\n<\/p>\n
Three years ago, Ohioans Nicole Papp and Lynne Coristin embarked on a grocery run that would catch the attention of thousands<\/a>. \u201cWe had nearly 10,000 likes [on Facebook],\u201d says Papp. \u201cBefore we even got home!\u201d adds Coristin. The pair didn\u2019t know then that their annual \u201cAldi Aisle of Shame Tour<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a one-day bonanza hitting up various locations of the grocery chain \u2014 would become a viral tradition of treasure hunting for gifts, decor, pajamas, plushies, wine, and candy. (\u201cWe make sure we buy peanut butter cups and<\/em> the salted caramels,\u201d says Coristin.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For their most recent tour<\/a>, the former coworkers and current friends (Coristin officiated Papp\u2019s wedding in 2021) traveled more than 300 miles \u2014 for fun LOL \u2014 to 13 different Aldi stores in the Cleveland area. (Impressive to be sure, but they visited a whopping 21 locations in and around Pittsburgh a couple of years ago.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Dressed in matching gray T-shirts decorated with paint markers, they spent 14 hours and an undisclosed amount of money on heavily discounted Wonder Woman dog costumes ($1.49 a piece) and tumblers ($2), plus recipe stands, sculpted reindeer (you know the ones<\/a>), a three-foot alpine tree<\/a>, and more. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even unload the car \u2018til the next day,\u201d says Papp.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This level of commitment and fandom typically reserved for the likes of Taylor Swift, Air Jordans, and early iPhone releases, is for \u2014 of all things \u2014 a discount grocer. \u201cI knew my Aldi was popular,\u201d says Matt Lesky, a former assistant store manager of the Holland, Michigan, store from 2017 to 2021. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t realize on a national level the passion people have for Aldi.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The love runs deep, and it\u2019s growing. In the nearly five decades since Aldi opened its first store in Iowa in the 1970s, the company has executed on its shrewd <\/strong>plans to capture American shoppers\u2019 hearts \u2014\u00a0and grocery dollars. After spending billions to expand and revamp stores, refresh product lines, and remake its brand, Aldi is now the nation\u2019s third-largest grocer by store count<\/a>, behind only Kroger and Walmart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Aldi wasn\u2019t always a must-stop shopping destination, though. We take a look at how the historically tight-lipped retailer went from niche to number three.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For those just hearing the hype, Aldi is a discount grocery retailer with German roots<\/a>. It is, by its own admission<\/a>, a smaller, no-frills place with mostly \u2014 more than 90% \u2014 private-label (or store-brand) products at competitively<\/em> low prices. The company claims that shopping at Aldi can save you as much as 40 percent on your grocery bill, although reports say that number is closer to 20.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The first store opened in Iowa, but its American origin story really begins in Chicago, the \u201cofficial launching point into the U.S.,\u201d says Scott Patton, a 28-year Aldi veteran and current vice president of national buying. \u201cThe formula in 1976 was simple,\u201d says Patton. \u201cHigh quality, low price, low overhead, high operational efficiency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These \u201climited-assortment stores,\u201d as they were commonly referred to back then, were often located in low-income neighborhoods and sold \u201conly fast-moving groceries at rock-bottom prices.\u201d Meat, produce, and anything that required refrigeration were absent from store shelves \u2014\u00a0that is, when items weren\u2019t directly stocked on the floor. Food stamps (now Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program<\/a>, or SNAP) were accepted; coupons or checks were not. Shoppers bagged their own groceries in their own bags (to much chagrin, at least according to news reports) and carried them to their own cars (the nerve!).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This isn\u2019t all that different from how Aldi operates today. Frequent or even first-time shoppers will recognize some of those early hallmark tactics. They may actually find them endearing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s no coincidence Aldi went from a little-known store in the Midwest to its 2,348 stores across 38 states (plus Washington, D.C.) today. From the start, the chain set an aggressive expansion pace, opening some 225 stores across the Midwest in just 13 years. Despite the pandemic, which slowed growth for many retailers, Aldi was the fastest-growing grocery chain in the U.S. in 2021<\/a>, for both the number of new stores and square footage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Even as hundreds of Aldis opened in new cities year after year, shoppers still kinda had to seek them out. The stores were \u201cnot in the main shopping centers, but on side streets or in peripheral areas,\u201d writes Dieter and Nils Brandes in Bare Essentials: The Aldi Success Story<\/a><\/em>, which meant lower rents, and, in turn, further commitment to low prices. They were, however, conveniently located next to competitors that carried popular items not (yet) found at Aldi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 2017, the company announced even grander plans: a $5 billion investment to increase store count by nearly 50% to 2,500 by the end of 2022<\/a> (it missed that goal), expanding into wealthier neighborhoods<\/a>, and renovating most of the 1,700+ Aldi stores that already existed (think: roomier, brighter, and slightly<\/em> more graphic). At an average of 17,000 square feet, these new and refreshed stores are still about a third of the size of the typical supermarket<\/a>, but that\u2019s 100% intentional: \u201cWe want to make sure our building is the right size,\u201d says Patton. \u201cBut not too big because every square foot you build adds cost.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Aldi\u2019s approach to efficiency is not unlike that of a five-time Olympic-gold medalist. Its dedication to keeping operating costs \u2014 and, in turn, prices \u2014 as low as humanly possible is relentless.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Stores are staffed with just three or four people \u2014 or only one, if there\u2019s a bad snowstorm or employees call out unexpectedly \u2014 who are trained to do multiple jobs and stay on task. Store phone numbers were unlisted (for longer than you might think) \u2014 no time or actual phone to answer, anyway! And corralling shopping carts might as well be for the birds. At Aldi, shoppers have to temporarily fork over a quarter to unlock a cart. (Bring the cart back to its corral and the quarter pops back out.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Early on, Aldi put prices on the delivery cartons products came in, instead of the products themselves (a point of contention with legislators in an attempt to limit \u201cthe no-frills movement\u201d) to save on costs. You won\u2019t find any meat or seafood counters, and, after a limited test run, the company shelved plans for in-store bakeries \u2014 possibly forever.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bucking other widely accepted industry standards, Aldi pinched more pennies by installing checkout scanners and accepting credit cards several<\/em> years after its competitors. \u201cThe scanning technology couldn\u2019t keep up with how fast our cashiers were,\u201d says Patton. (To speed things up further, it added oversized barcodes<\/a> to the product packaging.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As a manager, Lesky received daily printouts measuring cashier speeds (you\u2019ve probably seen spoofs<\/a>) and sent staffers home early on slower days. The biggest metric, \u201caside from ringing,\u201d Lesky says, \u201cis stocking speed.\u201d Aldi doesn\u2019t have overnight stockers, so the staff has \u201cfrom 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. to stock the entire store.\u201d When he first started at Aldi, his manager taped stopwatches to the grocery pallets and told him to stock the more-than-six-foot stack of items in 25 minutes. \u201cThat\u2019s a very ambitious goal,\u201d he says, adding, \u201cit always end[ed] up being more like 35 or 40.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The extreme cost consciousness \u2014\u00a0at all levels \u2014\u00a0can be jarring for some. But not repeat customers, who might as well walk around the store (and life) with a flashing neon IYKYK sign over their heads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n One of the most beloved characteristics of Aldi stores is what you can\u2019t<\/em> get. Most supermarkets carry more than 30,000 products<\/a> \u2014 Aldi only now carries 1600 (up from 450 in its early years), which means shoppers can get (almost) everything they need and do it quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to weed through the muck of 15 brands of salsa,\u201d says Alyse Whitney, author of Big Dip Energy<\/em><\/a> (out April 2024) and TV host, who grew up with an Aldi in her town, but didn\u2019t shop at one until she went to college in upstate New York. \u201cI get overwhelmed by choices. If there are too many choices, it\u2019s too much for me. So when I go to Aldi, having fewer choices \u2014 with a couple of surprises sprinkled in \u2014 is really great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Adding more selection started off small. Aldi first branched beyond its slate of canned goods, shelf-stable snacks, and bags of basic produce (onions, potatoes, apples) and into milk, ice cream (but only two flavors!), and lunch meats in 1980. In the early aughts, store-brand foods began shedding their stigma as \u201cobscure knockoffs\u201d and Aldi got to experimenting. The grocer launched six of its most popular store brands in as many years, including the premium Specially Selected brand<\/a> (it\u2019s seeing \u201cunbelievable growth,\u201d says Patton), introduced refrigerated produce (which was so popular it caused a backup in the aisle<\/a>), and swapped out 20% (!) of its entire inventory<\/a>, increasing the fresh food selection by almost half.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Aldi made notable subtractions, too: In 2015, it removed ingredients, like certified synthetic<\/a> colors, partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), and more from all of its store-brand food products.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Influential shoppers, like Ashley Williams, founder and creator of Oh hey!<\/a>, definitely noticed: \u201c[Aldi] really solidified themselves as a store where you can have quality products at an affordable price.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Of course, we can\u2019t talk about Aldi without mentioning the glorious frenzy that is Aldi Finds<\/a>. Located in the center aisle of the store (also lovingly referred to as the Aisle of Shame or AoS), Aldi Finds is \u201call the fun stuff you don\u2019t intend to buy, but always end up leaving with,\u201d says Lesky. It\u2019s the only aisle Coristin and Papp go down during their Aldi Aisle of Shame Tour, \u201cuntil it\u2019s time to buy peanut butter cups and salted caramels,\u201d says Coristin. \u201cThen we detour.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The name has evolved over time, but the concept has been around for decades: Items rotate weekly and are very much here today, gone tomorrow. \u201cI bought a tiki drink hat for my dog. I\u2019ve bought a flamingo-shaped bed for my dog. I bought a suitcase that lasted for six years \u2014 all from the Aisle of Shame,\u201d says Whitney. (An airline broke it.) \u201cYou never truly know what\u2019s gonna be in that middle aisle,\u201d adds Lesky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The FOMO is real and, dare we say, intentional<\/em>. Among other things, it \u201cmakes the idea of going [to Aldi] every week so exciting,\u201d says Sarah Fennel, founder of Broma<\/a>, a (mostly) baking blog and Aldi ambassador (and fan) who describes the stores as having a hint of Costco, Target, and Trader Joe\u2019s \u2014 Costco for the warehouse deal vibes, Target for the finds, and TJ\u2019s for the seasonal\/specialty items. It\u2019s also a savvy way for the company to rotate in and test out new products before going all-in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It should be abundantly clear by now that Aldi \u201cdo[es] not spend one cent more for decorations, equipment, and facade than is absolutely necessary,\u201d explains Dieter and Nils Brandes in Bare Essentials: The Aldi Success Story<\/em><\/a>. The company famously spent little on advertising for decades. Top executives didn\u2019t give interviews, either, which meant the company relied heavily on its shoppers to spread the word.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Aldi Aisle of Shame Community<\/a>, a Facebook Group dedicated to that<\/em> center aisle, now has 2.2 million members, including Coristin and Papp. (Coristin also belongs to four more Aldi fan groups on Facebook.) Instagram accounts, like ohheyaldi<\/a> and theamazingaldi<\/a>, started as a way for shoppers to \u201chave a conversation with mom friends, but just on the internet,\u201d says Williams. They\u2019ve now amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Shoppers\u2019 fandom has gone from unfamiliar to unwavering in an unbelievably short amount of time: \u201cIt went from me telling my friends that I worked at Aldi and them saying, \u2018I\u2019ve never been to Aldi \u2014 tell me about it.\u2019 to \u2018Oh my gosh, I love Aldi, their peanut butter cups are to die for, I go there every week,\u2019\u201d says Lesky, who started posting TikTok videos during the pandemic while working at Aldi. (Years after leaving the company, it\u2019s still his preferred place to shop.) His following grew quickly to 300,000, and while Aldi wasn\u2019t on board with the idea (he was initially asked to shut it down), the company eventually relented and even embraced his newfound celebrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These superfans have brought in a swell of newcomers, turned converts. In 2019, remodeled stores saw customer traffic increase up to 40%, according to Patton<\/a>, and one in five customers who recently switched grocery stores took their business to Aldi \u2014 a number that was up significantly from the year before \u2014 according to Morgan Stanley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAldi is the less show-off-y version of Trader Joe\u2019s \u2014 it\u2019s not peacocking, just existing,\u201d she adds. <\/strong>Which is a nice change of pace, when you think about it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBut First, What\u2019s Aldi Again?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A Fierce Approach to Frugality<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
An Exponential Growth Spurt<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n