As of a few months ago, we now have two German-based discount grocery stores in our city. Aldi, based domestically in the Chicago suburb of Batavia, Ill., has had a presence in town for almost 20 years, while Lidl, with U.S. headquarters in Arlington, Va., has been open locally for about three months. The two chains offer lower prices than most other grocery chains and a largely no-frills shopping experience with more than a nod to the ideal of German efficiency, but there are differences that could sway a shopper from one to the other.
Both stores are physically smaller than competing American supermarkets and don't offer the same upscale shopping amenities. Simplicity is the watch word as they both lean heavily on limited SKUs (stock keeping units), house brands, and relying on customers to perform simple tasks, such as bagging their own groceries to help keep overhead costs down.
Aldi takes this a step further, charging a 25-cent deposit to use one of their shopping carts, which one gets back when the carts are returned and chained up, releasing the quarter. Shoppers often pay kindness forward by leaving their cart unchained, or simply handing it off to another customer and declining their quarter. The net positive effect of this is there are few, if any, stray carts in the parking lot. Lidl does not chain up their carts; in fact, they offer them in two sizes, a full-sized version and a smaller double-decker cart.
Amenities at both stores are relatively spartan, although Lidl does have a small bakery section, albeit with somewhat limited selections. Neither store has a deli or cut-to-order meats; in fact, most of their meats are prepackaged by the processor.
Another area of contrast is at the checkout. Aldi has no self-checkout, but their cashiers are amazingly fast and are taught to use the quantity key on the register to ring out multiples of the same item with a single scan. To be honest, I have never had the cashier experience at Lidl, since they offer self-checkout. Having worked as a cashier in the past, I can manage self-checkout very efficiently, so that is my preferred method at just about any store that offers it.
Neither store uses plastic bags. Customers must either purchase paper reusable bags at the checkout, or else bring their own. Another alternative at both stores is to keep one's eyes peeled for usable boxes. Produce flats are a great choice, as they are extremely sturdy. Employees at both stores are constantly removing empty and nearly empty boxes from the shelves, and they are dropped into a large, wheeled basket, from which one can grab what one needs. Just don't dump the contents from a nearly full produce flat, just to get the box. Just as an aside, his same strategy also works at Costco or Sam's Club.
So, how do Aldi and Lidl stack up against each other in the areas of price and selection? Aldi has far fewer nationally advertised brands, relying almost exclusively on house brands, usually with a single choice of package size. The quality of offerings at both stores is quite comparable. Prices are comparable or slightly lower than those at Lidl, which offers more in the way of national brands, but still nowhere near the variety of more conventional stores. While neither store has a loyalty card program, Lidl does offer special deals through its My Lidl smartphone app.
So, does one store offer a more compelling value proposition than the other? It's hard to tell. Today, I did not have a quarter in my pocket to unlock a cart at Aldi, so I shopped at Lidl. But there may be other days where I find a better reason to shop at Aldi. There are things I particularly like at Aldi that will make the visit worthwhile, but I'm also finding favorites at Lidl. Either way, I feel like I can save a bit, compared to shopping at more mainstream and upscale stores, which is a win, whichever I pick.
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