Is ALDI phasing out house brands?

[joeekaitis]

 

When Lidl opened its first stores in the USA, your humble Eater of Food and Observer of the Discount Grocery Landscape noticed immediately that most Lidl everyday groceries are "house unbrands" (Photo 1).  Both Lidl and ALDI have premium house brands but ALDI has a house brand for everything in the store . . . until now (Photo 2).

 

Note the old Parkview® Italian Mild Sausage and the new Italian Hot Sausage.  The rest of the wording is the same.  Not a ® or ­­™ in sight.  Never mind the difference between hot and mild.  Both flavors share the same unbranded packaging.  And you know it's ALDI packaging from the lack of numbers on the barcode.

 

A few weeks ago came the news that ALDI is testing fresh baked bread back east, which Lidl always offered in the USA.

 

Looks like the Germans are at war (well, having a food fight) on American soil!

 

[rp2813]

Gee, if only I had an Aldi here in town I could contribute with my own experiences. 

 

What's taking them so long to open in the Bay Area?  The reason can't be limited to the cost of real estate only.

 

[jamiel]

I'm more intrigued with the idea of Aldi having two (or more) levels of house brand--around here they've got a lower-end product "Daily Choice (I think)" and the "normal" brand (Savoritz/Burman/...). I think I've seen it in things like saltine crackers and catsup. Then, they have the higher-end stuff (the organic line or the interesting import line) as well--this stuff is pretty good. I like Aldi a lot--it's very interesting how commonly they operate here in the US and in Europe. Just tried an interesting product which they sourced from Poland (!)..a curry simmer sauce with a small clamshell of curry powder on top. Yummy!

 

[robbinsandmyers]

They're putting one here in town very soon. Cant wait to try it. For now my staple is Price-Rite.

 

[joeekaitis]

"For now my staple is Price-Rite. "

 

Which is run by Wakefern Food Corporation, the same company that runs Shop Rite full service supermarkets.  Seems they're covering all the bases.  I wouldn't be surprised if a delegation from Stater Bros., the Inland Empire's home-grown supermarket chain, were to make a fact-finding pilgrimage to Wakefern Country and pick up a few pointers on how to compete with ALDI now and possibly Lidl later here in Sunny SoCal.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Lidl in the UK at any rate, seems to rotate their own 'brand names' every so often, so a product which was under a certain brand, is suddenly under a different one, usually with slightly updated graphics or tweaked recipe.

I was wondering if the brand rotation was to do with registered trademark copyright, as in keeping it valid, current and up to date.

Maybe getting rid of branding saves on copyright registration costs?

 

[jmm63]

I just went to Aldi last night....the one near me was closed for a while for a
"remodel" and I thought I would give it a try again. I didn't see any difference. The place is still dirty and messy. The produce was gross, and I'm not a big fan of buying store brands even if they are cheaper. I find I don't like them and just a waste of money. There was just one cashier open and I guess she had to go to the restroom and just left. 5 minutes later she returns. You can keep the place, not for me.

 

[vacerator]

I used to go

for the Bavarian imported spaetzel, sour kraut, and little bags of cookies, but they never seem to have them at the same time anymore.

 

[liamy1]

Aldi..

Here in the U.K. are worse than Tesco for amount of stores.

In a 10 mile radius of my house, there is 30 Aldi stores.

Yes, you read that right 3 and 0!

I don’t shop at Aldi, and will only go in every now and again for a browse, so unsure if they’re phasing out named house brands as I don’t even know what the house brands are called. But what Aldi do here is they design their packaging to look almost identical to the national brands, in fact I have been tricked a good few times when I have seen someone with an Aldi product.

Is it the same in the US?

 

[rolls_rapide]

30?!

Good Heavens!

Which town(s) are you in or near?

 

[liamy1]

I’m in

Bury Greater Manchester.

Check the link.

Ive checked pretty much all supermarkets around, and there is about the same amount within that 10 mile for all the other chains.

Check yours, you’d be shocked just how many there are around you.

http://https//www.aldi.co.uk/store-finder/?q=Bury&address=Bury&latitude=53.5933498&longitude=-2.296605399999976

 

[rolls_rapide]

Four Aldi stores in a 17 mile radius for me (I live in the sticks).

Once upon a time, the Co-op was king. But they've done a vanishing act in Scotland, getting rid of decent sized stores in favour of smaller local shops in other towns. Strange behaviour indeed.

 

[liamy1]

Tis

Strange what they decide to do and where to be. The part of Scotland my family are in (Dumfriesshire) say that Tesco is now the stronghold there, and I believe Inverness is totally held by them, it’s them or nothing up there.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Stupidity of supermarkets

I've just been wandering about online at Sainsbury's, reading reviews of Daz 'Whites & Colours'. They don't sell Daz 'Ultra Whites'.

Meanwhile, over at Asda, the Daz 'Ultra Whites' has the exact same reviews.

They've both used the reviews, plucked from 'supersavvyme.co.uk'.

Halfwits.

 

[liamy1]

Oops

Bit unfair that as will impact a customer going off reviews to choose.

Just goes to show, manufacturers just don’t care what you know, as long as it is their product you hand your money over for.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Indeed so.

I was reading reviews of Persil Powergems. Folk who gave them 1 star, said the gems never dissolved properly, and they ended up stuck in the door seal. Maybe that's the reason for Tesco's 'get rid of quick' tactics.

 

[liamy1]

Could be..

Why and with that I will definitely agree, they are very hard to dissolve, they do eventually, but the wash cycle is most of the way through, and yes they do get stuck in the door.

Makes me wonder, obviously these gems were to allow a dry laundry product experience in a “compact” format, but they, like the rest of “modern” laundry formats DON’T contain oxygen bleach.

They had it right in 20 years ago with Persil Micro and Ariel Ultra, but apparently they didn’t sell and the U.K. market wasn’t ready for compact formats.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Compact powders in Germany

I noticed that in Germany, Stiftung Warentest's test of detergents previously found that the compact version had more oomph in shifting stains, over the big-box versions of Ariel and Lidl's Formil.

Scoop for scoop, the compacts were the better buy. They mentioned that big-box versions were too dilute with fillers.

We, in the UK are still farting about with big-box powders. More concentrated they may be, but we need to get into the realms of the German offerings.

 

[liamy1]

Completely agree

The U.K. market is now “ready” for compacts, for years there has been marketing on concentrate products, not just detergents.

But just staying on detergents, with liquids becoming ever more concentrate, gels and pods and fabric softeners also being marketed as a concentrate and the benefit of being easy to use and store along with the big focus on being environmentally friendly, you’d think powder compacts would have been back by now.