Hi HN, Inspired by the recent discussion on traderjoesprices.com, and sites such as mccheapest.com, here is a map of how much does it cost to shop (this week's promo items) at Aldi
There are 4.215 Aldi stores in Germany, 1.997 of those from Aldi Süd who also operates the US stores. Add to that 960 Aldi Süd stores in the UK, 530 in Austria, and a couple more in the other neighboring countries, and I think it's completely fair to be surprised if an aldi price map focuses completely on the US.
"Aldi" is actually split across two different companies that operate in different regions of the world: Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. In the US, Aldi Süd operates the Aldi stores, whereas Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's.
If you are the creator, the problem is more the title. You could write something like "Aldi Price Map in the US". Your current title is a good example of US defaultism and I happens way often (even in social studies where the scientist should be just embarrassed for that).
There is a link to raw data (a big json). Aldi is Hofer in Austria. Prices are probably the same in all their stores? Not sure something similar exists for Germany.
I don't get this criticism at all. Somebody created something for free to scratch their itch, and they're likely from the US, why would they bother with anything else? If it's so important to you, you can always scratch your own itch, I doubt the author of the project would mind help.
You really don’t want to go down this road. I have no problem starting a movement to get Americans to call them “LEGO’s” and you won’t be able to even suggest it’s wrong because it’ll just be a contraction of “LEGO parts,” “LEGO bricks,” and “LEGO sets.” (But feel free to lambast us over punctuation and quotation marks.)
How long do you thing that they will turn the already-plural "data" into the hyper-plural "datas"? Or has this already happened, I am too afraid to check.
LEGOs makes sense; a LEGO is an indivisible entity, of which you can have a certain number. Calling the material simply LEGO makes it sound like an undifferentiated mass, like sludge, or cheese.
Interesting side note: Aldi is not called Aldi in Austria (it's "Hofer" there, which blew my mind as a kid since the logo is the same), because the Aldi trademark belonged to "Adel Lebensmittel Diskont" there.
Acronyms under most English style guides should be written in lowercase with the first letter capitalized. Only initialisms should be in all caps, which Aldi is definitely not.
I can't read the link but we've the same thing in Ireland. I've always assumed it stemed from shops being family owned. e.g. We have a stationary store that was originally called Eason and Sons which when said quickly sounds like Easons.
There'a s few other examples but that's the one that always stood out to me
> Actually it's 'Aldis', because we're talking about more than one.
Just to clarify why this is wrong. First we are not talking about more than one, there is only one "Aldi" company.
We don't use Aldi's (notice the use of the ' for possessive after a single noun) in this case even though every company name is a proper noun which would follow this rule. It's not used because the Price Map is not belonging to Aldi, it is a price map "FOR" Aldi.
Would it not be better and more insightful to take an aggregate price of 50 items (picked from various categories) at each Aldi store and create a map like this to understand how Aldis in different regions have different pricing and the difference etc?
I am saying this because currently, some items like 'Navel Orange' are cheaper on the West Coast vs the East whereas items like 'Veggie Burger' are cheaper on the East Coast compared to the West Coast.
Denmark sadly just got a whole lot easier to add. Aldi gave up and closed their last stores before Christmas. Apparently losing 1 billion DKK every year is just bad business.
In Germany we have two Aldis, Aldi South and Aldi North. I am pretty sure that within the region they cover prices for each product is the same everywhere.
I'm not entirely sure on that but I have no data to back it up, just personal experience. The south (GA, SC, FL, etc) has the Port of Savannah which is the 3rd busiest in the US (right behind Los Angeles and New York). Yet we have some of the most expensive food items, especially in Atlanta which is a massive nationwide distribution hub due to our railways and highways.
EDIT: Makes sense for fruits and vegetables mainly, due to California's agriculture. But shelf-stable and prepackaged goods still maintain a very high price even over in the South.
Would make sense. Aldi tends to operate on a fixed margin.
In the past that used to be around 2-3%, which is why, until 2014, they wouldn't accept credit or US debit cards, as the fees were higher than their margin and they couldn't pass those on to customers.
Well, the Aldi online shopping site [1] is using an API [2], but it is probably not intended to be used publicly. You could try exploring it to see if you can query prices directly.
Readit News
Yup, in my state they basically bought out ALL of the old Bed Bath and Beyond leases and are converting them to Aldi supermarkets.
For me Aldi is just such a european thing that I was genuinely surprised by this.
There is a link to raw data (a big json). Aldi is Hofer in Austria. Prices are probably the same in all their stores? Not sure something similar exists for Germany.
https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/why-do-people-add-s-...
https://issuu.com/lukaszkulakowski/docs/002725
Dead Comment
When I was a child in the 90ies, older people still called Aldi "Albrecht" (and the middle class avoided going there for fear of being marked poor):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Albrecht...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Aldi-Kal...
https://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/news/media/7/The-Albre-b...
Interesting side note: Aldi is not called Aldi in Austria (it's "Hofer" there, which blew my mind as a kid since the logo is the same), because the Aldi trademark belonged to "Adel Lebensmittel Diskont" there.
fitting for reading about a german supermarket chain
e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/business/aldi-winn-dixie-...
e.g. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63015985
Aldi's corporate style is "ALDI" but that's just their internal guidance, not the rules of English.
There'a s few other examples but that's the one that always stood out to me
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Holy moly. How is this even still a thing?
Just to clarify why this is wrong. First we are not talking about more than one, there is only one "Aldi" company.
We don't use Aldi's (notice the use of the ' for possessive after a single noun) in this case even though every company name is a proper noun which would follow this rule. It's not used because the Price Map is not belonging to Aldi, it is a price map "FOR" Aldi.
I am saying this because currently, some items like 'Navel Orange' are cheaper on the West Coast vs the East whereas items like 'Veggie Burger' are cheaper on the East Coast compared to the West Coast.
There are a few larger categories (groceries/rent/etc.) rather than individual items.
This one tracks all online prices of all the austrian grocery brands https://github.com/badlogic/heissepreise
Related thread on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37533633 But didn't took of.
They also gathered some historical data and competed with an government initiative to establish a price comparison app.
Intersting to see how the prices relate just in the US though.
Also I'm not quite sure about the grammar of "Aldi's"
The stores furthest from the port also have the highest cost.
EDIT: Makes sense for fruits and vegetables mainly, due to California's agriculture. But shelf-stable and prepackaged goods still maintain a very high price even over in the South.
In the past that used to be around 2-3%, which is why, until 2014, they wouldn't accept credit or US debit cards, as the fees were higher than their margin and they couldn't pass those on to customers.
Revenue must remain greater than expenses (outside VC funded moonshots).
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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39304068
Daily price tracking for Trader Joe's (traderjoesprices.com)
2024-02-08T16:37:38 (270 points / 146 comments)
They divide Europe up by country so you'd have to get them to cooperate on that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi#Geographic_distribution
https://www.wired.com/story/heisse-preise-food-prices/
[1] https://www.aldi.us/online-shopping/new-aldi-grocery-website...
[2] https://api.commerce.aldi.us/