Aldi running national ad campaigns

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SamSpade
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Aldi running national ad campaigns

Post by SamSpade »

In case you haven't seen them, these are their 'comparison' ads

I saw one for their cheese puffs on Food Network here in Oregon so they must be using nationwide ad buys now that their footprint is so large.
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Re: Aldi running national ad campaigns

Post by rwsandiego »

SamSpade wrote: January 8th, 2018, 1:10 pm In case you haven't seen them, these are their 'comparison' ads

I saw one for their cheese puffs on Food Network here in Oregon so they must be using nationwide ad buys now that their footprint is so large.
As I've mentioned before, my folks were broke when I was a kid and so we shopped at Aldi for basics, in addition to the other chains in Chicagoland. My brother wore my folks down one time and they bought us Cheetos instead of whatever Aldi called them at the time. We preferred the Aldi brand! We were forced to finish the bag of Cheetos before they would buy us a bag from Aldi.

Aunt Fanny's Pecan Twirls were to die for. They are called something else now but I still love 'em. Total guilty pleasure.
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Re: Aldi running national ad campaigns

Post by storewanderer »

They don't own any manufacturing facilities in the US, do they? So all of these products they have, are produced by some other producers. Unless they are importing items from other countries that they produce. I seem to recall they did have a number of imported items. The question is who are the producers, and what other private label items do they produce? And if so, can you get these items elsewhere besides Aldi?

I think the national brands are going to continue to lose share to private labels. For me, the national brands are pretty meaningless. There are a few categories I buy their products in because there is either not much of a private label alternative (pet food, dental items, laundry detergent, some red wine vinegar the other day, frozen meals...) or the national brand items coupon so heavily that their items actually end up cheaper than private labels ever are (toothpaste, some secondary laundry detergent brands like All, shampoo...)...

It is also my perception that the labels on a lot of the national brand products are quite "dirty." As in, too often unnecessarily containing high fructose corn syrup and other odd things I cannot pronounce. For instance, the Del Monte brand canned fruits or tomato sauces have high fructose corn syrup while at most stores, the private label counterpart does not. I notice the same thing on some national brand breads where the private label counterparts (well, if they are baked by a Safeway-owned or Kroger-owned bread plant) have much cleaner labels as well.

I haven't shopped in Aldi enough to know how their labels look or how "clean" they are. But all those chemicals do cost money... it is nice to extend the shelf life and accomplish whatever else the chemicals accomplish but I am not sure it is necessary.
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Re: Aldi running national ad campaigns

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: January 8th, 2018, 10:32 pm They don't own any manufacturing facilities in the US, do they? So all of these products they have, are produced by some other producers. Unless they are importing items from other countries that they produce. I seem to recall they did have a number of imported items. The question is who are the producers, and what other private label items do they produce? And if so, can you get these items elsewhere besides Aldi?

I think the national brands are going to continue to lose share to private labels. For me, the national brands are pretty meaningless. There are a few categories I buy their products in because there is either not much of a private label alternative (pet food, dental items, laundry detergent, some red wine vinegar the other day, frozen meals...) or the national brand items coupon so heavily that their items actually end up cheaper than private labels ever are (toothpaste, some secondary laundry detergent brands like All, shampoo...)...

It is also my perception that the labels on a lot of the national brand products are quite "dirty." As in, too often unnecessarily containing high fructose corn syrup and other odd things I cannot pronounce. For instance, the Del Monte brand canned fruits or tomato sauces have high fructose corn syrup while at most stores, the private label counterpart does not. I notice the same thing on some national brand breads where the private label counterparts (well, if they are baked by a Safeway-owned or Kroger-owned bread plant) have much cleaner labels as well.

I haven't shopped in Aldi enough to know how their labels look or how "clean" they are. But all those chemicals do cost money... it is nice to extend the shelf life and accomplish whatever else the chemicals accomplish but I am not sure it is necessary.
I don't shop at Aldi very often, and when I do (it's twice as far as the grocery stores I usually go to) I usually gravitate to what I can't get elsewhere (Cherry Brandy Liqueur Cake) rather than the store brand items. I did take a chance with their equivalent of Raisin Bran Crunch (an expensive variety of Kellogg's Raisin Bran with oat clusters and a honey flavor) but the raisins were like rocks, requiring a bit of jawing to get done.

I don't want to get into a rant about "clean labels" either partially because it's so blatantly anti-science ("I don't know what is"="probably bad") but partially because it just doesn't taste as good or last as long, and already we're at least starting to see some rollback on artificial colors and flavors (Trix being an example, despite pushing by certain parties the "new" Trix did poorly and already my local H-E-B store dropped Trix in favor of "Classic Trix" which reverted to the pre-2015 formula). National labels are iffy as well, ever since they outsourced to Mexico, even real Oreos don't taste quite like they used to.

But that's just me. Just because I can detect differences in American cheese varieties (like McDonald's, which uses their own instead of the type others use/you can buy in stores) doesn't mean most people can.
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Re: Aldi running national ad campaigns

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: January 8th, 2018, 10:32 pm I haven't shopped in Aldi enough to know how their labels look or how "clean" they are. But all those chemicals do cost money... it is nice to extend the shelf life and accomplish whatever else the chemicals accomplish but I am not sure it is necessary.
I think the opposite is true. The chemicals (preservatives, fillers, cheap government subsidized sweeteners and additives like corn syrup and soy e.t.c..) dramatically reduce the cost of food products. It is much more expensive to produce healthy foods with 'real' ingredients. That's why a fresh head of broccoli costs less than a cheeseburger :(
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Re: Aldi running national ad campaigns

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

I like Aldi and shop there for my "staple" items once a month (bread, frozen OJ stuff like that) but the one thing that bothers me more than anything about them is that I can't remember the last time I was able to buy everything on my list. This month it was waffles, once it was the bread and another time it was fresh carrots. This happens all the time. And when you ask one of the few employees on the floor, it's always the same answer: "no more until the truck comes in" They run extremely lean store inventories which tends to cause a lot of out of stocks on the items that turn quickly. That obviously is one of the keys to their pricing and cost structure but from a consumer stadnpoint, extremely frustrating.
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Re: Aldi running national ad campaigns

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: January 10th, 2018, 6:24 pm

I think the opposite is true. The chemicals (preservatives, fillers, cheap government subsidized sweeteners and additives like corn syrup and soy e.t.c..) dramatically reduce the cost of food products. It is much more expensive to produce healthy foods with 'real' ingredients. That's why a fresh head of broccoli costs less than a cheeseburger :(
Unfortunately in some (many) cases I am sure you are correct. The amount of fillers can definitely reduce costs on some items, like dairy items. Look at all of the weird ingredients in ice cream, or "frozen dairy dessert" as many flavors are now called. Yogurts can also be an interesting ingredient adventure.

I think there is going to be ongoing demand for "cleaner" labels though. As the cost has been going down for items with "cleaner" labels and such items are more readily available, I think it will help things. I hope.
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