A recent article on Bloomberg.com said that Aldi is now trying to make itself more attractive to the type of customer that shops at Trader Joe’s.
According to the report, Aldi U.S. CEO Jason Hart believes that American shoppers are increasingly concerned with the content and quality of the food they eat, so the company, which has about $8 billion in sales in the U.S. and is growing at a steady rate, has added items like organic quinoa and coconut oil, chia seeds and grass-fed beef. In fact, Aldi’s Simply Nature all-natural and organic line has become its fastest-growing brand.
“This isn’t your grandmother’s Aldi,” Hart said. (That’s for sure, considering that Aldi opened its first U.S. store in 1976 when my grandmother was 63, and that store was in Iowa. The chain didn’t get to the east coast until many years later.)
According to the Nutrition Business Journal, Americans spent about $33 billion on organic items last year, and these days they expect to find organic selections at both traditional supermarkets and discounters. Aldi’s plan is to not only offer such items, but offer them at extreme discounts.
Regarding the company’s pricing, a July survey by Bloomberg Intelligence found Aldi to be cheaper than other discounters, including Walmart and Save-A-Lot.