smodel, they have tobe cheap on rent. The new competitors have pushed Aldi to move out of scary neighborhoods. Demographics and lifestyle changes mean that everyone has a car now, so they're now in nice clean new buildings on the outskirts or in industrial areas. As long as they're saving money, people don't mind driving to Aldi (or the others) to clean, well organized stores (they're all virtually the same!) in safe parts of town.

Aldi has made their mark though. They're the generic brand name for that kind of grocery store. "Going shopping at Aldi" could mean Aldi, but it could also mean any one of the others.

[falafel]

I recently shopped for the first time at an Aldi here in Chicago. I had never heard of the place before I walked in. I was not prepared.

1. I didn't have a quarter for a shopping cart. I tried loitering around the parking lot so I could hopefully use a cart that somebody forgot to put away, but to my surprise everyone wanted their quarter back so they all put their cart away. I decided I had to go inside and break a 20 for a quarter so I could get a shopping cart. It was annoying, but I eventually got my cart and I was on my way.

2. As I was going down the first isle I didn't recognize a single brand of dry goods. They had good prices so I picked a few that looked ok. (Turns out they were awesome!)

3. I got to the cereal section and I was pissed! They had Envirokids cereal which I previously thought was only available at Whole Foods or Trader joes (now that makes sense). The Whole Foods price was 4.50 per box. The Aldi price was 99 cents per box. Damn you Whole Foods!

4. When I got to the dairy section I was floored that I could buy a gallon of 1% milk for 2.25 and a dozen eggs for 50 cents. I loaded up my cart with milk for my cereal. (I know my eating habits suck...I have been a bachelor for 8 months and I am too lazy to cook all the time. I can't wait till I get my wife and family back in a week!)

5. The produce was crappy there was not a single thing that looked fresh and edible. Maybe it will be better next time, and I just got them on a bad day. Who knows, but it was bad.

6. When I went to check out I was confused. I put all my crap on the belt and the cashier rang up my stuff. My stuff ended up at the end of the chute and the cashier looked at me like I am an idiot. So I figured it was a bag your own stuff place. No problem. I do that at Meijer too! I went down to the end of the chute planning on making quick work of the bagging process. I then discovered the problem. They don't have any bags for you use. Bags have to be purchased or brought from home. So then I had get back in line so I could buy grocery bags. I was annoyed but I got through it.

Overall it was an interesting experience. There is no way I could do all of my shopping there, but if I didn't need produce it would be awesome for pretty much everything else.

lol, I forgot about paying for the shopping cart. I remember thinking that the bag of apples was decent (they were crisp and not bruised). I was a missionary so I wasn't buying any meat or other produce. I do remember buying a LOT of $.33 saltines. I don't think I had to bring my own bags though. That must be a new-ish development.

[statman]

I recently shopped for the first time at an Aldi here in Chicago. I had never heard of the place before I walked in. I was not prepared.

1. I didn't have a quarter for a shopping cart. I tried loitering around the parking lot so I could hopefully use a cart that somebody forgot to put away, but to my surprise everyone wanted their quarter back so they all put their cart away. I decided I had to go inside and break a 20 for a quarter so I could get a shopping cart. It was annoying, but I eventually got my cart and I was on my way.

2. As I was going down the first isle I didn't recognize a single brand of dry goods. They had good prices so I picked a few that looked ok. (Turns out they were awesome!)

3. I got to the cereal section and I was pissed! They had Envirokids cereal which I previously thought was only available at Whole Foods or Trader joes (now that makes sense). The Whole Foods price was 4.50 per box. The Aldi price was 99 cents per box. Damn you Whole Foods!

4. When I got to the dairy section I was floored that I could buy a gallon of 1% milk for 2.25 and a dozen eggs for 50 cents. I loaded up my cart with milk for my cereal. (I know my eating habits suck...I have been a bachelor for 8 months and I am too lazy to cook all the time. I can't wait till I get my wife and family back in a week!)

5. The produce was crappy there was not a single thing that looked fresh and edible. Maybe it will be better next time, and I just got them on a bad day. Who knows, but it was bad.

6. When I went to check out I was confused. I put all my crap on the belt and the cashier rang up my stuff. My stuff ended up at the end of the chute and the cashier looked at me like I am an idiot. So I figured it was a bag your own stuff place. No problem. I do that at Meijer too! I went down to the end of the chute planning on making quick work of the bagging process. I then discovered the problem. They don't have any bags for you use. Bags have to be purchased or brought from home. So then I had get back in line so I could buy grocery bags. I was annoyed but I got through it.

Overall it was an interesting experience. There is no way I could do all of my shopping there, but if I didn't need produce it would be awesome for pretty much everything else.

Problme is you're just an Aldi newb. Next time you'll know how it works...

[Color Me Badd Fan]

25 years ago Lidl was not like Aldi. Now they could be the same store - almost an exact copy. PennyMarkt is in the same boat, as is Tengelmann. The other three used to be high-cost small neighborhood markets. Now they're all low cost, low overhead bulk sellers.

Aldi has improved the quality of their stores DRAMTICALLY in the past 10 years. They used to be in the dumpiest areas of town in nasty buildings & obviously were skimping on rent. With their busines smodel, they have tobe cheap on rent. The new competitors have pushed Aldi to move out of scary neighborhoods. Demographics and lifestyle changes mean that everyone has a car now, so they're now in nice clean new buildings on the outskirts or in industrial areas. As long as they're saving money, people don't mind driving to Aldi (or the others) to clean, well organized stores (they're all virtually the same!) in safe parts of town.

Aldi has made their mark though. They're the generic brand name for that kind of grocery store. "Going shopping at Aldi" could mean Aldi, but it could also mean any one of the others.

Tengelmann, IIRC, seemed pretty expensive back in the late 90s. I don't think we ever shopped there. I tried all I could to avoid Aldi because the quality seemed pretty bad. Penny Markt was sometimes an option depending on how close it was to our apartment. But Lidl seemed to have decent quality with prices that were not too far above Aldi.

Looking at the numbers, Lidl seems to be a pretty serious competitor. Head to Head, it looks like Lidl has almost the same number of stores in Europe.

[statman]

I wonder how long they've been in the US.

Missionaries would get by with the crappy bread and meat they sold there, but we weren't buying fresh chicken, beef or pork. I can't even recall what they sold there in that regard. But it seems to me that bakeries and butchers did fine in Germany under the Aldi model while they don't do well in the US.

I would welcome the Aldi model if it meant more meat markets, vegetable/fruit stores and bakeries. With meat and bread (well, meat at least), there's a premium on quality and Aldi couldn't really offer that under its model. Wal Mart's meat quality is horrendous.

Private mom-and-pop bakeries and butcher shops are disappearing in droves in Germany. Aldi and friends are crushing them. PennyMarkt actually has automated bakeries in some of their stores. Put frozen dough in one end and rolls, bread, etc comes out the other end. Pretty ingenious.

The biggest problem for the mom and pop stores is that their kids don't want to be butchers or bakers. Who wants to get up at 4:00 am for the rest of their lives? the same holds true for a lot of family businesses. My wife has a cousin who has a HUGE farming operation (huge by German standards, but pretty big by US standards as well). Started as a pig farmer, but he vertically integrated and now has hundreds of acres of corn, soy, wheat and other crops that he uses to feed his pigs (turns over ~10,000 pigs a year (3500 pigs at a time. Buys them a couple months old and grows them to the optiized slaughtering time. Turns inventory over ~3 times a year.). Anyway, he has three sons. There's enough business there to keep them all going and all living pretty well. But none of them want anything to do with the farm. two are unemployed (one plays World of Warcraft, one goes to a lot of raves), and the other is an accountant with a good job in the city. He siply has no idea what to do with the business when he gets old. He's worked like crazy to build it up, and none of his kids want it. I'm guessing they'd not turn down a CHECK from his estate though...

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Private mom-and-pop bakeries and butcher shops are disappearing in droves in Germany. Aldi and friends are crushing them. PennyMarkt actually has automated bakeries in some of their stores. Put frozen dough in one end and rolls, bread, etc comes out the other end. Pretty ingenious.

The biggest problem for the mom and pop stores is that their kids don't want to be butchers or bakers. Who wants to get up at 4:00 am for the rest of their lives? the same holds true for a lot of family businesses. My wife has a cousin who has a HUGE farming operation (huge by German standards, but pretty big by US standards as well). Started as a pig farmer, but he vertically integrated and now has hundreds of acres of corn, soy, wheat and other crops that he uses to feed his pigs (turns over ~10,000 pigs a year (3500 pigs at a time. Buys them a couple months old and grows them to the optiized slaughtering time. Turns inventory over ~3 times a year.). Anyway, he has three sons. There's enough business there to keep them all going and all living pretty well. But none of them want anything to do with the farm. two are unemployed (one plays World of Warcraft, one goes to a lot of raves), and the other is an accountant with a good job in the city. He siply has no idea what to do with the business when he gets old. He's worked like crazy to build it up, and none of his kids want it. I'm guessing they'd not turn down a CHECK from his estate though...

That sucks. It seems like the bakeries and meat markets were alive and well in Germany when I was there. The bread at Aldi was unedible, but I found a decent type at Lidl. As missionaries, we never really bought that much meat (we used to buy those things called Frickadellens or whatever they were called and then we would buy deli meat).

[statman]

Tengelmann, IIRC, seemed pretty expensive back in the late 90s. I don't think we ever shopped there. I tried all I could to avoid Aldi because the quality seemed pretty bad. Penny Markt was sometimes an option depending on how close it was to our apartment. But Lidl seemed to have decent quality with prices that were not too far above Aldi.

Looking at the numbers, Lidl seems to be a pretty serious competitor. Head to Head, it looks like Lidl has almost the same number of stores in Europe.

Tengelmann has completely re-invented itself. It looks just like Aldi now. But they hung onto the high-cost model the longest and are paying for it. Lidl & PennyMarkt both followed Aldi and went outside of Germany. Last month I shopped at Lidl in both France and Italy and penny markt in italy and austria. I just wikied it. I didn't know that Lidl is actually bigger than either of the two Aldi franchises (two seperate companies with the same brand name). Aldi and Lidl both have about 8000 stores in Europe, and Penny Markt has about 5000. Alsi is pushing into the US - ~1500 locations between Aldi and Trader Joes. It doesn't look like either of the other two are trying to jump over here though...