ALDI in the USA vs. GERMANY! | Feli from Germany

Did you notice anything different about the cashiers? 🤔🤷‍♀ ▸The first 100 people to download Endel by clicking the link or scanning the QR code will get a free week of audio experiences! 👉bit.ly/FeliFromGermanyEndel

Aldi should bring the bakery section from Germany to the US. They look like they had a lot of good stuff in the German bakery. I bet that would be great to try.

do you germans out there remember the cashier ladies at aldi before the age of bar codes? those ladies typed in not the price but the product number at an insane speed, it was amazing!

I LOVE Aldi! I like that the carts don't block up the spaces--because people want their quarters back. I love that they don't give away more single use bags to pollute the environment. I love that they have affordable chocolate, and it's so good! I love that I can bag my own groceries, and not worry about things getting squished, or misplaced. I especially love how the cashiers are allowed to SIT, and they work super fast.

Aldi opened here in East Texas a few years ago. It has been a game changer for me. There prices are the best around and I have found very few of the store brands that I don't like. I have mobility issues and can't walk all over a Walmart size store. Between the smaller store size and speed of the checkout I'm able to do my own shopping.

Another plus to Aldi food products you didn’t mention is that they usually have less sugar, preservatives, dyes, etc.

German living in the US: I remember Aldi, when I first came here, being the 'stock-up store' that had mostly canned goods and the basics. It sure has changed since then, and at least in my college town, attracts pretty much all income groups. For me personally, Christmas would be very sad without the Winternacht Lebkuchen and Stollen. The latter was misspelled one year in a sign as 'Christmas stolen'! The store manager burst out laughing when I told him, while pointing at the sign, how horrible it was going to be without the holiday that year...😂

Aldi's just opened up in my hometown and I had no idea it was this much better! Going this week, thanks for this video!

I shop religiously at Aldis and try to get as much of my shopping done there as possible. Not only for the low prices- but because they actually let their employees sit and usually pay better wages than other grocery stores.

I work at a ALDIs in Columbus Ohio and I thank you for showing what the stores are like in Germany! It’s really cool to see what’s different and what is similar. Glad that it gives you a little taste of home. ☺️🏡

As a minimalist, I have always loved the clean, simple efficiency of shopping at Aldi. I always smile when I get to the eggs section. There’s only one kind and they’re always cheaper than anywhere else. Plus, Aldi is known for treating its employees like human beings, which is a refreshing change from the typical American approach to management.

I LOVE the Aldi concept. The quarter for a cart has a very charming side effect: Very often I will spot someone in the parking lot who are almost done with their cart and I will ask them if I may take their cart? I give them the quarter and more times than not, we exchange a few kind words and a smile. That would never, ever happen at a Walmart or a Target!

I visited Germany several times from the 70s onward and was very impressed with Aldi. When a store opened in my home town in England, I was one of the first through the door. At that time, they sold quite a lot of German food products, and I loved that. Unfortunately, they stopped selling a lot of those products, including my favourite, Schwarzbrot, some time ago, and nowhere else nearby sells it. I'm pining for some Schwarzbrot as I write. Early on, very few people shopped at Aldi. Sometimes, I would be the only customer in there. It was great! Of course, Aldi became more and more popular, as people realised that the quality of goods sold there was at least as good as the stuff they could buy at other supermarkets, and a lot cheaper. Now, my local store is always very busy. Aldi has had a huge effect on the more established stores, forcing them to sell what they call "essential" products at the same price as Aldi in order to get customers through the door. I still prefer Aldi, though. I like the fact that there isn't an overwhelming choice of products. How many brands and flavours of yogurt do you really need, for example?

I first went to Aldi as a kid in 1979. Living in Gary Indiana my entire life, Aldi opened their first NW Indiana store in Merrillville Indiana in 1979. Their stores were much smaller back then, with limited refrigeration. There was no Aldi finds in the early days. It was just the basics, produce that did not need refrigeration. Meat was limited to ground beef and maybe chicken, and was frozen. There was limited frozen prepared foods as well. Until about 1996, their stores used to have a gate for pushing the cart through, and had to through a turnstile. Aldi was forced to remove the turnstile and cart gate, due to the Americans with Disabilities Act. In the 90's, Aldi started opening freestanding stores, as their original stores were in strip plazas, and were outgrowing them. While Aldi was experimenting with selling certain items in the 80's that wasn't typical of Aldi, it was really in the mid to late 90's, when Aldi would start selling random items. It was only in the last 15 years, that Aldi decided to make changes to their food, so that was as close to the brand name as possible in taste. Then expanding into organic, gluten free, keto, paleo, and premium brands, all in order to get shoppers from all income groups. Their first 5 years in the US were rough for Aldi, as their business model was that foreign from both, a business, and shopper's perspective. Most shoppers refused to shop at Aldi in the beginning, as it was not only store brands, which were usually inferior back then, but also most shoppers refused to bag their own groceries, as well as bring their own bags. Before 1992, Aldi did not offer bags at all. In 1992, paper bags were available for purchase, and plastic bags a couple of years later. By 1994, Aldi got different carts, and implemented the quarter deposit locks on their carts. 2000, debit cards were accepted as a form of payment. Before 2000, only cash, and foodstamps were the only acceptable forms of payment. Credit cards were accepted by 2016. Scanners became available by 2004, which was too long, as their own products had barcodes on them by 1985, and most of their competitors were using scanners by 1989 latest. Aldi used to be open even fewer hours in the 80's. Before 1992 local to me, their opening hours were always 9am Monday to Saturday. Monday to Thursday, they closed at 7pm. 8pm on Friday, and 6pm on Saturday. Before 2006, ecery aldi store was closed on Sundays, and holidays New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, and New Year's Day have remained, while Easter since covid, has become a day to be closed. I didn't mention Easter before, because Easter is observed on Sunday, and i remember my local stores opening on Easter at reduced hours after 2008. By the 90's, the closing hours eventually extended to 8pm mon Monday to Friday and 7pm Saturday. By the end of the decade, they stayed open until 9pm. In 2006, a test was done to see if it was worth being open on Sunday, by opening select stores from 9am to 6pm. By 2008, where allowed by law, every store was open on Sundays from 9am to 8pm. Last year, due to more customers using Instacart and DoorDash for their shopping, demand went downin the evening hours, that they decided to close at 8pm everyday. I have heard that there might be talk that 7pm might become the new closing time, if demand goes down even more. I've seen changes in Aldi for 44 years. Lastly, a majority of Aldi's products are not made by the same suppliers as the big name products. In fact, Aldi works with suppliers that primarily make their products exclusively under store brands. Not only is it cheaper, but also, for some of their unusual flavors, the big name companies either won't take time out to make those special flavor products, or might actually steal their ideas for their own products. Going with a big name supplier might not be that much cheaper. Milk products and their plant based milk come from multiple suppliers, in order to offer those products as fresh as possible.

Swedish here. Never heard of Aldi, but LIDL is very popular and where people live, there's gonna be a LIDL around the corner. When it first became a thing in the early 00s it was kinda shameful for some people to shop at LIDL, since it was (and is) a discount store, but that stigma's gone and now most people shop at LIDL.

Aldi, like most German stores, let their checkers sit down. American stores make them stand. Sitting is much more efficient and better for the checker's health. When we visit our kids in Germany, we love the German stores. Thanks for sharing the video.

Aldi in Australia: the jingle used when announcing a cash register close or opening is exactly the same as here in Germany... Made me feel at home 😂

As a truck driver in the USA I can confirm that the same places that make the big brand names also make the generic store brands. While it may not always be the case, often times it is. I've actually had several loads of a mix of big brand name and store branded items that picked up and delivered to the same location

regarding freezers and refrigerators ; opening from the top is more efficient. Because, when the unit's top is raised , the cold air stays in the compartment. With units that open on the front. all the cold air falls out into the floor every time the door is opened.

I am a us citizen. I discovered Aldi in 1998 and it has been my favorite store since then. I always tell everyone that everything is cheaper at Aldi unless the other stores have a sale. I'm not very picky about selection so I can get most of my groceries at aldi. The funny thing is, I visited Germany on a European tour in the year 2000. I was shocked and amazed to see Aldi there. I thought, look they have all the in Germany also! Haha. I did later learned that Aldi was in Germany before it was in the United states. I did not get to go into the German Aldi store because we were in a tour group and no one else wanted to tour the grocery store. I definitely agree that European chocolate far exceeds American chocolate. We have a local chocolate maker that Imports many of their ingredients and their stuff is wonderful. I also like Lindor chocolates. Honestly, I don't really like hazelnut so I don't eat too many European chocolates because so many of them have hazelnuts. We will never have a bakery in Aldi to compared to the ones in germany. Why do you sound so American are you an American who was raised in germany? If not, your English is amazing. Thank you for sharing the comparison experience.