They’re updating the rules for shopping during the pandemic = https://corporate.aldi.us/en/newsroom/a ... 9-updates/

Dave148 wrote:They’re updating the rules for shopping during the pandemic = https://corporate.aldi.us/en/newsroom/a ... 9-updates/

Nothing unfamiliar by this point -- more intensely managed social distancing. Getting used to it. Better than not being able to shop!

How are they handling the quarter for carts and is there a long line to get into the store? I went into Trader Joe's last week and they were doing the same thing and it took me 10 minutes to get into the store, and that is only because I am a senior. The younger shoppers probably had to wait 30 minutes to get into Trader Joe's.

No quarters currently needed for the carts at the Des Plaines Aldi. Also there was an an employee stationed near the carts armed with a rag and spray disinfectant. As soon as a cart was returned, she would wipe it down before the next customer would take it.

No lines, walked right in, but it wasn't a particularly busy day or time. Might be different during peak shopping hours.

The one way aisles mentioned in the corporate memorandum were non-existent, but not a problem given the amount of traffic in the store.

Except for those items some people seem to insist on hoarding, the shelves were reasonably well stocked.

Buddy

Hi,

I bought recently their Deutsche Kuche Cornichons with Herbs. These were sweet-sour gherkins seasoned with mustard seed, dill, red pepper and black pepper.

I typically don't like Cornichons, because they tend to be too sour. This little jar of pickles were terrific.

They were a special at Aldi during a recent German cuisine week. If I missed them this time around, I hope to catch them in the fall.

They also had a variation with chilies. For those who like that, it may be worth getting a jar.

Regards,
Cathy2

Hi- On a Facebook group that I post on a lot, several people have reported that their Aldi's does not wipe down the carts any more, and they now keep the carts locked up, and require you use a quarter to unlock them. Apparently the Waukegan, Aurora and Gurnee stores make you do this now. Has anybody else noticed this? Apparently some of the Aldi's in the Chicago area such as Palatine still disinfect the carts for you and don't keep the carts locked up though.

NFriday wrote:Hi- On a Facebook group that I post on a lot, several people have reported that their Aldi's does not wipe down the carts any more, and they now keep the carts locked up, and require you use a quarter to unlock them. Apparently the Waukegan, Aurora and Gurnee stores make you do this now. Has anybody else noticed this? Apparently some of the Aldi's in the Chicago area such as Palatine still disinfect the carts for you and don't keep the carts locked up though.

I don't know about wiping down, but every Aldi I've ever gone to in the north and northweest suburbs over the last 10 years has locked up the carts and required a quarter to use them. Didn't know there were any Aldi's that didn't do this.

Cynthia wrote:

NFriday wrote:Hi- On a Facebook group that I post on a lot, several people have reported that their Aldi's does not wipe down the carts any more, and they now keep the carts locked up, and require you use a quarter to unlock them. Apparently the Waukegan, Aurora and Gurnee stores make you do this now. Has anybody else noticed this? Apparently some of the Aldi's in the Chicago area such as Palatine still disinfect the carts for you and don't keep the carts locked up though.

I don't know about wiping down, but every Aldi I've ever gone to in the north and northweest suburbs over the last 10 years has locked up the carts and required a quarter to use them. Didn't know there were any Aldi's that didn't do this.

The Skokie Aldi had a staffer disinfecting carts yesterday. No quarters needed. They no longer allow reusable/outside bags to be brought in the store.

Marketplace on Oakton next door still needs quarters for their carts. No reusable/outside bags as well. No staffer disinfecting carts.

Two weeks ago, no quarters required for a cart and a person manning the area to clean carts as returned at the Westmont Aldi. Same story on Friday at the Downers Grove location.

I will give a lot of credit for ALDI for one thing during this pandemic. I visited stores in Ontario, OH and Cincinnati at the beginning of the pandemic (March 12-15) and these stores quickly put up signs reading "Limit 2 on ALL high demand products so that we can serve more families." That was not happening at the Meijers and Krogers stores where people were making out with cart loads of toilet paper, ramen noodles and the like.

In my continuing effort to support small independent restaurants during this pandemic, back on 13 May, I rode the CTA route #54 bus (which was sporadically occupied - I maintained social distancing) south to Cermak Rd. to get Italian Beef sandwiches at Scatchell's.
It so happens there is an Aldi across the avenue from Scatchell's.
On this date, at this Aldi, staff was handing out shopping carts without needing a quarter, and my fiber, reusable shopping bag (from Briess Malting & YCHHops - courtesy an American Homebrewers' Assoc.'s National Homebrew Conference a few years ago) was allowed to be used. Aisle directions were marked, but there were a few two-way aisles.
The store was not crowded. I was astonished to find three 4-packs of Third Street Brewhouse's Oktoberfest session marzen in 16-oz. cans (a craft beer I enjoyed so much back in late 2019 I went to my local Aldi [on W. Diversey] to try and get more; only to find it had sold out). I would have been willing to pay $5.99 | 4-pack for it; but here it was being blown out for $3.50.
I bought a few more items: A 38-oz. bottle of ketchup (the container I had in the refrigerator had been in there so long [I think it was bought before dad died.] it was maroon rather than red); four XXL beef & bean burritos from a frozen case; and six 1-lb. packages of bologna. Total cost = $24.30. [credit card]
I then walked back to Scatchell's and bought two italian beefs, hot | juicy, and a small order of french fries. That cost $18.90. [cash only] (I had one beef that day, and the 2nd one on the 14th.)
I correctly assembled everything into the fiber bag and went to the northbound bus stop. Being this close to the south terminus meant finding an isolated seat was simple.

Have you ever tried to call an Aldi store? You cannot, they have unlisted phone numbers.

If you call the listed number: (855) 955-2534, it will advise you all Aldi stores are unlisted to save you money. There is no hold for customer service, they direct to their website.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:If you call the listed number: (855) 955-2534, it will advise you all Aldi stores are unlisted to save you money.

LOL, yeah. I'm sure that's the reason.

=R=

Cathy2 wrote:Have you ever tried to call an Aldi store? You cannot, they have unlisted phone numbers.

If you call the listed number: (855) 955-2534, it will advise you all Aldi stores are unlisted to save you money. There is no hold for customer service, they direct to their website.

Regards,
Cathy2

A lot of companies are diong that. TCF Bank branches have no phone numbers. You are directed to their HQ in Minneapolis which is equally unhelpful.

HI,

A few months ago when we were in deep-stay-at-home, I called Costco to double-check on something. In the welcome recording they advised they would not respond to individual product checks.

It reminds me of a story from a food editor where there was a misprint on the quantity called for in a recipe. She received so many phone calls, she would answer with the correction. Someone said, "How did you know that was my question?" "Nobody has asked anything else today!"

Regards,
Cathy2

Companies no longer exist to serve their publics. Rather, their publics exist to serve the companies by producing profits. It's become as simple as that. And the bigger, more monopolistic the company becomes, the less and less beholden they are to anyone, let alone their public.

Our only hope is shopping local stores. But they're disappearing fast. Grab 'em while you can.

Geo

Geo wrote:Companies no longer exist to serve their publics. Rather, their publics exist to serve the companies by producing profits. It's become as simple as that. And the bigger, more monopolistic the company becomes, the less and less beholden they are to anyone, let alone their public.

Our only hope is shopping local stores. But they're disappearing fast. Grab 'em while you can.

Geo

This has been a tough year for everyone. I think they are dealing with less employees and more work, so they are trimming efforts. Some employers are calling back employees who do not want to show up.

I was at a Jewel where a customer was reaming the poor person who answered the phone over wipes. Screaming at an employee is not going poop anything out of the system for this person.

The other morning I was listening to the news while getting dressed. The discussion was how food production was presently focused on high volume items. If you have a niche item you like, you will have to wait.

This is demonstrated by the Campbell Soup selection. There are tags advising product shortages related to the manufacturer. If you want Cream of Mushroom, you are in luck. If you want Chicken Gumbo, you may be waiting.

If nobody makes a profit and they loose money, they trim their expenses or go out of business. There are a lot of places teetering on going out of business.

Aldi has always been upfront on trimming costs wherever possible. Yet they have been responsive to this health situation by suspending the quarter system, stationing an employee at the door to clean carts and who knows what else.

I have not been to an Aldi in probably two months, so if things have changed, so be it.

Regards,
CAthy2

Oh, I think Aldi has been exemplary, C2! My remarks were general comments directed toward the likes of Costco, United, etc. Aldi has never been a phone-service company.

Here in the North Country, where the COVID pressure has been pretty low, most of the businesses have been pretty lax. The markets hit or miss with PPE for employees, or enforcement of mask-wearing, etc.

Aldi, OTOH, has been its Teutonic self: disciplined from the start: enforcing number of customers in the store, directional flow, distancing, sanitizing, etc. There's a guy at the front door prepping the carts, counting entrants, etc. They certainly are the most rigourous retailer in town. Kudos to them.

Your points are well-taken: there is going to be some terrible shaking-out around here. We don't have much in the way of a resto culture, only several decent restos serving *the* major city of the 6-county North Country region. Don't know how many of them will survive.

As the meme says: 2020 serves as proof that humanity never invents time-travel--if it had, someone would have fixed it already.

Geo

Cathy2 wrote:Aldi has always been upfront on trimming costs wherever possible. Yet they have been responsive to this health situation by suspending the quarter system, stationing an employee at the door to clean carts and who knows what else.

No more free carts - BYOQ. It's hit and miss on the staffer that cleans the carts.

Really? When did this happen? I was at the Vernon Hills Aldi within the last five days, and carts were still available for a quarter.

Katie wrote:Really? When did this happen? I was at the Vernon Hills Aldi within the last five days, and carts were still available for a quarter.

Carts were and are still always there. During the beginning of the pandemic and up until a few weeks ago, they were waiving the quarter needed to get a cart.

Geo wrote:Companies no longer exist to serve their publics. Rather, their publics exist to serve the companies by producing profits.

I would argue that companies have never existed to serve the public and I would argue that is a good. In what world have a significant number of companies started with the idea that profits are unimportant and serving the public is the point of what we are doing?

Geo wrote:Companies no longer exist to serve their publics. Rather, their publics exist to serve the companies by producing profits. It's become as simple as that. And the bigger, more monopolistic the company becomes, the less and less beholden they are to anyone, let alone their public.

Our only hope is shopping local stores. But they're disappearing fast. Grab 'em while you can.

Geo

WHen I was in Ohio around March 10th, I stopped at three different Aldi stores in Mansfield, Columbus, and Cincinnati. That was about the same time that the hoarders were hitting all of the store. The local Aldi managers put a stop to the hoarding putting strict limits on what they would sell to people so that they could, in the words on their sign , "serve more families." The woman that was in front of me wanting to buy two CASES of eggs was limited to two dozen. If they were in it for strictly profit, they would have some what a lot of the retailers did - let the first few shoppers buy it all out.

I read a lot of articles that cover the restaurant and supermarket industries. One covered all of the cost savings schemes that Aldi stores employ to maintain a low cost position. These included the size of the parking lot, the construction of stores, and the like. I have to admit that at least 40% of them were things that I had never thought of. And most of the cost reductions were things that the average customer would not miss. It is pretty much eliminating the massive waste of the modern supermarket.

Actually, lougord99, your history is quite wrong. I don't mean this to be snarky, but were you to read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, which of course is the founding document of modern capitalism, you'll see that the line you're pushing--roughly the Harvard Business School model--has pretty much totally perverted Smith's much more rational model of The Business. The line I touted above is consistent with Smith, and with most of the more successful businesses of our time--Joe Lawrence's description is directly relevant here.

Profits are an essential part of capitalism. Duh. But they are only a part. Maybe not even the most important part, any more.

Geo

Geo wrote:Profits are an essential part of capitalism. Duh. But they are only a part. Maybe not even the most important part, any more.
Geo

In my younger days when I was a trainee, I remember J. Willard Marriott, Sr. spending about 90% of his time talking on two subjects: the importance of taking care of the customer and the importance of taking care of the employees so they will take care of the customers. I do not even remember any discussions of finance. He believed that profits were made when you focused on the customer.

Then, a couple years later, he died.

The son brought in a bunch of Wall Street types and after that, customer service was a side note at most meetings. All we heard about was financial leverage and cutting costs and the like.

As Aldi is owned by a German family trust, it is fairly immune from the pressures of quarterly results. Unlike most publicly held corporations, they are looking four or five years down the road. Personally, I like how they engineer costs out of the operations. That allows them to pay above market wages, satisfy customers, and make a good profit.

I am ticked that they have selayed their first Arizona stores until 2022. They do so at a risk as Winco Foods has plans to eventually expand into Tucson.

Joe, exactly: what you call "Wall Street types" are the ones I refer to as the "Harvard biz school grads." As you note: all that counts is the quarterly report, and it's important only as a signifier of stockholder profit. 'The firm exists to profit the stockholders' is HBS dogma since the late 70s and it has ruined American commerce.

Aldi (and Trader Joe's) have never participated in this HBS model because they're German, owned by a couple of brothers. Whole different business philosophy.

There are signals that things are going to turn around in the U.S., and that philosophical considerations are being given to the notion that The Firm also exists to bring goods to the employees and to the customers. If/when those notions *finally* return to our commercial sector, things will get much better for all concerned.

Philosophy counts, as it always has, and always will.

Geo

There is a shortage of change right now, and Aldi's is asking you to either pay electronically, or use exact change if paying with cash. Meijer's asks you to not use cash at self checkout lanes. If you want to pay with cash, you have to go to one of the regular lanes. Whole Foods is not taking any cash payment. Apparently the federal government is not minting a lot of money right now because they are worried about the safety of the people minting the money

The major reason for the shortage of coins in the economy is that they are not circulating. A lot of the businesses that generate a lot of coins - vending, theatres, small retailers - are not operating as people are staying home. Banks DO NOT want to deal with coins at all. A lot of the Coinstar machines are also not working.

NFriday wrote:... Whole Foods is not taking any cash payment.
...

At the Lakeview Whole Foods in Chicago (Lincoln/Belmont/Ashland), the self-checkout stations accept cash. They are not accepting cash at the regular checkout lanes.

Not all Whole Food stores have self checkout.