At the beginning of this year, the Aldi's where I shop was closed for remodeling. They made the store larger and added a lot more grocery items. They also have a larger selection of non-food items, such as housewares, seasonal products and toys. I was just curious if all of the Aldi stores have been expanded or if they just needed to make this one larger. The one I shop at is in the Southeastern part of Missouri.
We have two Aldi's near me. One remodeled and one didn't. However, I think in the past ten years, all Aldi's have improved greatly. Their store brand products are really high quality and vastly cheaper than the name-brand versions. Plus, they have some really great specialty food items they make that have become staples in our household (like their garlic and artichoke salsa in the refrigerated section).
Well I think Aldi's has made changes all across the board. One thing I have noticed is that they now accept credit cards, whereas they never did that before. That makes shopping there lesss of a hassle. Of course I usually use a debit card, but my card has a dual function and it is faster sometimes to use the credit option.
The Aldi store that is close to us has not changed unless it happened recently. I only shop there occasionally, since Kroger is much closer to where I live than Aldi is. They are part of an older shopping strip mall, so there is really no way that they can expand this store unless they moved the whole store to another building. Since it is a smaller store, they only carry basic items there, and sometimes we end up having to go elsewhere for something we need, just because Aldi does not carry it. I do like the Aldi's brands, their fruit and vegetables are fresh, and reasonably priced; so basically they are a good place to shop, and if they had a larger store , or even were closer to where I live; I would probably shop there a lot more often.
The Aldi store near me is in a pretty constrained lot, so I'm not sure it would be possible for them to expand, unless they remodeled their back room to be included in the shopping space. I was surprised and disappointed the one time I went in there, to see that only about half of the huge building was the shopping space. I don't know if they have huge stores of items in the other half, but the part that's available for shopping was very limited, and so if I'd have shopped there, I'd have had to also go to another store for the rest of my items. Since I prefer one-stop shopping, it won't work for me unless they do expand, which I would welcome.
I still haven't shopped at Aldi's. I hear great things about the store all the time, I just don't have one in my neighborhood and when I go out shopping, I forget to try them.
The company as a whole are expanding after doing so well in the UK and across Europe, they now have the funds and reputation to expand. Here in the UK it took a while before people stopped being snobby about Aldi, but when middle class people rushed to Aldi they improved their ranges to compete, and opened more stores closer to town centers.
We went to our local Aldi store today, and I was totally shocked at some of the LOW prices that they had ! Aldi's has always had good prices , but not like this. Milk, which is over $3 per gllon at most stores, and is $2 per gallon even at Krogers, was only 79 cents per gallon ! We had just gotten a gallon last week; but for that price, I did buy another one. Eggs were 2 dozen for $1; and that is another thing that has been well over $1.50 per dozen for about the last year now. The prices on most other things were not that drastically low; but still definitely competitive, and worth making the trip to Alsi when we go shopping. Pretty much, everything that we bought was cheaper than if we had bought it at Kroger.
Those prices are great, even cheaper than here in the UK, and it makes it worth the trip. I think it's excellent for essentials, and my parents like salmon paste, and it's 25 pence a jar with 86% salmon in it, so they bulk buy that. I think if the prices are too low people wonder what is wrong with the item, but once you realize they are heavily discounted and other stores match those prices then it's okay. Here, some major stores price match Aldi as they have now become serious competition, whereas 4-5 years ago they were looked down on like the dollar store.
I have even better reports about Aldi again today ! When we got home, and Bobby decided to cut open the watermelon, it was all totally mushy inside, almost like it had been frozen. Obviously, nothing freezes in a hot August day in Alabama; so we thought it must have somehow gotten transported in a truck that was way too cold for watermelon. I found the Aldi website, and sent them an email, explaining what had happened, and which store we were shopping at and when. I tried to post a picture of the watermelon; but I could not get it to upload properly. Within an hour, I had an email back from the company, apologizing for the bad produce, and saying that they were sending me out a $10 gift card for the next shopping trip to their store ! ! The Aldi guarantee on the webpage said that they would refund the money and replace the product if you got bad produce; but this went even beyond doing that, and I am seriously impressed with how they handled this situation. Except for when we have to make a fast trip to the store for something, I am going to start doing my main shopping at the Aldi store. It might be a little further to drive; but that kind of prices and service makes it worth it for me.
My location did the same thing, the expanded their product selection. They have freaking pools in there now, but little small ones for kids, they also sell things like sports gear and clothing. It's amazing, and I really like that store more so than Walmart now. They have good quality everything and I would recommend everyone shop there. Before, it was only food and stuff, but now it's so much in there, once they reopened, I thought it was going to be another Walmart wannabe, but they offer great and unique selections. I love that store.
@Happyflowerlady I'm glad you had a good outcome and customer service is as important if not more in stores. In the Aldi here in the UK the staff are more helpful than in most stores and will go and get a replacement item if someone breaks a jar in store, or go to the back and get more items. Prices are one thing, but you need to have good service instore and online too. I used to shop in other grocery stores and I would always choose to spend more time in the ones where the staff were helpful and friendly. I like Target to shop in, but find the service there to be quite poor. I buy what I need and get out quick there.
I am glad that you have had a good experience shopping with Target, @Theo . Both Bobby and I have had mixed experiences with the Target stores here, and we finally decided just to stay out of Target stores from now on. The people who work in Target are friendly, and very helpful, as you mentioned; but it seems like they are always out of what should be regular products. And the ones they do have in stock, the prices are higher than the exact same iitem would be at Walmart. Our last trip, we decided that since Walmart and Target both carry about the same items, and the Walmart parking lots are packed, and Target parking lots are empty, we would just shop at Target instead and park close to the store. I don't remember what it was that we needed; but part of the items, they were out of, and others, they didn't even carry at all, and what we did find was expensive. So, even though Target is a nice clean store and helpful employees, we do not go there anymore.
That's great to hear @Happyflowerlady. I think a lot of companies in the grocery and other lines of business have no idea how important customer service is. It's well known that people will get on social media and gripe about poor service, and a company's reputation can be ruined in short time, so it really is essential for them to stay on top of that, and also address any issues that come to their attention such as your phone call. I like shopping at Super Target because the stores are clean and the aisles pretty much clutter free, unlike at many other large stores, but they don't have the variety that other grocers have, and their meat prices are quite high. It looks as if the quality of meat is also quite high, but regardless, I can't afford to buy my meat there, so I shop there for a few things I can't get elsewhere, or that I can pay the same for there as elsewhere, and then do the rest of my shopping where I can pay less. I find the cashiers to be rather lackluster, although I've had good experiences at the Customer Service booth.
I think when it comes to grocery stores around here there is a good amount fo quality competition, which I think is really positive and works for the consumer, as it should. That said, we do not see much expansion from the companies, but they are always touting their customer service and working on this, which is great. It is really a case I can look at as a n example of a healthy local market, which I wish we had more of.
I am getting really unhappy with the Kroger store by me. I don't know if the other stores are as bad; but I have to stand in line at the customer service desk almost every shopping trip because I was overcharged for something. This was not such a bad thing when Kroger had their scan-rite guarantee, so if they overcharged you then you got the item free, which at least helped me feel better after spending 15+ minutes in the customer service line while the Mexicans get money orders to send our money down to Mexico. This last trip, Bobby wanted a chicken to barbeque, and it turned out to be $2 a lb, which is crazy high for chicken, which is usually closer to $1 per lb. With the Kroger card discount, it should have rang up at around $7, but instead it was over $10. So, there I was again , in the customer service line, waiting forever to get back the money that they should not have charged me in any case. Today, on the other hand, I went to Aldi's and all my groceries were correct, plus I had the $10 gift certificte to use there. I found a gigantic watermelon for Bobby, and it was SO heavy I could barely lift it. It was about a dollar cheaper than the watermelon at Kroger, and they are just little bitty ones besides !
No, the Aldi's in my area have no been expanded. I don't go there too often but last time I checked it was the same old. We even have a couple of brand new stores in my area and the layout seems to be exactly the same as the others I've been in previously. Carry pretty much the same items. So no I haven't seen any difference.
