Aldi announced that they are going to add more organic foods, prepared fresh foods, and eliminate high fructose corn syrup from their store brands. They also plan to remodel their stores with taller ceilings, more windows, natural light, and more upscale decor.
This seems like a Fresh and Easy type of store. Will this new format work?
Aldi is not doing as well as they had hoped in California. The stores lack selection and brand names. It is too bland for most customers. Customers are willing to pay more for full service deli, prepared foods, and brand names.
Aldi Changes
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Re: Aldi Changes
I'm guessing that they're trying to fit into more upscale neighborhoods and it won't be that universal. That's how a lot of chains managed to get into nicer areas, like McDonald's, with better décor. Problem is, trying to model Fresh & Easy likely isn't going to work. Fresh & Easy was well-known to be a failure, in part due to an odd merchandise mix that never quite clicked with consumers, but even new ownership was never able to turn the stores around.
Fresh & Easy briefly led the industry into believing that the wave of the future would be sub-20,000 square foot stores, but only Trader Joe's and Aldi managed to do it well (The Fresh Market has been forced to dramatically scale back plans for expansion and Sprouts is doing well but slowly building bigger and bigger stores).
Fresh & Easy briefly led the industry into believing that the wave of the future would be sub-20,000 square foot stores, but only Trader Joe's and Aldi managed to do it well (The Fresh Market has been forced to dramatically scale back plans for expansion and Sprouts is doing well but slowly building bigger and bigger stores).