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German chain Aldi bets big on cheaper groceries as US shoppers feel squeezed
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- Title
- As grocery prices soar, this German grocery chain is conquering America
- Published
- Jan 24 2026
In case someone else was wondering, I believe this refers to Aldi Süd, or the Aldi brand that operates in Southern Germany, as well as countries including the UK, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. Aldi Nord, which operates in Northern Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands, is also doing business in the US, but under the Trader Joe’s brand name.
I'm confused, are you saying that there are no Aldis in the US and that Aldis actually operates under Aldi Nord under the Trader Joes names?
If so I can tell you we definitely have actual Aldis and Trader Joes here, sometimes next door to each other.
Aldi Süd operates as Aldi in the US
Aldi Nord operates as Trader Joe's in the US
There are two companies that run discount grocery stores called "Aldi" in Germany. Due to iirc a disagreement between the founding brothers on selling cigarettes, in the 60s they split into two companies, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, dividing Germany between them. My friends from Southern Germany have the strong sense that Aldi Süd is better than Aldi Nord, but I can't personally attest to that, as Lidl is the bigger presence as a discounter where I currently live.
Other countries that aren't Germany have Aldi, but it will obviously be owned and operated in their country by only one of these two companies. There are maps online for this. Aldi U.S., which owns and operates the Aldi grocery stores within the United States, is part of Aldi Süd. However, Aldi Nord purchased the American grocery store chain Trader Joe's in 1979, and it owns and operates that chain in the US. So technically both Aldi companies operate grocery stores in the US.
They are saying that the Aldi's we have in the U.S. are run by Aldi Süd
Yes. Aldi Nord operates as Trader Joe's in the US.
From the article:
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An Aldi opened literally across the corner from me in river North Chicago. It's a god send and also an extremely clear recession indicator when, prior, the closest 3 groceries were whole foods, trader joes, and jewel osco (a very solid local chain)
River north historically (early 2000s) been extremely yuppy, now it's mostly young professionals like me that make a stones throw to and from 6 figures that love comfortably but are ecstatic to get good groceries at same prices.
I mean, the eggs alone. It was a huge meme and I stopped buying them because at the other stores it was minimum 5 bucks but usually 7 for the "we torture each chicken" variety and 10 for the "chickens have their own cages yay!" Varieties. Aldi has them at 1.89 last I checked, never been above 3.
Like I said, God send. I love alone so even if a costco popped up I'd keep it to Aldi for my own sake of variety and space saving
Aldi is actually one of the reasons why I'm convinced that major grocers are making their money exploiting the population who live around them rather than competing for their business. All of those mergers cannot have been a good thing.
Eggs are almost certainly a loss leader for them, though. That's why they have signs saying you can only buy so many at a time.
Oh yes certainly, it's definitely a flex but a flex that puts clean protein into the populace at reasonable prices. As with all things, the truth is in the middle.
My only complaint (albeit why the prices are so low) is they have no hot food at all. I still stop at jewels somewhat often to grab a loaf of fresh baked bread, rotisserie chicken for stock, that kinda thing.
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I finally decided to check out the Aldi that opened up in my area after being a regular Super 1 Foods shopper (mostly due to it opening so close to my house an NFL pro could bean the front door from my front porch.) It was downright magical seeing meat and produce anywhere from 20% to over 50% cheaper, not accounting for sale prices. Other items were about the same price or maybe like, 20 cents cheaper--but I was smitten. Genuinely, I didn't think you could find decent quality and relatively cheap prices these days. Super 1 Foods still has the variety for those niche purchases, but Aldi sells shelf-stable gnocchi, prepackaged havarti, and the first frozen alfredo meal that I've had which actually tastes like the freshly made version. If all that wasn't enough to win me over, the cashiers get to actually sit in chairs. It actually looked like it would be fun to be one! I didn't even mind bagging my own groceries since it gave me a moment to recollect myself since sometimes I get a bit internally spazzed out in public.
I have two issues with Aldi (in the States at least)...
They seem to operate on just like one employee per store (I'm exaggerating a little but I'm probably not that far off). Good luck if something happens, like there is a spill on aisle 4 or someone dropped eggs by the freezer. Because there are barely any employees working, suddenly you have a line of 25 people because one of the two employees on duty had to clean up the spill.
The other issue is they just sometimes don't have some items. They run out of certain foods. Almost every single time I go to Aldi, I always walk out of there not having completed all my grocery shopping. I still have to go to Kroger, Publix, Walmart, etc., because Aldi didn't have some foods that every grocery store should. No joke, earlier in the week I stopped by to get groceries and they didn't have half & half. No, not that they had some off brand or they only had a four gallon size container of half & half. No, they just had no half & half. How in the world does a grocery store run out of half & half? That's okay, I can go to Kroger and get some but then I walk down to the meat section and they have no salmon. Again, it's not that they have some random ass brand of salmon I've never heard of, or they only have a cut of salmon I don't like, no they have no salmon whatsoever. Again, this probably wouldn't be too big of a deal if it were just these two items this one time. It happens every single time with one item or another.