AR-News: US - The American Way of Aldi

[Orville A Knudsen]

The American Way of Aldi
http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1431_A_1091106_1_A,00.html

QUOTE:

A U.S. business magazine telling Americans to “Buy German?” This strange
but true Forbes headline recently highlighted one of the biggest German
success stories in America: Trader Joe’s.

Europeans have long been fans of the no-frills discount bins at Aldi
supermarket stores, which offer everything from champagne to cut flowers
at prices often steeply discounted from those of competitors. But few here
are familiar with Trader Joe’s, Aldi’s upmarket American discount chain,
which has seen incredible growth in recent decades.

Since 1977, the company has been owned by Theo Albrecht, the billionaire
behind the Aldi Nord supermarket chain. Trader Joe’s has more than 200
stores across the U.S. and rings up an estimated $2.1 billion in annual
revenues.

...

The nautically themed stores, where managers are called captains, also
attract a different kind of customer than the average supermarket. The
German newsweekly Der Spiegel recently described them as "yoga-crazed,
Bush opponents or ballerinas." Others have described it as one-stop
shopping for "Bourgeois Bohemians," the socially conscious, well-educated
middle class with income to spare.

The fact that the company steers clear of more controversial foods, like
duck, whose breeders animal rights activists accuse of animal abuse, also
makes it an obvious choice for more socially conscientious customers.

-- 
http://www.waste.org/~oak/