Great What/What Not to Buy at Lidl, Aldi and Netto Hunt

hollydays

CravingSaving wrote: »

I use a rubber glove, just one, not worn but put over the lid, then twist. This gives extra grip. Works for me

hey! ME too! I have had to chuck out 2 jars-no-one could open them.

Schamansky

@ murphaph

Aldi managers do their daily orders in the early evening, walking up and down the isles with an MDT, which is wirelessly connected to the computer in the office. Completed orders are then sent online to the regional warehouse and HO (in Chelmsford for where I live) and processed accordingly.

Quite like at Lidl's, order levels are almost entirely left to the store or duty manager's discretion, apart from specific weekly specials or merchandise on promotion. The common sense idea is that the local manager will know best what is going to sell in a specific store at a specific time of the year. The general rule on ambient stock is as simple as can be, "replace what's gone", while order levels of perishables are left more or less to the manager's clairvoyance skills. Wastage rates are closely monitored, and if they rise too high, (above 0.5% as a rule of thumb) the area manager is going to take a stern stance. I've seen managers go round with old-school paper lists for fresh produce, though, since produce is, of course, a main source for inventory loss through wastage.

Our family went to Dublin in early 2007 just for a city break, staying round Smithfield's next to the Jameson's distillery. We did some shopping at a Tesco's somewhat north of the centre, and what struck me was that they were having a display up comparing their prices (mainly Tesco own brand and Value) to Lidl's. The caption ran somewhat along the lines of "no need to go to Lidl" or so. This struck me because it appeared as if Tesco in Ireland were regarding Lidl as a serious competitor. This would be unheard of in the UK, where Tesco is the big number one and regards the German-style discounters with their almost negligible market share as not really worth bothering with. But I can well see how Irish cost of living drives quite a few people through the doors of Aldi and Lidl.

And yes, I'm German, living in the UK since 2004. That explains the funny helmet.

Schamansky

Mary_Hartnell wrote: »

Yes that is the stuff !

Is it only sold by Lidl or do other shops in France sell it ?
Thinks, where is the Calais branch of Lidl.

UHU is the long-time German market leader for glues and adhesives and exports all over the EU, including the UK. That's why I don't understand why I can't find this specific product anywhere else in the UK. Maybe you're right, and this item does smell too good for a specific kind of local demand.

It's on UHU's English website, though. Go to the company's website, www.uhu.de. Click English, then "our adhesives", then "universal, multi-purpose and contact adhesives". A picture of products should appear, and on the top right, there is an item that looks exactly like the one you're after, apart from the yellow-coloured barrel. Click this for an enlarged view. It's the precisely the same product as the one you bought at Lidl, "UHU Alleskleber Kraft Powerblock". From what I researched, you can order it from Germany, France, Spain, even Russia, but as long as you don't go for wholesale quantities that get you a bulk discount with free delivery, it's absolutely not worth it, I'm afraid.

I would very much assume you'd get it anywhere in France, not only at Lidl, but possibly at all those "hypermarches" such as Carrefour, E. Leclerc, Auchan etc., as well as in stationery or hobbies and crafts retail.

By the way, UHU, pronounce "OO-hoo", means "Eagle Owl" in German. We're quite onomatopoetic sometimes.

murphaph

Thanks schamansky. How does an Aldi store manager order accurately if he/she does it in the evening though? Does the distibution centre inform them immediately of items which are unavailable/on hold? I do my orders in the morning after the shop has been packed for the day and I can clearly see what's low. I also need to get my picklist corection sheets which show me my Fehlerartikeln! I need these especially for F&V to ensure I order up if my cabbage for today has been zeroed or reduced.

I believe Aldi is currently running "super 6" F&V promotions at the moment. They are in Ireland anyway and it involves 6 items each week being half priced. Lidl reponded immediately by reducing by slightly more than half price of course! Lidl will allocate these items if store managers don't order enough to clear the distribution centre stock out, I presume Aldi do likewise?

I would never be able to get write-offs to below 0.5% and maintain acceptable availability. Lidl Ireland is currently much more interested in maintaining full availabilty right into the late evening. Keeping it under 1% is "good" and many stores run at 2% but it seems to be tolerated.

It is very tue that Lidl and Aldi are taken VERY seriously by Tesco Ireland/Dunnes Stores/Superquinn etc. as they have already taken approximately 10% market share with nowhere near universal geographic coverage. Lidl has many stores which turn over way too much money and mean the company can open more stores in the vicinity and make more money overall. In fact, Dunnes Stores has copied quite a few of Lidl's tactics (non-food specials, lunch-box size apples in a bag, called "funsize" in Lidl, etc. etc.) and Lidl and Aldi need to watch out-the established retailers aren't going to keep losing market share without a fight.

I read "checkout" magazine each month and they are part of the "establishment" and so do not particularly like Lidl/Aldi but somehow Lidl and /or Aldi end up in the magazine in one form or another every month. I know Lidl is starting to do really well when I hear customers in my store refering to our private labels as if they were another brand name.

Schamansky

murphaph wrote: »

How does an Aldi store manager order accurately if he/she does it in the evening though? Does the distibution centre inform them immediately of items which are unavailable/on hold?

I suppose they just spot what's running low or going off-sale and re-order by rule of thumb. The rest is down to judgement by experience. They do get daily memos from HO about stock that is (currently) not available. These memos, together with pick lists and updated price cards arrive with the daily morning delivery.

murphaph wrote: »

I believe Aldi is currently running "super 6" F&V promotions at the moment. They are in Ireland anyway and it involves 6 items each week being half priced. Lidl reponded immediately by reducing by slightly more than half price of course! Lidl will allocate these items if store managers don't order enough to clear the distribution centre stock out, I presume Aldi do likewise?

This "super 6" promotion is running in the UK as well. "Super 6" produce is attributed to each store by HO according to individual store performance, with the manager having no influence on how much is sent in (just like weekly specials).

I don't see that as much as a shin kick against Lidl, since Lidl have always "dumped" significant amounts of their fresh produce as a loss-leader, with Aldi being more conservative in this respect. I can't see Aldi going any further than "super 6", in the way of Lidl style "70% off all fruit and veg" promotions. The way I see it, Aldi's strategy isn't so much directed against Lidl, but targeting the UK Great Four in an attempt to draw their customers into the stores through a selection of high quality fruit and veg items at a more or less symbolic price and certainly at a loss.

murphaph wrote: »

I would never be able to get write-offs to below 0.5% and maintain acceptable availability. Lidl Ireland is currently much more interested in maintaining full availabilty right into the late evening. Keeping it under 1% is "good" and many stores run at 2% but it seems to be tolerated.

I know for sure that Aldi is extremely hot on inventory loss, and that deficits of 2% would mean serious trouble for a store manager. The targets are around the 0.5 - 0.6% mark. I've known of store managers getting a right rollocking for losing too much on spirits (most popular with shoplifters). I find that quite unfair, since investment in security personnel is zero, and I needn't tell you of all how busy store staff are anyway, at all times.

murphaph wrote: »

It is very tue that Lidl and Aldi are taken VERY seriously by Tesco Ireland/Dunnes Stores/Superquinn etc. as they have already taken approximately 10% market share with nowhere near universal geographic coverage. Lidl has many stores which turn over way too much money and mean the company can open more stores in the vicinity and make more money overall. In fact, Dunnes Stores has copied quite a few of Lidl's tactics (non-food specials, lunch-box size apples in a bag, called "funsize" in Lidl, etc. etc.) and Lidl and Aldi need to watch out-the established retailers aren't going to keep losing market share without a fight.

I don't think Aldi and Lidl, with their size, purchasing power, liquid financial ressources and multi-billionaire private ownership at zero shareholder responsibility have much to fear from any national Irish retail chain. Don't get me wrong, but Ireland is a small country after all, and big in Eire doesn't mean much on a European retail scale. Tesco as one of the top players in Europe and further away, with their huge purchase and liquidity potential, is the only one to be taken very seriously where Ireland is concerned.

Even the world's retail giant #1, Walmart, recently pulled out of Germany. Despite their gargantuan ressources, they finally realised that they didn't have a chance on the home turf of Aldi and Lidl. The situation in the UK is completely different, of course. Britain is Tescoland, and neither the Albrechts nor Herr Schwarz are ever going to change that.

murphaph wrote: »

I read "checkout" magazine each month and they are part of the "establishment" and so do not particularly like Lidl/Aldi but somehow Lidl and /or Aldi end up in the magazine in one form or another every month. I know Lidl is starting to do really well when I hear customers in my store refering to our private labels as if they were another brand name.

The situation is probably different in the ROI than in the UK. Over here, there's still much snobbery about when it comes to shopping at discounters, although this attitude is gradually declining. It may well be different in Ireland, where the cost of living is so extreme (and there was me thinking that the UK was bad!) that quite a few people simply can't afford that kind of snobbery at all. I dare to predict that as soon as the UK economy heads into the next recession (housing market, credit crunch, overstretching), both Aldi and Lidl will see a lot of new faces peeping at their shelves.

mrs_scrooge

dan1979 wrote: »

I made my first ever visit to a Lidl today, I thought it was supposed to be cheap?

There were a few bargains around like washing-up liquid and similar but unless you want tins of pre-prepared food it would save me virtually nothing compared to Waitrose where I usually go (to pick up things I can't get at butchers/fruit and veg stall/fishmonger).

Free-range eggs only a few pence different, Anchor butter exactly the same price. Pot of cream very similar price.

No wonder the store was devoid of customers when I went, fails to live up to the billing.

Lidl is different things to different people.

Its a bit old now but you may want to read this article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060720/ai_n16542623

murphaph

Funny you should mention the snobbery aspect. Lidl recently launched a series of 10 TV adverts for broadcast in Northern Ireland (however all Ireland will receive them, but obviously the prices will not apply) which effectively take the p!ss out of people who are snobs about shopping in Lidl. We were shown all the ads before launch and some are very funny actually.

Lidl /Aldi do not even need to use TV advertising in RoI as they do well enough by word of mouth and repeat business. You're right though....small time irish retailers are tiny compared to the 6000/7000 store of Lidl/Aldi.

I'm just wondering will Schwarz bring Kaufland here. That would be a huge success IMO.

On the inventory loss thing, we are measured on known loss (write offs due to over-ordering/non-rotation) and unknown loss (in theory only theft but if staff fail to write product off before binning it it will appear as unknown loss so we prefer high write offs and low unknown loss). We are supposed to keep write-offs below 1% and unknown loss below 0.6%-0.8%. These figures are well below the losses of big retailers and symbol stores of course, but we don't have to work with deli-counter sales which would drive that figure up.

Do you have any ideas about how Aldi measures store productivity? Lidl simply divides the total number of staff hours (including managers) into the sales and the figure is called "actual productivity" and we have a planned productivity of around 430-450 for a standard 1286 qm store. I'd be very interested in Aldi's targets in this area.

Schamansky

Thanks Murphaph, I've just watched some of those Lidl commercials on YouTube. It's not normally the greatest German virtue to make fun of oneself, but that was great! This is my favourite (for that face she pulls):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhhxSSreInY

This one isn't bad either:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93QlQbfKCfc

---

Store productivity at Aldi is also daily sales divided by daily man-hours. Targets vary from store to store. You can't compare the figures directly because of different currencies. Around 300 seems to be is a rule of thumb for quieter stores around here.

Schamansky

Another strong (5.5%) buy from Aldi:

OKOCIM Polish Lager. This is a first-class Pilsener from an established brewery in Brzesko, Poland. It beats many a German Pilsener and is nicely priced at 99p per 500ml bottle.

www.okocim.pl

Tolleydog

Schamansky wrote: »

Another strong (5.5%) buy from Aldi:

OKOCIM Polish Lager. This is a first-class Pilsener from an established brewery in Brzesko, Poland. It beats many a German Pilsener and is nicely priced at 99p per 500ml bottle.

www.okocim.pl

I'm pretty sure Netto also stock an Okocim beer at about the same price. It could well be the same product.

I've enjoyed the couple of bottles I've tried.