Pretzels and produce, chainsaws and fashions: Aldi carves its own aisle of culture

Under our breath, we called Aldi “the poor people’s store.” Cheap prices. Off brands. That warehouse gloom.

Today, it’s the “cool” of grocery stores among a base of devotees. Loyalists wear company merch, rave about affordable cheese for their charcuterie boards, and 1.9 million of them worldwide belong to a Facebook fan group that celebrates the store’s quirky draw – “The Aisle of Shame.”

Yes, we’re talking about Aldi.

For fans, it’s not only a grocery store, it’s a grocery community. A kinship of the cost-conscious Everyman who likes a little somethin’-somethin’ now and then — pub-style seasoned pretzels, or dark chocolate sea salt caramels. They embrace Aldi’s private-label brands for price and taste. 

Springfield shopper Allyson Dougherty describes the “Aldi nice” culture. It’s not uncommon, she says, for a shopper to hand over cash to another shopper who winds up short at the checkout. The workers are nice. Dougherty says she has been on the receiving end of an Aldi tradition, the “Good Karma Quarter.” More about that later. 

At Aldi, Dougherty adds, “People will talk to you. It’s the best of the Midwest.”

Poor people’s store? Consider an Aldi parking lot on a typical day: drivers of Mercedes, compact Fords and ‘80s pickups walk in as equals and walk out with chocolate crème pies and boxes of chicken schnitzel. 

“Their demographic is anybody,” Dougherty says. “If somebody looked down on Aldi like I did whenever I was younger, I’d just say, ‘You need to push the ego aside and go in and get transformed.’”

From Germany to Iowa and across a nation

The grocery chain undertook a transformation in recent years to earn its cool. 

The Albrecht Family founded the world’s first discount grocery store in Germany in 1961, according to its corporate website. In 1976, it opened the first Aldi store in Iowa. Today with headquarters in Batavia, Illinois, Aldi has more than 2,000 stores across 36 states with more than 25,000 employees. 

And it’s growing. Aldi opened more than 500 stores in the last five years. It will have added more than 120 stores to its footprint by the end of 2023, Divisional Vice President Rob Jeffries told the Springfield Daily Citizen via email. Future growth includes acquisition of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket stores in the Southeast, he said.

Across Missouri, there are 96 Aldi stores, including three in Springfield, one in Nixa and one in Republic. 

“Aldi is all about championing value and quality for our customers,” Jeffries explains. “Everything we do operationally — from stocking 90% private label brands to smaller footprint stores and our unique quarter cart system — is designed to offer shoppers the best products at the lowest prices possible, every day.” Those and other steps help reduce labor costs and boosts efficiency.

Jeffries notes that the 2023 Market Force Grocery Benchmark Study named Aldi No. 1 in value, with 90% of American consumers citing Aldi as the leading grocer in the category. Aldi also has reported its prices are up to 50% cheaper than traditional supermarkets. Its weekly flyers proclaim, “Voted No. 1 in price for six years running according to the Dunnhumby 2023 Retailer Preference Index.”

Or just ask Paul Pablow, driver of a silver, sporty two-seater Mercedes, who does his regular grocery shopping at other Springfield stores — “I’m kind of a brand-specific guy” — but does “spot shopping” at Aldi for chicken breasts – $2.29 a pound versus $6.20 a pound elsewhere, or a package of grape tomatoes for $1.99 instead of $4, “anywhere else in town.”

Low prices, elevated experience 

While keeping prices low, Aldi upped its game in response to customer demand for what industry analysts called “a higher-end grocery shopping experience.” Enter: Wider aisles, natural lighting, self-checkouts, larger stores — still smaller than traditional stores — with more modern designs and unique items on the shelves that reflect Aldi’s German roots. Egg spaetzle, anyone?

Still, Aldi is a grocery store that pretty much stays in its lane. You won’t see in-store deli counters, banks, cocktail bars or pharmacies. There’s no hot rotisserie chicken (but, oh, how we wish). 

“From our unique business model rooted in simplicity and efficiency to our thoughtful store layouts, everything about Aldi is designed to provide customers the best grocery shopping experience,” Aldi spokesman Jeffries says.

Shoppers have taken notice. 

“Now you go into it,” says Zach Hollingshad, “it’s almost like a mixture of an IKEA or Target kind of look.”

Hollingshad recalls the drab warehouse he knew as an 8-year-old trailing his frugal parents through the store. Worse, there were none of the brand-name snacks other kids brought to school. 

“At that time, if you were a little kid and you brought off-brand Cheez-Its to school, you weren’t very cool.”

Now a 34-year-old married professional, Hollingshad appreciates the retailer’s efforts to shave costs if it means cheaper food. Products are displayed in their original cardboard shipping boxes to save Aldi employees time restocking shelves. Shoppers bag their own groceries with their own bags from home, buy a sack at the store or swipe an empty box from the shelves.

The good karma quarter 

No need for parking lot runners. Aldi requires a 25-cent deposit to use a shopping cart, and the carts always come back. Each one is locked to the one in front with a pin and chain. Insert a quarter into the lock, the pin releases and the cart is freed. Return the cart, reinsert the pin and your quarter pops out.

Regular Aldi shoppers know to carry a quarter. Allyson Dougherty bought an Aldi “quarter keeper” keychain so she always has 25 cents, but not everyone does. Enter the “good karma quarter.” 

“If you walk up and there’s a quarter in there and you don’t have a quarter and you take the cart, the good karma part is bringing it back and not taking the quarter, because somebody else needs it,” she says. “In most places, there is always one cart with a quarter in it for somebody else to shop with.”

Molly Riddle-Nunn has seen it work other ways. 

“A lot of the time when I go to Aldi, someone offers me their cart and says, ‘You can keep the quarter,’ or I watch people donate their cart to someone else in the parking lot,” she says. “Nice gestures feel so few and far between these days, so it always makes me smile.”

Michael Underlin has been the recipient of the good karma quarter. “It’s one of the Aldi traditions: Pay it forward,” he said.

Aldi isn’t perfect, even for the most loyal fans. Some shoppers get annoyed with the limited selection — reportedly about 1,400 items vs. about 40,000 at traditional supermarkets, and more at so-called supercenters. Allyson Dougherty can never find beets; Molly Riddle-Nunn gets about 75% to 80% of her groceries at Aldi, but goes to another store for items like leeks or eggplant. Some complain that staffing is too slim.  

The Aisle of Shame

All is forgiven and forgotten with a trip down the Aisle of Shame. Officially, it’s the “Aldi Finds” aisle. 

The “shame” part is thought to be the guilty pleasure of scoring a bargain in this carnival of randomness in the center of a no-frills grocery store. Candles and ladies’ underwear; men’s slippers, area rugs, a 6-gallon wet/dry vacuum, a blood pressure monitor. One Aldi fan walked in the store for a package of shredded cheddar and left with a $29.99 electric chainsaw.  

Riddle-Nunn bought a $20 mobile greenhouse. 

“There’s definitely a treasure hunt aspect to the Aisle of Shame,” she says. “I’m never surprised by anything I see in the aisle because the randomness is half the fun.”

Each week’s flyer touts the new shipment of Aldi Finds, luring the unashamed with  “Unexpected products at amazing prices — get ‘em while they last.” Items change every Wednesday. Riddle-Nunn usually shops on weekends for convenience, but for a special Find, “I’ll run to Aldi at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning to run in and grab it.  

“I actually went to an Aldi once when I was abroad and it was epic — there were escalators leading to other floors and the Aisle of Shame section was three times the size of ours,” she says.

“My perception,” Riddle-Nunn says, “is that the Aisle of Shame just has a ‘cult following’ effect that Walmart can’t match.”

Unofficial, underground ‘Aisle of Shame’ groups emerge

Aldi fans gush about their latest find on the Aldi Aisle of Shame Community Facebook page. There are at least half a dozen fan pages worldwide. Great PR, or cringe-worthy? Aldi’s Divisional Vice President Rob Jeffries is corporately coy. 

“Aldi is honored to have such a large group of passionate supporters,” Jeffries said. “We love seeing our customers discover new products, share recipes, and connect with one another across the country.”

Like most aspects of Aldi, the funky, fleeting nature of that aisle is no accident. According to one industry journal, the Aisle of Shame has millions of dollars’ worth of product research and years of business strategy to thank for its success.

“We intentionally release a limited amount of Aldi Finds to see how they resonate with customers,” Jeffries said.

Stars of the Aldi Finds aisle are now available every day, like the Park Street Deli Mexicali, Street Corn Dips and Clancy’s Pub Style Seasoned Pretzels. 

“With ever-changing seasonally relevant items in our Aldi Finds aisle, shoppers get a thrill turning their grocery trip into a treasure hunt. Our customers look forward to new items hitting shelves every week.” Don’t blink or you’ll miss them: the return of last year’s “sparkly Serra Ladies Front Knot Dress,” Jeffries says, and  “the beloved Advent Calendars” (picture counting down bleak December days with a mini helping of beer varieties, or wines, or morsels of high-end chocolates).

Suiting up in support of a grocer

By far, Jeffries says, one of the most popular Aldi Finds is Aldi Gear, which first arrived in stores in the spring of 2022.

In fan-speak, that’s “Aldifit,” a head-to-toe coordinated outfit available in limited quantities for a limited time. This cozy ensemble features gray fleece pants and top, slip-on shoes and cap, all branded with the Aldi logo. There are backpacks and pullovers and water bottles. Fans are waiting for pajamas.

Riddle-Nunn wears her Aldi sandals around the house, and an Aldi hat. 

“When they first released their big line of merch this year, I waited in a line outside on Wednesday morning because I had several friends who wanted shoes, or a sweatshirt,” Riddle-Nunn said. “It was fun.”

The day the latest Aldifit hit the stores, Mike Underlin drove to three different locations to piece together the complete outfit.

“It’s like an OCD person’s dream because I have a hat, a top, pants, shoes and socks, and the fanny pack,” he adds. “I’m still waiting for underwear.”  

Underlin’s video on TikTok is a 30-second reveal of himself suiting up in his Aldifit, slipping into matching socks and sandals and zipping up his Aldi pullover. That one drew a response from Aldi corporate — a simple string of “flame” emojis, which Underlin prefers to think was a compliment, and not a threat. 

Allyson Dougherty and best friend Melany Meyers, who admit to spending an occasional lunch hour with each other in the Aisle of Shame, posted their Aldifit selfie on Facebook.

“There’s other people going into actual JCPenney studios and taking photos of it there,” Dougherty pauses. “That’s brilliant marketing. Think about it: Aldi is having people buy their stuff and go and market it for them. Hysterically brilliant.”

A retail triple threat 

Riddle-Nunn, not ashamed to hit the Aisle of Shame first thing on a Wednesday, has a theory about what sets the grocery chain apart from all the rest. 

“Aldi is a triple threat of having a pleasant atmosphere, affordable prices and quality products. Most other grocery stores don’t offer all three things at once,” she says. 

“I would describe the shopping experience at Aldi overall as pleasant, bordering on fun, if you have the right attitude. There’s a small learning curve to the cart return, the layout of the store and even the checkout process, but once you’ve done it once you’re set.

“And going through the Aisle of Shame feels like a little treat,” she adds. “Who doesn’t like picking up an unexpected item that feels like it’s there waiting just for you?”